CHICKENS 



227 



general flock, but one should try many times before discarding 

 this method. 



If two or more ''seed-i)lot" pens can be used, many more com- 

 binations can be tried and progress made more quickly. The 

 above method is making use of more or less in-breeding, called 

 line-breeding because the mating of too closely related birds is 

 avoided. All of our best breeds of domesticated animals have 

 been perfected and made uniform by line-breeding. It is easily 

 seen that this ^'seed-plot" method will result in a very uniform 

 flock of birds representing in a short time almost the same blood 

 lines as that of the first ''seed-plot'' pen. This method necessi- 

 tates the keeping of 

 the best birds for 

 several years. Ex- 

 ceptional birds 

 should be kept as 

 long as they wdll 

 breed. The writer 

 has used the above 

 method very suc- 

 cessfully. 



Trap-nests pre- 

 sent the only correct 

 means of measuring 

 the productive ca- 

 pacity of henSo If 

 traps can be used^ 

 the first place should 

 be in the breeding- 

 pens. The breeders 

 in the "seed-plot" 

 pen should be trap- 

 ped during the mat- 

 ing season. Next, 

 they should be used 

 on some of the more 

 choice pullets dur- 

 ing the least busy 

 season of the year to determine their rate of production and 

 to help in the selection of birds to go into special breeding- 

 pens. Birds that wall lay from twenty-four to thirty eggs in 

 any one month have great capacity to lay and if, with this capa- 

 city, they have inherited aljilitj^ to start laying early as pullets 



Fig. 132. — A good capacify cockerel. 



