BREEDING IN AND IN. 73 



the eggs will not hatch. Unless you have a flock of hens in 

 one inclosnre, you can see how easily you can lose the track 

 of them. Yon cannot get uniformity unless you keep to the 

 same strain of blood. I think any one who has tried it will 

 agree with me in what I have said on that subject. 



Mr. Hersey. I suppose we meet together here to gather 

 facts, and whatever the result of our experiments may be, it 

 is for our interest to know about them. I have had some 

 experience in this poultry business ; and I want to say at the 

 outset, that I went into it for my own pleasure and informa- 

 tion, and not for the purpose of bringing out any particular 

 result. I am not a poultiw breeder for the market. I say 

 this, so that no person will write me for eggs or for poultry, 

 for I am simply one who is seeking for knowledge. 



Twenty-five years ago, I started for the purpose of demon- 

 strating, one way or another, whether we should be able to 

 breed in and in or not. I took a white native, and from that 

 white native I have bred for twenty-five years, and still the 

 eggs hatch. During the twenty-five years, only three times 

 have I introduced anything different, and those three times it 

 was done by eggs and eggs only, and the male birds were not 

 kept, only the females. But during the last two years, no 

 new blood has been introduced into my flock, and I have bred 

 in and in as closely as possible. And my poultry yard is so 

 situated, and so fenced in, that no other poultry can come near 

 them. Now, the result is, that my eggs hatch a great deal 

 better than my neighbors'. Three years ago (which was the 

 last year that I had the care of them myself), I set four 

 litters, of thirteen eggs each, and ever}'' one of them hatched ; 

 and of four others, eleven hatched. I think there was not a 

 single litter that year that gave less than six chickens from 

 thirteen eggs. 



Now, I admit that 1 have been careful in breeding to take 

 only those fowls which were physically strong and perfectly 

 healthy. I think that that is a point to which we must look 

 carefully. I believe that healthy birds will bring healthy 

 offspring. But perhaps I ought not to say what I believe. 

 I only rose to state these facts. It is an isolated case, cov- 

 ering a period of about twenty-five years. If there were 

 twenty-five other individuals here who could stand up and say 

 10 



