82 Keeping a Breed Pure. 



Hens should never be allowed to associate with a cock of 

 a different breed if you. wish to keep the breed pure, and if 

 you desire superior birds, not even with an inferior male of 

 their own variety. " No time," says Mr. Baily, " has ever 

 been fixed as necessary to elapse before hens that have been 

 running with cocks of divers breeds, and afterwards been 

 placed with their legitimate partners, can be depended 

 upon to produce purely-bred chickens ; I am disposed to 

 think at least two months. Time of year may have much 

 to do with it. In the winter the escape of a hen from one 

 run to the other, or the intrusion of a cock, is of little 

 moment ; but it may be serious in the spring, and destroy 

 the hopes of a season." Many poultry-keepers separate 

 the cocks and hens after the breeding season, considering 

 that stronger chickens will be thereby obtained the next 

 season. Where there is a separate house and run for the 

 sitting hen this can be conveniently done when that com- 

 partment is vacant. In order to preserve a breed perfectly 

 pure, it will be necessary, where there is not a large stock 

 of the race, to breed from birds sprung from the same 

 parents, but the blood should be crossed every year by 

 procuring one or more fowls of the same breed from a dis- 

 tance, or by the exchange of eggs with some neighbouring 

 stock, of colour and qualities as nearly allied as possible 

 with the original breed. 



