CHAPTER XIV. 
PRACTICE OF POULTRY BREEDING. 
THE aims of all commercial poultry breeders may be summed 
up into four definite objects. Some may be striving for all of 
these, but in the majority of cases efforts are concentrated on one, 
or perhaps two, of the following purposes: 
1. To develop the most efficient egg machine possible,—one 
capable of turning out the maximum number of eggs of high 
quality during the season of high prices, at the lowest possible cost 
for feed and labor, 
2. To develop a type of bird for table purposes which will 
attain the greatest weight in the shortest possible time, the flesh 
so formed being of high quality, and this to be achieved with the 
least expenditure for feed and labor, thus leaving the greatest 
possible margin of profit. 
3. Often it is the aim to develop a type of bird which shall 
possess both egg and meat characteristics, these traits to be de- 
veloped to the highest degree of perfection which it is possible for 
them to attain in combination. This is the type of fowl usually 
classed as general purpose, and the type found on the majority 
of poultry farms in America, especially where the farmer keeps 
them in small numbers as a side issue. This is the hardest 
type of fowl to develop, for improvement in either of the above- 
mentioned qualities means deterioration in the other, for meat 
and egg qualities are the results of opposite characteristics which 
it is impossible to develop to their greatest efficiency in one 
individual. 
4. To develop a bird with plumage of a given color pattern 
is also the aim of a large class of poultry breeders. Breeding for 
any other fancy points may also be included here. This breeding 
of poultry to a color standard is practised by many at the sacrifice 
of meat and egg qualities; in other instances it is an important 
feature in connection with breeding for other utility qualities. 
All breeding of poultry legitimately comes under one, or a 
combination, of these four purposes. This chapter deals with the 
practical application of the laws of breeding as well as with the 
methods to be followed and the practical results to be expected. 
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