166 Farm Poultry 



satisfactory way is to use a pure-bred male. This 

 method enables the farmer or poultryman to change 

 at once one-half of his breeding flock to pure-bred 

 stock so far as influence on the progeny is concerned. 

 From the breeders' standpoint the male consti- 

 tutes one-half of the flock, and under the average 

 existing conditions this will probably be a fair state- 

 ment of the male's influence. Undoubtedly there 

 are many instances in which the male's influence 

 is very much greater than the combined influence of 

 all the females of the flock. Instances of this kind 

 are more likely to be seen when the male is a well- 

 formed, strong,, vigorous bird, from equally well- 

 formed, strong, pure-bred ancestors. If these con- 

 ditions have existed for several generations, the 

 importance of the male is all the more marked. 



If the females are of mixed or no particular 

 breeding, their influence is likely to be far less than 

 that of the male. So it may be safely said that the 

 influence of a strong, vigorous, pure-bred male, 

 introduced into a flock of females of mixed breeding, 

 will be at least equal to that of all the females in a 

 transmission of parental characteristics. The 

 progeny from a well-bred male and females of mixed 

 breeding are generally quite uniform in form and 

 color. Many a farmer's boy has been delighted with 

 the sudden improvement of a flock of fowls by the 

 introduction of a pure-bred male. In fact, many 

 of them have found that the progeny of this breed- 



