40 



It does not take long to do this if he can bring himself to adhere 

 rigidly to the fundamental rules of good breeding, i.e. : — 



First. — To breed only from the best obtainable specimens; following 

 this rule year after year, demanding that his breeding stock as indi- 

 viduals shall have the merit he seeks in themselves as well as in their 

 ancestors. 



Second. — To give the chicks of his breeding stock the care and food 

 necessary to make them attain their best possible development. 



In a previous article on poultry keeping for the farmers of Massachu- 

 setts I had occasion to refer briefly to the fact that as a rule farm grown 

 stock did not attain the best development possible. I would not go so 

 far as to say that the best development is to be sought for all the stock 

 produced on the farm, regardless of the cost of obtaining it, though I 

 think better development than is usual could be obtained on many farms 

 at an insignificant cost, but I would by all means urge every farmer who 

 wishes to improve his poultry to give all the attention to chickens from 

 which his stock birds will be taken that they need to bring out all the 

 merit there is in them. 



Beginning with good stock, breeding carefully and growing his fowls 

 well, a farmer can in a very few years have a stock of uniform high 

 excellence that will be an ornament to his farm, will be far more 

 profitable than the old, carelessly bred stock, will be a source of pride 

 to him and stimulate his neighbors to follow his methods. 



And here we come naturally to the consideration of another point, — 

 the relation of the farmer as a breeder to other farm poultry keepers, 

 especially to those in his immediate vicinity. It is of quite as much 

 advantage to him to have his neighbors generally keeping just as good 

 fowls as the fowls he has improved to his liking. One may take a 

 selfish sort of pride in having better poultry than those about him, but 

 it is not really much to his credit unless they too have good poultry. It 

 is to the advantage of the farmer and breeder of poultry also to have 

 the kind of poultry he keeps popular throughout his vicinity. I doubt 

 whether there is any one condition affecting the improvement of poultry 

 which has a surer and steadier influence for the i^reservation of practical 

 qualities than to have the stock almost universally kept in a locality, 

 and all the poultry keepers alike interested in getting practical and 

 profitable results. 



It remains to speak of the satisfaction of breeding poultry. The mere 

 grower of poultry gets little pleasure out of his woi'k with it. The 

 breeder always finds something in his work to compensate for the 

 drudgery of some of the tasks of caring for poultry. His fowls begin 

 to assume an individuality in his sight and in his thought. Each suc- 

 ceeding year he becomes more adept in antieiijating the quality of the 

 chickens he will hatch, even though he may make no progx-ess in count- 

 ing them before they ai'c hatched. Nor is the use of what he gains by 

 intelligent eftbrts in breeding poultry limited to his work with poultry. 

 In learning to work with the principles of breeding he is providing 

 himself with a better equipment for every other branch of his farm 

 work, for the same general principles of production run all through the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms. 



