142 THE PRACTICAL POULTRY KEEPER. 



moreover, several distinctly different probabilities of a good 

 result. 



Next year's breeding will show marked advance ; not so 

 much in the pencilling of the best birds, as in the proportion 

 which are good. This proportion is the real test of progress 

 in a strain, not what some individual bird is. Out of these 

 we shall have little difficulty in finding the few we want for 

 breeding which are also good, or fairly good, in comb, size, 

 shape, etc. Already the advantage will be found of never 

 dropping the main point. We shall, though imperfectly, 

 still have made it so far certain in the strain, that we can, 

 without dropping it, begin to select for the other points as 

 well. It will be still more so in every succeeding generation, 

 but we need not follow the process further. 



It will even be found that when the most cardinal points 

 are thoroughly secured, a little may be occasionally risked ; 

 and this is another great advantage of such a course of 

 breeding as here described. These points will have become 

 at last so fixed that a bird a few degrees worse in one of them 

 may occasionally be bred from for the sake of some other point 

 badly wanted. But let the nature and reason of this procedure 

 be understood. It is simply that the main point, known tc 

 be so fixed, is probably only accidentally somewhat deficient 

 in the bird so chosen, which is therefore trusted to revert to 

 the more perfect type in his or her progeny. Such a step 

 should only be taken with caution, and never repeated 

 through two generations, nor should a bird really bad in 

 such a point be so used. It is only that one not quite so 

 good in the first points may be occasionally risked ; and that 

 even so it is a risk, should be remembered. It is also plain 

 that the best birds, from the breeding point of view, must 

 not be sold, but kept for breeding. This will not always be 

 synonymous with the best for exhibition ; but we cannot 

 expect to make steady progress if, at any early stage 



