AMONG ANCONAS" 45 



"But the most noteworthy mating this year, to which we would call special 

 attention, is that of a pullet or pullets from group 3, with a cockerel from 

 group 4, producing group 6. It will be seen that all the members of group 6 

 possess equal or half-and-half blood from the original parents as much so 

 as group 2. We also mate a pullet from group 5 and a cockerel from group 

 7, each of these owning seven-eighths of the blood of one ancestor, and we 

 again produce in group 10 a progeny whose blood is half-and-half. Now 

 suppose we had mated brothers and sisters from group 2 to produce half- 

 and-half blood and age of group 6, and brothers and sisters of these to produce 

 similar equality of blood at the age of group 10 the result of such incestuous 

 in-breeding would have been swift degeneracy. As it is, we have made out 

 matings from lines characterized mainly by the original male and female, 

 and yet preserved the same mathematically exact equality of blood in our 

 group 10. A generation farther on we can produce group 15 as shown, from 

 groups 9 and 11; or we might have mated groups 8 and 12; or the produce 

 of the former may be mated with that of the latter. We have thus seen 

 how it is possible to keep up the half-and-half blood of a cross, intact and 

 exact, without any loss of size, fertility, or vigor. 



"We also see plainly from this chart that by the time we have reached the 

 stage even of group 10, we have got in our hands practically three strains; 

 for while group 10 possesses equal blood of both sides, group 8 has thirteen- 

 sixteenths of the blood of the hen, or practically represents the female line, 

 while group 12, in like proportion, possesses the blood of the male line. Yet 

 all are related sufficiently to prevent evil; and all have gone through the 

 same 'course of selection' towards our own fixed type. 



"From this point we have ample material to go on with indefinitely, and 

 need not pursue the matter further. The next row of groups simply shows 

 some of the results in the next generation. But one point more may be illus- 

 trated. Suppose that for some reason as for special cockerel or pullet breed- 

 ing mating we want to establish also a line of sires in which predominates the 

 blood of the original female. The chart shows a cockerel from group 5 mated 

 with a pullet from group 3, and a cockerel from the produce in group 8 mated 

 with a pullet from group 10. The result in group 13 gives us the same pro- 

 portions of blood, but derived through a cockerel line of breeding. 



"Whenever a cross is necessary in a strain, such a chart also shows the 

 procedure that should be followed. The cross is treated as a new unit, and 

 its produce remated back to the home strain in the same way, carefully 

 selecting for the desired type as before. This is what breeders and fanciers 

 term 'breeding back' to a strain, and the philosophy of it can be clearly under- 

 stood from such a diagram as that before us. Every cross thus involves more 

 or less breeding back to the 'line' afterwards; but this need not be carried to 

 the extent of incestuous matings, or interfere with vigor in any degree. The 

 out-cross is not used as immediate material, but to provide either pullets or 

 cockerels for really breeding into the strain the following year." 



