396 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the necessity of careful selection to develop a breed and 

 bring it up to a certain standard, but not to realize so Avell 

 that just as careful selection is reijuired to keep a flock of 

 thoroughbred fowls up to the average of improved stock 

 of their kind. This is because they do not realize how 

 highly artificial is the development of all improved races of 

 fowls ; how, under the unrestrained influence of natural 

 selection, these fowls would have developed quite difter- 

 ently ; and how the natural tendencies begin to assert 

 themselves the moment the breeder relaxes in the least his 

 effort to keep his stock at the highest point of development. 



Natural selection is, as a rule, unable to make - use of 

 marked deviations from established types, or to preserve 

 variations which, however desirable in themselves, would 

 diminish a fowl's chances of living and perpetuating its 

 kind. Artificial selection is not so limited. Almost the 

 only limitation imposed upon it is when excessive develop- 

 ment of one qualit}^ or characteristic destro3^s, as it were, 

 the equilibrium of the organism as a whole. Even under 

 such abnormal conditions, it can often be carried to an 

 extreme which, when we consider the original develop- 

 ment of the feature concerned, is simplj^ wonderful. Many 

 of the features most prized by those who value fancy points 

 first, and some of those most valued by those who keep 

 fowls for economic purposes, could never have been de- 

 veloped under natural conditions. Of such are the abnormal 

 developments of comb and crest in Minorcas and Houdans, 

 and the extremel}^ long and abundant feathers on some of 

 the Asiatics. To the farmer who sees them, these monstrous 

 developments are usuallj^ objects of ridicule ; yet in one 

 way at least they may be useful to him. From the possi- 

 bility of maintaining these extreme forms the poultr}^ 

 breeder who keeps to more rational lines may be convinced 

 of the certainty that he can get and keep any reasonable 

 degree of development of a feature or quality which he 

 desires in his stock. 



^Ye may be able to get a still better — a broader — idea 

 of the value of this principle of selection, if we reflect on 

 how well and how (juickly the work of making the breeds 



