ON BREEDING FOWLS. 199 



breed is pure, as with the rabbit ; you can breed " close," or 

 " in and in," with perfect impunity, and nature seems to favor 

 the process ; for in a state of nature they almost uniformly resort 

 to that manner of breeding, and the race remains precisely the 

 same throughout all generations, unless they are crossed or 

 confined. But if the animals are of mixed blood, as is the case 

 with cattle, horses, etc., etc., such breeding must be carefully 

 avoided, or the race soon runs out first degenerating in size, 

 then producing cripples, and deformed, rearless offspring ; and 

 then terminating in impotency and sterility. 



Preserving the Distinctive Breeds. The question is fre- 

 quently asked " How soon should the different breeds of hens 

 be separated in the spring, in order to preserve the breed pure? " 

 Upon this subject there has been much speculation by our most 

 able writers, but theory, in this instance at least, is at variance 

 with facts. The most ample experience has indicated to us 

 that the eggs may be preserved and set after a separation of 

 two days, and the breed will be perfect, the offspring having all 

 the characteristics, or distinctive marks. I have frequently 

 taken a laying hen of one breed, and put her with a male of 

 another breed, and set the egg laid on the second day there- 

 after, and the chicken had all the characteristic marks of both 

 breeds of the parentage. This was the case when I first hit 

 upon the famous Plymouth Rock breed, which now promises, 

 all things considered, to be one of the best breeds in the coun- 

 try. The first of this breed was thus accidentally produced, 

 and the experiment was followed up to a desirable result. 



When a valuable breed is thus produced, either by accident 

 or design, it should be preserved, and the subsequent breeding 

 should continue from that stock ; otherwise, there is no certainty 

 of the purity of the blood of the new breed, for it does not fol- 

 low that a different parentage, though of the same name or 

 original breed precisely, will produce the same new breed, or 



