15 



color the eggs were. By putting white eggs in cases by themselves 

 and brown eggs in cases by themselves, we got two cents more on the 

 dozen just because they looked better, and it is the same way with 

 the chickens, either dressed or in a crate. If they are uniform in 

 size and shape and have the same color of skin, they will bring a 

 better price per pound than the mixed product. With the pure breds 

 you can count on what you are going to get, but in breeding common 

 stock you really don't know what to expect, except that you don't 

 expect to get very high grade or good quality. 



In regard to the raising of pure breds, we are sometimes told that 

 we may have to sell our pure breds at market price, and it is a fact 

 that you will sell high class stuff at the market price, but if you are 

 breeding mongrel stock there is one certainty you will never get 

 more than the market price for them. If you have common stock it 

 is not wise to throw it away, but it may be utilized. 



I made a little experiment in breeding common stock and grades 

 and I was able to find a common hen that did not seem to have any im- 

 proved blood in her at all. She weighed about four pounds. With 

 her I found one of these little roosters that is a nuisance around the 

 place. He weighed a little less than the hen, but we got more eggs 

 from her, and we mated her with a large pure-bred Barred Plymouth 

 Rock male, and these eggs were all hatched at the same time. The 

 point I wish to especially emphasize is the fact that when you use a 

 pure bred male and a common female that he is very much more 

 than one-half the flock. That point is clear enough. Every chick of 

 that cross has a Plymouth Rock color and the yellow leg, while this 

 cross with common stock had that same objectionable color, the black 

 of the mother hen. The best parts about it are the weights. At 

 eleven weeks old the common weighed sixteen ounces, or one pound, 

 and the price was twenty-five cents per pound. 



Grades average thirty-six ounces or two and one-fourth pounds, 

 at twenty-five cents, equals fifty-six cents. 



At the same time I set some pure bred Barred Plymouth Rocks, 

 average weight forty ounces, or two and one-half pounds, at twenty- 

 five cents, equals sixty-two cents. Sometimes we have what we call 

 prepotent males, or one that possesses a trait of impressing his char- 

 acter on his offspring, and to a remarkable degree. Bred to this com- 

 mon hen we can see how much the increase in weight was and all, 

 but not quite approached the value of the pure bred. They all had 

 exactly the same feed, water, etc., and raised in the same family. It 

 is a fact that where you use a pure bred male with a common female 

 that he is very much more than one-half the flock, because he is bred 

 in line, has qualities of his own, and when it meets the common blood 

 it is the dominant character. The point in this experiment is that 

 the farmer cannot afford to keep the scrub male, be it poultry, cattle, 

 swine or any other branch of live stock. Mr. Vanderbilt, with his 

 millions, could not afford to keep them and neither can we. 



