THE BREEDER HIS PLACE AND HIS WORK 53 



Mr. R. J. Waldron exhibited three splendid Barred Rock pullets which 

 won 1st, 2d and 3d. We placed one of his pulletbred cocks 1st and 

 another 4th. He came to us later and asked how we liked the 4th 

 cock, and we remarked: "He has no under barring, is almost white 

 half way to the skin." Yes, said Mr. Waldron, "I have sold better 

 looking males for $5 but I paid $50 for this fellow because he was 

 bred right and he is the sire of my three winning pullets." 



There is a true story of a man in the northern Wisconsin woods 

 who bred a certain variety for many years. Every year or two he 

 would send to the breeder of an old established strain for a new bird, 

 sometimes a male, sometimes a female. Never did he receive, for the 

 price he paid, a specimen as good as his own best birds, and yet 

 his new purchase always resulted in producing better birds than he 

 ever had before. That was because the birds which were shipped 

 to him had been bred right for generations, and carried the rich, 

 strong blood lines of a valuable strain. 



Still fewer birds are purchased on known performance as breeders. 

 because the life of a fowl is relatively short and by the time a bird 

 is a proven breeder the owner is reluctant to part with it. These 

 known producers are not always the image of the Standard illustra- 

 tions but may be rather rustic appearing. They invariably are birds 

 of evident vitality, standing strong and linn on legs and toes, broad 

 backed and well chested. Not infrequently they are found to carry 

 some defects that prohibit them from taking part in the great con- 

 tests in the show rooms and limit their career to the breeding yard. 

 This is not altogether unfortunate for many a finished cockerel of 

 great promise has been enfeebled by over showing and is then brought 

 home and mated to too many females. This is one reason many 

 cockerels never "come back" as cocks and the rougher bird at home 

 proves the stronger breeder. 



Fortunately for the poultry breeder, the demand for males is 

 equal to that for females. This is as it should be. While one male 

 may be mated to eight to fifteen females, depending on range, etc., 

 everybody is not just starting with poultry and in the market for 

 foundation stock. Many have the females and they simply need new 

 males. There are a great many Hocks of the popular American 

 breeds throughout the country and the big progress and big improve- 

 ment in building up that stock of the general people, rests in the 

 use of good males. "A good male is half the flock, a poor one is 

 more than half." A good female is of value in the hands of the 

 breeder, but the good of a breed is distributed and put into circula- 

 tion by the males. The blood of good breeding females is only dissi- 

 pated when in the hands of an or'dinary breeder; in the hands of a 

 good breeder that same blood is invaluable. The instances of 

 breeders getting ahead through the purchase of high-priced females 

 rather than males, are relatively few. On the whole, it requires more 

 pains and intelligent handling to develop a male than it does a female. 



