38 



It is such selection as this, accompanied by selection of the largest 

 eggs for hatching, that is practised on most farms where some 

 special attention is given the matter of making poultry profitable. 

 It is doubtful whether any marked progress was ever made by such 

 methods, but they are a long way in advance of leaving it all to 

 nature. At best, these methods are crude ; their use under the 

 conditions described is illogical. 



The logic of such a situation requires that a poultry keeper who 

 realizes the importance of reserving his best fowls to breed from 

 should make sure that it is only the eggs of his best hens, fertilized 

 by his best males, that are used for incubation. The logic of the 

 situation requires that a poultry keeper who thinks it worth while 

 to select the best eggs for incubation should, sooner or later, come 

 to consider it necessary to know that these eggs were from hens 

 possessing the other qualities prized, and fertilized by males most 

 suitable for mating with these particular hens. Selection is not 

 complete if it stops short of the separation of the fowls selected, — 

 unless the whole flock is select, — a thing which does not often 

 happen. It is in failing to make selection complete and effective 

 by separation that nine-tenths of the poultry keepers who do not 

 breed for fancy points make one of their most serious mistakes. 

 Separation would not be so necessary if the whole flock were needed 

 to produce the number of chicks wanted. In that case, it would 

 be simply a question whether the additional product secured by 

 using the poorer as well as the better breeding birds would add to 

 the profit. But, with the exception of those who sell eggs for 

 batching, there are few poultry keepers who could not get all the 

 eggs needed for incubation from a small part of their flock. In that 

 case, it certainly seems the best policy to use for breeding purposes 

 only as many of the choicest of the flock as are really required. 

 Then, even though it may sometimes happen that the best hens do 

 not furnish eggs when most wanted, the poultry keeper can know 

 that he is using the best eggs available, and using none from 

 inferior hens. 



Suppose that there is* on a certain farm a flock of one hundred 

 hens ; that this is the amount of the laying stock usually carried ; 

 and that each year about three hundred chicks are raised. It 

 would be possible to produce all these chicks from a half a dozen 

 hens. That, however, would be much better than average results. 

 A dozen hens can produce the eggs for these chicks, and do it 

 handily. Is it not, from every consideration, better to have all 

 the chicks from the twelve best hens than to have only ton or 

 fifteen per cent, of chicks from hens of this quality and eighty-five 

 or ninety per cent, from the rest of the flock? 



