59 



be so universally practiced. Where does it come from? It 

 comes from the invigoration that always follows the introduc- 

 tion of new blood. The cross-breed pullet lays better than its 

 mother because it is larger and stronger it can eat and as- 

 similate more arid stand the strain of egg production better. 

 The average farmer's flock is constantly running out. He does 

 not breed from his best. The introduction of new blood coun- 

 teracts this tendency. Consequently the farmer is converted 

 to a belief in the superiority of the cross. 



But when you go beyond the first cross when you criss- 

 cross, as they say you strike another tendency the tendency 

 to reversion. The mixing of bloods results in bringing out 

 ancestral characters. The criss-cross is not far removed from 

 the red jungle fowl, and there inevitable comes a drop in egg 

 production'. 



All the valuable results that come from crossing can be se- 

 cured by the occasional infusion of new blood from a male of 

 the same breed as your own, and the breed may be kept more 

 pure. It is not necessary to introduce new blood oftener than 

 once in two years. Suppose you send away for a cockerel this 

 fall. The first mating will be with birds with which he is en- 

 tirely unrelated. Next fall mate him to the best pullets of his 

 own get, and take the best cockerel to mate with the hens in 

 the other breeding pen. If you find a strain of birds that you 

 like follow along with the breeder, getting a male from his 

 yards every two years. 



Breeders for fancy points breed in and in, and have a chart 

 of matings that is as intricate as a bicycle road map. It is im- 

 passible to produce show birds that will win in the hottest 

 competition without in and in breeding. But the reader of this 

 book has no necessity to resort to any such procedure that is 

 if he is after eggs first and not feathers and frills. 



FERTILE EGGS AND HOW TO GET THEM. 



To get fertile eggs three things are necessary maturity, 

 vitality, comfort. The conditions in the breeding pen must be 

 such as to promote maximum vitality. Where the male is 

 immature, where the house is so cold that the food eaten goes 

 to maintain the caloric, where the fowls are alive with vermin 

 or rotten with disease, the fertility will be low. Inbreeding 

 also tends to fertility. So does lack of exercise and overfat 

 condition of fowls in the breeding pen. 



Doubtless diet has an important effect upon fertility. Un- 

 less every element needed for the embryo is present, the egg 



