No. 4.] FARM POULTRY. 403 



I don't want to bo understood as in any way implying 

 that tlie fancy poultry breeder's scale of prices is adjusted 

 to the values of his birds to farmers, or for practical breed- 

 ing purposes. The position I take is, that in buying stock 

 to improve his flock the farmer should not take birds that 

 have not in marked degree the qualities he desires to intro- 

 duce into his flock. If he can get at a low price birds that 

 are culls for some superficial defect, not aflecting their real 

 value, so much the better ; but if he cannot get the qualities 

 he wants in a low-priced bird, it is much cheaper in the end 

 to buy a higher-priced one ; and the point I especially want 

 to bring out here is that in a great many cases the super- 

 fluous males on a farm, sold at market prices, would bring 

 the price of a really good thoroughbred bird. 



Or, if one has one or more male birds — as many as he 

 needs — that are as good as he needs, what is saved by dis- 

 posing of unnecessary male birds will go a long way toward 

 the expense of providing special quarters for the breeding 

 stock. It is this item of expense, I think, which deters a 

 great many from separating their breeding stock, even after 

 they are ready to admit that that is what ought to be done. 

 This expense, however, need not be considerable, and the 

 special quarters for breeding stock will certainly pay for 

 themselves several times over in the first season they are 

 used, if other things are as they should be. 



There are other applications of the principle of selection 

 which may profitably be employed by the farm poultry 

 keeper. The influence of natural selection is b}^ no means 

 limited to the phenomena of reproduction. Indeed, if the 

 theory of natural selection supposed the operation of the 

 principle more energetic at one stage of life than at another, 

 that was the growing stage, and particularly the earlier part 

 of it. The phrase "survival of the fittest" inevitably sug- 

 gests the destruction of the unfit. Yet this is the point 

 where nearly all poultry growers, whether farmers or fan- 

 ciers, seem to come to a standstill. There are few who will 

 not admit that it is better for the brood and flock, more 

 profitable for the keeper, and kinder to the chick itself, to 

 kill the weakly chicks as soon after hatching as their weak- 

 ness is discovered : and to foUoAv this by taking away from 



