46 AMERICA* POULTRY ASSOCIATION 



In other words, both the parents and their progeny would be 

 ideal specimens, judged according to the Standard of Perfection. 

 Of course, ideal birds never existed and undoubtedly never will. 

 Therefore, a practical definition has already been given. 



This system of mating is almost universally practiced in the 

 breeding of solid-colored varieties ; and very much in the breed- 

 ing of parti-colored varieties, but not universally so by any 

 means. 



Intermediate Matings^ Before the art of breeding had been 

 practiced long under the several Standards that preceded the one 

 that now governs our breeding operations, it was discovered 

 that the same hen that produced the best males in the parti- 

 colored varieties, did not produce as a rule the best females when 

 judged by the accepted Standard. This discovery led to the 

 practice, after observing results from different individuals, of 

 using in many matings females of different types of plumage, 

 some from which the best males and others from which the best 

 females were expected. This became a common practice. 

 Usually a small number, say one, two or three females from 

 which the best exhibition males, and four, five, six or more 

 from which the best exhibition females were expected, were 

 placed in each mating. It is really a modification of both, 

 the single mating and double mating systems, and, because 

 it partakes of the nature of both, may be called an Inter- 

 mediate System. It is in reality an application of double 

 mating principles on one side of the mating, the female, and 

 thereby an acknowledgement of the necessity of double mating. 

 It may be said to have been the first step toward the practice of 

 double mating and was in common use long before the adoption 

 of the double mating system in its entirety. This modification of 

 the single mating system is still practiced by those who breed 

 parti-colored varieties, and who are opposed to the system to 

 which allusion has been made, as apparently complicated but of 

 easy application in actual practice. 



Double Matings. The double mating system is known only 

 among breeders of standard-bred poultry because it is not prac- 

 ticed by breeders of other forms of animal life. It may be defined 

 as a system which employs special and separate lines of fowls 

 and breeding to produce exhibition males and females. That is, 

 under this system, the exhibition male line is only used to pro- 

 duce exhibition males or with any expectation of doing so. The 

 females of the male line, as well as the males, are expected to 



