CHAPTER III. 

 Parents of the Egg. 



The egg contains the future chick. It may be said to carry the character 

 of the parents wrapped up in a shell. Having selected the breed that is 

 best suited to his wants and conditions, the poultry keeper of course wants 

 the best specimens of that breed that he can produce. It is far better to 

 stick to one breed and select a definite type than to cross breeds. 



PEDIGREE.— We know that with all animals, from cats to cattle, there 

 are good and bad specimens in every breed. We call some cows better 

 than others because the good ones give more milk than the poor ones. 

 We do not from choice raise calves from cows that we know are poor ones. 

 If we raise calves at all we save the daughters of the best cows in the 

 herd, because we feel sure that some of the good qualities of the mother 

 will be handed down to the daughter. We know that such things as color 

 and shape are carried in this way, and that character goes along with them. 

 If the mother is reasonably sure to give something of her character to her 

 daughter she is more likely to do so if her own mother and ancestors, for 

 several generations, have been selected for a similar purpose. That is 

 what we call "pedigree" in live stock, and improvement in the character 

 of the cow or the hen comes through our ability to make the daughter 

 better than the mother. The way to do this is to select the best mothers 

 for breeding. 



How are we to know them? 



A good dairyman can pick out a first-class milker by her shape and 

 various points which he can see or feel. His eye will enable him to make 

 a good guess, but he would not raise a calf from one of these cows until 

 he had a fair idea of how much milk she can give, or what her mother did. 

 Most men who try to improve their poultry must depend on the eye for 

 selecting breeding stock. They make up their mind what size, shape and 

 color will suit them. When that is fixed in mind they have a "type," and 

 they will naturally cull out the birds that fall short of it. By watching 

 their hens and observing their habits they soon find that they can pick out 

 the layers, just as they learn to separate the workers from the shirks in 

 men or in children. They find that the laying hen acts like a worker. She 

 is busy and active — off the roost early in the morning after food — a picture 

 of nervous energy. The lazy hen is slow to leave the roost, and shows by 

 her actions that she takes little interest in the things that attract the layer. 

 We cannot describe the "points" of a layer. A man must study them 

 for himself. Mr. C. H. Wyckoff, who selected his White Leghorn breeding 



