CHAPTER XXVI 



APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF POULTRY BREEDING 



The work of the breeder consists in intelligent direction of the 

 natural laws of reproduction for certain definite purposes. His 

 object is not (as is so often erroneously supposed) to secure the 

 perpetuation of natural types, or of the types of domestic live stock 

 which would develop under any given conditions if he did not 

 interfere. If such were his objects, all that would be necessary 

 would be to destroy individuals presenting marked variations from 

 the common type and to allow others to mate according to chance 

 and inclination. The breeder's part in the development of domes- 

 tic races is to bring order out of the chaos of variation called 

 mongrelism. From a practically unlimited stock of types he selects 

 the few found most serviceable, or which seem to him most beau- 

 tiful, fixes these types and tries to persuade others to use and 

 preserve them. What nature would do in any particular case 

 interests him either not at all or only as it gives him an insight 

 into the properties of the living matter with which he works. 

 While the standards to which he breeds are practically fixed, in 

 successful individual work in breeding the results are always pro- 

 gressive. If the first independent efforts of a breeder show im- 

 provement in good stock, that is usually due to chance and is 

 likely to be lost in the next trial. It is when the poultry breeder 

 finds, year after year, better quality in his good birds and a larger 

 proportion of birds of high quality, that he knows that he is 

 applying principles correctly. 



While it is not to be expected that the independent work of a 

 novice in breeding stock of any type will give at first a high grade 

 of results, there is no need of the rapid regression from type, and 

 deterioration of quality, usually shown in the work of the novice 

 beginning with good poultry. With very rare exceptions novices 

 in poultry breeding begin their work with two wrong ideas firmly 

 fixed in their minds. They suppose that absolute purity of blood 



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