8 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



if possible hatching power of eggs. Some of these characters 

 are visible, others are masked or hidden, and the birds must 

 be tried out. Select those that breed the best birds, regardless 

 of relationship. Some say inbreed, others say do not inbreed. 

 What is one to do? After trap-nesting and pedigreeing poultry 

 for over ten years, and coupling with this some years of ob- 

 servation in breeding with small and large matings, I now am 

 at the point where I would answer the above question by saying 

 it depends upon circumstances. 



Let us examine some of these ideas. Take, for example, the 

 characteristic of size. If we cross a small breed w^ith a large 

 breed the resulting offspring in the first generation will be inter- 

 mediate in size between the two, and are usually fairly, if not 

 exceptionally, uniform in size. These crossbreeds may please us 

 to such an extent that we decide to breed them together and 

 perpetuate the kind; but here we encounter a difficulty, for in 

 the second generation, or perhaps the third, if we rear, say, five 

 hundred specimens, we find we have no uniformity either in 

 weight, size, shape or anything else. We have about every con- 

 ceivable thing that is known in chickendom, and, moreover, the 

 mortality in birds bred as above is usually very high. We have 

 lost that valuable desideratum — uniformity, though we may 

 still have a few individuals of exceptional merit. This is the 

 method to follow where you wish to secure something that you 

 cannot already find in the existing breeds. As a common 

 practice it is bad policy. Such results are probably the cause 

 of the idea "do not inbreed." A similar result has come 

 under my observation where two absolutely distinct lines of 

 the same breed have been crossed and the progeny of such a 

 mating bred together. 



Now let us look at another side of this same method of breed- 

 ing. If we take the few specimens that meet our ideal, and 

 have plenty of constitution, and breed them together we find 

 we begin to produce a uniform flock of a new kind. True, 

 many may have to be discarded, but by close breeding we tend 

 to fix the characteristics. 



This does not yet answer the question as to what would be a 

 good practice for the farmer. 



The common practice of buying a new pure-bred male from 



