NO. 4.] POULTRY CULrURi:. 27 



bcatiui;- of the sun's rays, and helps to keep the room below 

 etjuabW and eonit'ortabl}- eool, thus lessening the debilitating 

 intluenees whieh so frequently weaken the fowl, and prepare 

 for its succumbing to the strain of the molting period. 



Breeding. 



The idea, so })revalent, that the farmer should each year 

 l)urchase one or more male birds, and thus introduce " fresh 

 blood" into his Hock, is the bane of progressive l)reeding of 

 poultry. It is going back in stock breeding one hundred 

 and fifty years, to the time when English and American 

 farmers made it a rule to always cross-breed, Robert 

 Bakewell, the father of modern stock breeding, established 

 the principle of breeding together animals of like excellent 

 qualities, regardless of blood relationship. This plan, put 

 in practice by the Colling Bros., produced the s})lendid 

 Shorthorn breed of cattle. To-day skilful poultry breeders, 

 by careful " line breeding," are producing like results among 

 fowls instead of constantly seeking to introduce new and 

 strange blood, thereby breaking up the tendency to superior 

 egg production, to flesh making and fine feathering, result- 

 ing in irregular egg yield, shoAving scarcity during periods 

 of high prices and abundance when eggs are cheapest, un- 

 even flesh production, and plumage of all kinds and colors. 

 The average farm flock is an heterogeneous mixture of all 

 varieties, sizes, shapes and colors of fowls. They may some- 

 times have the much-coveted vigor, but possess little else 

 of valile or profit to the owner. The exception is the fine 

 flock of one breed, uniform in size, development and color, 

 an important source of profit and pleasure to the farmer and 

 his family, and an efl'ective advertisement of profitable pro- 

 gressiveness. The guiding principle is to breed together the 

 best birds along well-defined lines, without fear of affinity in 

 blood, so long as the stock is strong of constitution and in 

 perfect health. 



Every poultry farmer should breed with a definite purpose 

 in view, and develop his own strain of i^ure-bred poultry for 

 profit. Where time and patience permit, "trap nests" are 

 eflfective aids in selecting the most productive pullets, which 



