No. 4.] 



FARM POULTRY. 



399 





leaves them to breed together by chance, or gets some new 

 stock and begins another series of crosses. 



Poultry breeding properly consists in the intelligent, sys- 

 tematic mating of fowls 

 to produce progeny hav- 

 ing the desirable qualities 

 of the parents preserved 

 and if possible intensified, 

 and the undesirable quali- 

 ties either "reduced or bred 

 out entirely. A poultry 

 breeder is not necessarily 

 a fancier or a breeder of 

 thoroughbred stock. One 

 who works systematical 1}^ 

 and persistently for the 

 development of common or grade stock is reallj^ more of a 

 breeder than manv growers of thorouo^hbred stock. If his 

 ^^ _ ^ ideas are good, and he is 



Pair of Ideal Barked Plymouth Rocks. 



^•'$ 



reasonably successful in 

 his efforts to realize these 

 ideas in his stock, he 

 accomplishes more than 

 most of those keeping 

 thoroughbreds. I have 

 known, first and last, a 

 good many breeders who 

 j have made for themselves, 

 ' " from common stock, 

 flocks of fowls in every 

 practical respect equal to 

 average good thorough- 





Pair of Ideal Buff Plymouth Rocks. 



breds. They were vir- 

 tually pure bred, — as 

 much so as many of the 

 standard bred stocks. 

 But there are two serious objections to working in this 

 way. The first is, that it takes very nuicli longer to accom- 

 plish any desired results by breeding from connuon stock 



