36 



ing special quarters for the breeding stock. It is this item of 

 expense, I think, which deters a great many from separating their 

 breeding stock, even after tliey are ready to admit that that is what 

 ought to be done. This expense, however, need not be consider- 

 able, and the special quarters for breeding stock will certainly pay 

 for themselves several times over in the first season they are used, 

 if other things are as they should be. 



There are other applications of the principle of selection which 

 may profitably be employed by the farm poultry keeper. The in- 

 fluence of natural selection is by no means limited to the phenomena 

 of reproduction. Indeed, if the theory of natural selection sup- 

 posed the operation of the principle more energetic at one stage of 

 life than at another, that was the growing stage, and particularly 

 the earlier part of it. The phrase " survival of the fittest" inevi- 

 tably suggests the destruction of the unfit. Yet this is the point 

 where nearly all poultry growers, whether farmers or fanciers, seem 

 to come to a standstill. There are few who will not admit that it 

 is better for the brood and flock, more profitable for the keeper, and 

 kinder to the chick itself, to kill the weakly chicks as soon after 

 hatching as their weakness is discovered ; and to follow this by 

 taking away from the flock every chick that fails to grow properly, 

 and so lags behind the rest in development. But it is a very rare 

 thing to find a poultry keeper who will do this. The usual prac- 

 tice is to let everything live until it is marketable, — or dies from 

 natural causes. 



And it is just this that is responsible for more than half of the 

 troubles people have in growing chickens. It is on the weak and 

 puny chick, that has not life and strength enough to dust itself, 

 that lice increase, until they become numerous enough to worry the 

 strong chicks. It is the weak chick that develops distempers and 

 diarrhaas, and poisons tlie air for the others with its fetid breath, 

 and makes the coop or brooder foul with its slimy discharges. It 

 is after the weak chicks that one must be constantly cleaning up ; 

 their presence in a flock is always adding to the poultry keeper's 

 burden. I never could understand why people should be so reluc- 

 tant to kill a fowl or animal which they knew was not fit to live, 

 and probably would not live to meet the use for which it had been 

 produced. 



When we plant seed, we plant enough to allow for the failure of 

 a great many seeds to grow, and still give a great many more 

 plants than can be properly grown on the allotted ground. Then, 

 as the plants grow, they are thinned out, all the weak and un- 

 thrifty ones being uprooted like weeds, and no more of the thrifty 

 spared than can make good growth. The same thing should be 



