58 AMERICAN POULTRY ASSOCIATION 



the male side, as that is much more easily recorded than the 

 female side, though when a line of heavy egg-producers are 

 sought, the record of the dam becomes paramount and is invari- 

 ably kept as it is, or should be, in the female line when double 

 matings are used to produce exhibition specimens. Pedigrees 

 are ot great assistance, especially if the characteristics of each 

 generation can be kept in mind, because the more generations in 

 which a certain character appears the more fixed this character 

 becomes, whether it is meritorious or defective. 



Word descriptions, feathers and photographs of each sire 

 and dam are the most common means of keeping the individ- 

 uality of each generation in mind, some depending upon one or 

 two ways, while others use all three. However it is done, it is 

 essential, not only to know the pedigree for several generations, 

 but it is equally essential to have an accurate recollection of each 

 sire and dam for a number of generations, as it is the only way 

 to know how the line is producing for this or for that desired 

 quality. 



Uniformity. Uniformity is also desired, not only in each 

 breeding pen, but in the ancestry as well. The more the chicks 

 resemble the parents and the parents resemble their parents, the 

 greater is the proportion of exhibition birds to be found in the 

 flocks year after year, provided, of course, that the early ancestry 

 was such. The desire on the part of breeders has been to pro- 

 duce uniformity in their flocks, and to do so, they have often 

 bred from single pairs of birds, though the same results may be 

 accomplished by keeping a record of both sire and dam, even 

 though more than one female is allowed with the male ; the off- 

 spring are then full brothers and sisters, or half-brothers and 

 sisters, and can be recorded as such. By this method of mating 

 closely related individuals, but few generations are required to 

 establish most uniform flocks, the quality of which is, however, 

 determined largely by the quality of the parent stock and the 

 breeder's knowledge of this particular line of birds, and his skill 

 in properly weighing the power of transmission of each indi- 

 vidual. 



Prepotency. The power, which it is admitted some birds 

 possess and some do not, to transmit their own characteristics 

 to their offspring is called prepotency. In reality, it may be said 

 to be the difference in the ability or power to transmit that exists 

 between the parents. We sometimes hear of an application dif- 

 fering slightly from the above, because there is occasionally an 

 individual that is so very prepotent that one or more of its promi- 

 nent characteristics are distinguishable in the progeny for several 



