AMONG ANCONAS" 43 



Line Breeding 



TO return to the subject of breeding. 

 At various times, considerable speculative nonsense has been dis- 

 pensed under the name of Scientific Breeding; but occasionally an art- 

 icle does appear which is based on facts and contains valuable information. 

 Such an article is the one I am publishing below from the American Poultry 

 Advocate, together with a chart by Mr. I. K. Felch, on line breeding. It will 

 show how line breeding is accomplished, and how new strains are produced. 

 It is a process that requires considerable patience in the keeping of complete 

 records of matings. So much so that even many skilled and successful 

 breeders find it easier to purchase male birds of a different blood line. 



As a matter of fact, all large poultry breeders, who make a business of furnish- 

 ing breeding stock, can always furnish breeders with a different blood line so 

 that you can introduce vigor and vitality into your blood from time to time. 



"Mr. I. K. Felch, the veteran judge and breeder of America, many years 

 ago published in a little book of his, called Poultry Culture, a kind of a chart 

 showing at a glance the main principle on which this should be done. We 

 have evidence that this chart has actually been of practical benefit to several 

 well-known breeders in England, even as then published; but in some sub- 

 sequent correspondence Mr. Felch has kindly sent us an improved form of 

 it, which we here reproduce, making a little further modification to make its 

 meaning more clear. We suppose the strain to originate from two individuals 

 only, though in the case of fowls, of course, several hens or pullets might be 

 used as_one of the units. In that case, however, all should be of the same 

 breeding. (It need hardly be pointed out that in this case the scheme may 

 be carried out with less in-breeding at the first stages, as a cockerel might be 

 bred back to an aunt instead of to the mother. But unless the hens or pullets 

 are full sisters, the result will not be the same or have the same certainty, 

 (Hence the utility of the recording nest-boxes mentioned further on.) The 

 two original units must, of course, be perfectly vigorous and healthy, and 

 either unrelated or only distantly related in blood. They should always 

 be from different yards, for it is found that even change of ground has some 

 effect in producing the different blood which has so much to do with avoiding 

 constitutional disease. Taking our two original units, then Mr. Felch's chart 

 shows how they may be bred so as to maintain health and vigor. 



"In reading this chart, every dotted line means a female i. e., a hen or 

 pullet, and every unbroken line a male. Wherever two such lines meet 

 at a point the circle at that point denotes the produce of the mating, bearing 

 a number distinguishing it as a group or product; while the fraction outside 

 the circle denotes the mixture or proportion in that product of the blood of the 



