1 90 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY 



thing, to have an original pair as nearly perfect as pos- 

 sible. Plainly, this must be so ; because, he is setting 

 out on a course which will not only intensify virtues, 

 but defects as well. The fewer defects he has to start 

 with, the fewer to trouble him later. Vigor, in both, he 

 must have; perfection in both, is only a dream. Close 

 approach to perfection, however, is usually a matter of 

 dollars and cents. Good breeders will mate a pair for a 

 customer who wishes to enter upon line breeding ; they 

 will, doubtless, also charge him well for the birds. Or, 

 if he buy a good breeder's best eggs, he may get some- 

 thing from them to suit his need ; but while he is yet 

 only a Beginner, it is not safe for him to trust his own 

 estimate of the birds. 



Theoretically, a defect in the male may be balanced 

 by especially good points in the female, in the section 

 concerned. Then, if the defect should appear in the 

 progeny, a mating from that one of the lines which was 

 best in that section ought to " balance " it. In effect, 

 however, that which is expected from a mating does not 

 always appear, because of that uncontrollable factor, 

 atavism, whereby the bird throws back to an ancestor, 

 more or less remote. 



It has been said that no noted prize-winning family in 

 any line of live stock has been established without re- 

 sorting to inbreeding, and that the greatest success has 

 always attended that systematic form of inbreeding 

 known as line breeding. When a breeder has really 

 established a line-bred strain of stock, one that meets 

 his ideals, he is ready to reap great rewards for his in- 

 telligent work. "There is no satisfactory excuse or 

 argument that can be offered by those who refuse to 



