FELCH'5 BREEDING CHART. 11 



Theoretic Line Breeding. 



We oome now to line breeding as most beginners and some more advanced students of breed- 

 Ing problems want it: That Is, line breeding according to a prearranged schedule, the special 

 object of which is to avoid the evils of Inbreeding. 



Having read what I have said on the subject of inbreeding, the reader hardly needs to lie 

 told that personally I believe the rational way to avoid the evils alleged to result from inbreed- 

 ing is by constant rigid selection, and that if this is practiced a systematic plan of producing 

 (specimens of certain degrees of consanguinity to be used at pre-ordained stages of the system, 

 is superfluous, and as this belief rests on repeated tests in my own flocks as well as a consider- 

 able volume of testimony from others, to me the practical value of work of this kind seems- 

 very small. In my mind the whole science of breeding resolves itself into the selection of the 

 best specimens, and provided due attention is given to all essential qualities the matter of rela- 

 tionship may be safely disregarded. In practice, the selection of the most suitable specimens 

 to mate together will generally keep a breeder who has a large stock of high degree of merit 

 within his own stock without often calling for consecutive matings of very closely related birds. 

 The rule of making strength in one sex compensate for weakness in the corresponding section 

 in a mate of the opposite sex, if followed, keeps the breeder clear of the error of mating related 

 birds having the same serious defect, a mating which is wrong whether birds are related or not. 



However, for the information of those interested, I reproduce herewith I.K. Felch's "Breed- 

 ing Chart" and an illustration of the practical application of it, which he furnished this paper 

 several years ago. Even though one may not think it necessary to adopt such a system for the 

 purpose of modifying the effects of inbreeding familiarity with a chart like this may be made 

 useful in several ways, and especially in indicating a method of diagramming a record of 

 matings, and in illustrating the variety of matings that may be made using the same lines of 

 blood. Such a chart also illustrates admirably the point made in the discussion on inbreeding 

 of the reduction of the number of ancestors accomplished by inbreeding. 



The explanation of the chart and the system I condense from two articles on the subject by 

 Mr. Felch. It may be noted that apart from the difference of opinion as to the effects of 

 inbreeding, Mr. Felch's advice about breeding strongly reinforces what I have said about the 

 necessity of care in selection, and the importance of considering a line or system of breeding a* 

 the means, not the end. Mr Felch says: 



We know that we can take a single pair, and raise thousands in the same vigor, form, and 

 beauty of plumage as the p:iir we start with; but this demands that our selections shall be of 

 the best and most healthy specimens of their race, and that they shall be kept under the most 

 favorable conditions. 



Our chart shows how a pair and its progeny can be bred, without resorting to breeding 

 that would be termed incestuous. The art of this consists in being able at all times to produce 

 a flock that is one-half the blood of the original pair. 



By a careful examination of the chart it will be seen that all groups to the right of the center 

 have a preponderance of the blood of the male used in the first mating, and all groups to the 

 left of the center have a preponderance of the blood of the female, the figures showing just 

 what the proportion of blood is, while the center groups are each and all just one-half the blood 

 of each of the original parents. 



Experience has taught us that to breed for three generations the same blood is disastrous. 

 Were we to mate male and female from group 3, and to repeat the mating in the progeny for 

 three generations we would produce sterility and hick of vigor. But our groups 3, 7, 11, ami 

 16 are all one-half of the blood of each ancestor, and sound, vigorous, and productive, because 

 of the method of their production, and just as strong as group 3, which was the direct issue of 

 the original mating. 



Throughout we persist in an unbroken line of males, as demonstrated in the black lines of 

 the chart. We establish a line of breeding that will be wonderful in its like producing like 

 quality. In the first product, group 3, there may not be a single male to present the type of 

 No. 2, nor may there be a pullet in the type of No. 1, but by breeding back we secure the 

 original types of both, by which when we make the second group of one-half bloods we find 

 both males and females to our liking. 



