THE BREEDER HIS PLACE AND HIS WORK. 51 



Sire Dam 



100% 100% 1st Generation 



50% \ 2nd Generation 



An Unsatisfactory Way of 

 Indicating Inheritance. 



75% 3rd Generation 



follows: a specimen inherits one-half from its parents, one-quarter 

 from its grandparents, one-eighth from its great-grandparents, for that 

 is not a satisfactory way of indicating inheritance, because it does not 

 take into account the true hereditary processes. Third, a cheap bird 

 that possesses a desirable feature may be employed in breeding, and 

 the character incorporated in the flock along with other desirable 

 characters already established therein. For instance, a light eye is 

 recessive to red, and if a flock is weak in eye color, a red-eyed bird 

 will improve it quickly; and this flock improver, or male, need not 

 have every other good quality possessed by the flock. Fourth, if a 

 new bird is introduced into the breeding yards, the progeny resulting 

 from the cross may not exhibit the desired quality in the first genera- 

 tion, as, for example, if a single comb character were introduced into 

 a pure rose comb flock, the chicks would carry rose combs; but if 

 these chicks are bred between themselves, they would produce a 

 certain proportion of pure breeding single combs. 



This is an extreme example which the practical breeder will not 

 have occasion to duplicate but the point is that many a breeder has 

 introduced into his yard what appeared to be a specimen possessed 

 of desirable quality and being disappointed with the results, dis- 

 carded all the birds produced, whereas in another generation he could 

 expect the parental character to manifest itself in some of the chicks. 

 Fifth, the number of points that a breeder may strive for in a single 

 mating are limited. More than three or four points at a time is 

 beyond the range of the most skilled breeder. 



The chances of satisfying the breeder's expectations and his re- 

 quirements by finding in a single bird that is born into the line a 

 combination of three or four points along which improvement is 

 being sought is even less than the chance of finding any one charac- 

 ter or a combination of any two. It is because the breeding for a 

 few characters at a time is not only more simple but the more cer- 

 tain that a large part of pedigree-breeding for eggs is carried on 



