82 POULTRY BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT 



as a dozen crosses. While the benefits of crossing cannot 

 be ignored, it must be remembered that the mongrel con- 

 dition of many farm flocks is due to indiscriminate cross- 

 ing. 



Grading. Probably the kind of poultry breeding fol- 

 lowed by the majority of farmers would be better charac- 

 terized by grading them by crossing. Grading may be de- 

 fined as the breeding up of common or mongrel stock by 

 the use of pure-bred sires. The object is not to restore lost 

 vigor or other lost characteristics, nor to establish new 

 breeds, but to improve the flock by means of the sire only. 



' ' The failure to make the most of grading, ' ' says Daven- 

 port in * ' Principles of Breeding, " " is the largest single mis- 

 take of American farmers." The great bulk of cattle that 

 furnish the meat supply of the world are grade Shorthorns 

 and Herefords. The same thing is true of farm poultry- 

 keeping, the failure to make the most of grading by the use 

 of pure-bred males is the farmer 's greatest single mistake. In 

 four or five generations, by the use of pure-bred males, a 

 variegated mongrel-looking lot of chickens may be bred up 

 to a uniform type resembling closely the breed to which the 

 male belongs. If the male is chosen, however, as he naturally 

 will be, from a strain of heavy layers, the farmer will have 

 the satisfaction and the pleasure not only of receiving 

 greater profit as a result of his labor, but also of witnessing 

 an object lesson in breeding of supreme interest through the 

 gradual but sure realization of his ideals both in increased 

 production and in the gradual unfolding of a distinct type 

 and color. 



The important thing in grading is to begin with an ideal 

 and stick to it. If the result sought is higher egg produc- 

 tion, the breeder should use preferably one of the smaller 

 breeds, but certainly a strain that can show records of high 

 production. Under no condition should this purpose be 



