JMP0R7AXCE OF KNOWING THE FeDIGREE. liy 



The practical conclusions to be drawn from the tendency we have been discussing are no less 

 important, and no less obvious. One of the first will be to modify very considerably what is said 

 in various works on poultry, as to the absolute necessity for continually introducing " fresh blood" 

 into a strain. When a yard has once been brought to high excellence, the introduction of such a 

 cross is a very serious thing ; and such wholesale instructions are never penned by persons who have 

 actually drcd prize fowls. It may be and is occasiortally necessary to recruit a strain ; but by 

 providing at the outset several unrelated pens, noting down the produce of every hatch, and 

 matching up every season with proper judgment birds not too closely related, such foreign 

 importations may be made very rare. Some breeds, such as Dorkings, require more than others, but 

 in all the necessity has been much exaggerated for this " fresh blood," and we would not shrink on 

 any single occasion from pairing a hen with her chicken or vice versd, but taking care not to repeat 

 such an experiment next year. To mate brothers and sisters does not do so well, and must only be 

 ventured upon in case of absolute necessity ; but witli fine birds we would prefer even this to using 

 an inferior or unknown cockerel for that particular pen. More distant relationships matter little 

 unless the interbreeding be carried on for a long period ; and this can be avoided in many ways. 

 Breeding three or four pens each year, and keeping a stock-book with the descent noted down, will 

 enable a yard to dispense with any foreign aid for years ; or a fine young cock may be put out in 

 safe keeping, and brought back after a year or two, when the relationship will be too remote to be 

 an evil. 



When fresh blood really is needed —and it occasionally is — the best plan is, if possible, to 

 purchase a cockerel from some one to whom you have sold stock of your own previously, and whose 

 strain and yours are therefore to some extent approximated. By so doing may be secured one- 

 half or one-fourth of the home blood ; and even one-eighth will very greatly diminish the chance of 

 such undcsired "reversionary" prospects as we are now considering. If only blood totally foreign 

 can be obtained, no pains are too great to ascertain what the intended purchase is likely to breed, 

 especially if a cock. The pedigree should be traced back as far as possible, and all information as 

 to dxiy past peculiarities of the strain diligently hunted up, for it is on these the result will greatly 

 depend. We speak feelingly on this matter, having known what it is to lose the produce of our 

 best hens — the chickens turned out so badly — through depending upon one of the most promising 

 cockerels we ever saw. In these cases there is no blame to be attached to any one, though the 

 seller of the bird often is blamed in no measured terms when such results occur ; it is pure and 

 simple misfortune, but misfortune which the care we are now insisting upon may nearly if not 

 quite prevent. As a rule, in purchasing such entirely strange blood, we would prefer hens to 

 cocks, not only because they have less influence upon the fancy points generally, but because in 

 case of a bad result less of the yard will become tainted by the experiment. Be this as it 

 may, in making such purchases we would strongly urge that they be made if possible on the spot, 

 in the vendor s yard. There the purchaser should ask, if possible, to have the progenitors pointed 

 out to him ; and if these were not bred by the owner, he should inquire the strains whence they 

 were obtained, and, if practicable, pay a visit also to the yards thus indicated. If the contemplated 

 purchases, on the contrary, be adult birds, he should ask to see some of the progeny, and inquire 

 how they were mated in order to produce them ; and in all of these cases let the investigator note 

 carefully both the excellencies and defects that appear in either generation, and endeavour to form 

 an opinion as to which birds either have been owing. All this may appear a great deal of trouble, 

 but it is the knowledge of and the looking after such particulars which are the real distinction 

 between the successful breeder, who knows in all his operations what he is about, and can utter 

 something like a prediction of what the result will be, and the ignorant man who simply buys 



