POULTRY. 123 



POULTRY. 



BRISTOL. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



NEW BREEDS AND HOW TO PRODUCE THEM. 



As the society offers a premium for any new breed not 

 before owned in the county, a few remarks upon new breeds 

 and their production may not be out of place, especially as 

 some confusion seems to exist in the minds of not a few as 

 to what constitutes a pure breed. The term pure breed is 

 applied to that which will produce offspring exactly like 

 the parents in all the leading characteristics. Probably 

 nearly every breed of fowls now extant has been produced 

 by crossing, accidental or otherwise in the first instances, 

 and these by a system of judicious selection afterwards. 



We are not of the number of those who believe in the 

 ingenious but improbable theories, of Darwin. The princi- 

 ple of selection, perseveringly carried out, is productive of 

 wonderful results, but there is a limit beyond which prog- 

 ress is impossible, and it seems to us that the burden of 

 proof rests with these philosophers till they can show hybrids 

 which are capable of producing their like continually and not 

 exceptionally. Neither do we believe with another learned 

 professor, that the strong desire of the original Bengal tiger 

 to conceal himself while crawling through thickets and cane- 

 brakes, produced the stripes on his body. If it did, why, 

 we may ask, did not that desire go a little further, and pro- 

 duce a skin of a pea-green tint, Which would have been a 

 much better protection ? 



It seems to Us nearly as improbable that the diminutive 

 Bantams and the gigantic races of Asia alike sprang from the 

 jungle-fowl, though it is quite likely that two original breeds 



