CHAPTER V. 

 SELECTION OF STOCK. 



The difference between success and failure in poultry keep- 

 ing is often measured by the kind and quality of stock with which 

 the start is made. Poorly bred birds of low vitality, which are 

 not by nature adapted to the purpose in view, will not bring to 

 the owner a profitable business. Great care should be exercised 

 in the selection of the stock which is to be used as the source of 

 many generations of future producers. 



Pure-bred Stock Best. — Pure-bred birds possess every advan- 

 tage over mongrels, and failure to see and appreciate this fact 

 often results in limited returns and possible failure. The following 

 discussion of the possibilities of pure-bred poultry is given with 

 the hope that it may impress upon all poultry farmers the wisdom 

 of keeping pure-bred poultry. 



Pure-bred is a term applied to birds without the admixture of 

 alien blood, — birds having pure blood lines through many years 

 of ancestry. 



Advantages of Pure Breeds over Mongrels.* — There is more 

 reliability in their breeding. A pure-bred flock of some standard 

 breed, having been purely bred for many generations, will repro- 

 duce their kind with an unfailing certainty. There is no alien 

 blood to bring out objectionable characteristics, and the breeder 

 has a much greater opportunity of knowing what to expect from 

 a given mating. 



Larger Egg Production. — It is fair to state, and experience 

 proves the assertion, that pure-bred poultry represented by the 

 breeds which have been bred for egg production for many genera- 

 tions, will lay a larger number of eggs than will birds of mixed 

 breeding. This is due to the fact that the pure-bred breeds have 

 been so bred that every tendency and every spark of surplus energy 

 go toward this function. They have been bred so that every par- 

 ticle of feed which is not utilized for maintenance and energy will 

 naturally, due to the constitutional make-up of the bird, go toward 

 the formation of eggs and not toward flesh growth. 



* Cornell University has taken a leading place in pointing out the advan- 

 tages of pure-bred birds. Many of the reasons given here originated there. 

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