APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING 487 



in any respect, unless he can make the same improvement in his 

 own stock, he must have some of that breeder's stock. Usually he 

 buys stock as the easiest and surest way to get what he wants. A 

 breeder who is working on a large scale, making ten, fifteen, twenty, 

 or more matings of a single variety every season, can, with a little 

 care, avoid mating birds of near kin, yet keep within the same 

 general blood lines. Such breeders, as a rule, consider the point 

 of relationship only as it may affect the behavior of characters in 

 transmission. Without exception these breeders are ready buyers 

 of birds that they think may prove useful in their breeding. The 

 small breeder, unless he has stock of high quality, and breeds very 

 closely, is forced to go outside often, not for new blood but for 

 better quality. 



The danger of introducing new blood. In any well-bred stock 

 the danger of deterioration through the introduction of new blood 

 is very much more real than any danger of deterioration through 

 lack of new blood in stock bred with due attention to essential and 

 substantial characters. While the point is not one easily demon- 

 strated, there is reason to suppose that a mingling of blood lines 

 long separated tends to bring out latent ancestral characters 

 (more especially, the most troublesome faults of a variety). Hence, 

 before making extensive use of a bird of different stock or of un- 

 known breeding, an experienced breeder tries it in special matings, 

 to find out how it will " nick " with his stock. A breeder may try 

 a bird in this way a number of times with different mates without 

 getting the results he wants. Small breeders, even after a good 

 deal of experience, are too prone to take chances on a new bird 

 that has taken their fancy in their general matings, often with 

 the result that faults requiring years of careful breeding to elimi- 

 nate crop out all through the progeny. The experienced breeder 

 never relies on a new bird until he has tested it, and never lets 

 a bird of proved breeding value go unless he has a better one for 

 its place. 



Age and breeding quality. In those kinds of poultry which get 

 their full growth within a year, it is commonly observed that the 

 birds, if matured by the beginning of the breeding season, are more 

 reliable breeders the first season than afterwards, producing more 

 young, though the quality may be somewhat inferior to what the 



