BIOLOGY OL" POULTRY KLEPI^'G. III 



inheritance. Tlie danger in the matter in such a case as this 

 under discussion all turns on the way in which the thing is 

 done. If one feels it to be desirable, for the reason specified, 

 to introduce "new blood" into his flock of birds let him by all 

 means do it gradually, and not swamp the whole flock with 

 the new germinal combinatioris all at once. For if he does he 

 may destroy in this way at one blow results which have taken 

 years of careful breeding to build up. The proper procedure in 

 introducing "new blood" is, in most cases, to buy a male bird 

 and mate it the first year with only a small number of females, 

 perhaps three or four. In this way it is possible to find out 

 whether the new "blood" "nicks" with the old, as the breeders 

 express it.* If it does he may then extend its introduction to 

 the whole flock. If it does not "nick" he will not have lost all, 

 but may still continue with his original foundation stock, with 

 all its good qualities. 



Having considered in detail the principles involved in the 

 production of good stock in poultry keeping, we may next turn 

 to the conservation of this stock once it has been obtained. 

 While well bred stck of sound constitution is fundamental for 

 all permanent success in the poultry business, yet it is equally 

 true that the best stock in the world may be made very unpro- 

 ductive, and in nearly all respects practically worthless, by im- 

 proper management. Furthermore in the hands of a skillful 

 poultryman the same stock can be made to yield a great deal 

 more profit, both in egg production and in meat production, than 

 if handled and cared for by an amateur without any under- 

 standing of the business. 



Housing. 



In the management of adult fowls there are in the main two 

 things to be considered, housing and feeding. A vast multitude 

 of methods of doing these two things to poultry have been tried 

 during the history of the industry. 



There have been published plans for poultry houses of all con- 

 ceivable shapes and sizes. Long houses, short houses, tall houses 



* From the standpoint of modern conceptions of heredity "nicking" 



possibly means nothing more than that the individuals mated form 



homozygous combinations of many important characters rather than 

 heterozygous combinations. 



