Barred Plymouth Rocks — Mating. 23 



average size will stamp rmre valuable qualities in the progeny than 

 one that is overgrown in the same brood. 



The sire is generally considered "half the pen." We respect- 

 fully dissent from this popular fallacy. The dam produces all the 

 material for flesh, bone, muscle, feathers — in a word, the whole struct- 

 ure and organism, without any intercourse with the male; but the 

 sire produces the life of that structure, modifies and controls to a 

 certain extent the color, form, facial or plastic features of that living 

 organism; therefore, as the dam furnishes the material for the 

 structure of the chick, she must have greater control over the size 

 than what is generally accredited to her. 



The sire should have a medium-sized head, smooth and well 

 shaped, and carried well up; comb medium in size, erect, straight 

 on the head, evenly serrated, without side sprigs or excrescences, 

 one with six points preferable; ear-lobes bright red, without spots or 

 streaks of white or yellow; wattles well developed for the breed; 

 neck well formed and nicely arched; breast full, broad and round at 

 the sides; back broad, and flat at shoulders, showing from junction 

 of neck to base of tail a gentle sweep or concave curve, lower at 

 saddle than at hackle; body broad and deep, showing from the lower 

 mandible of the beak to the under side of the tail an almost perfect 

 semi-circle; tail of medium size and carried well up; legs bright 

 yellow, of medium length and well set apart; plumage medium dark, 

 with neck, back and tail evenly and deeply barred with deep blue 

 on a light steel gray under-color. Such a male, mated to pullets 

 possessing the corresponding points described for the male, and hav- 

 ing the same steel gray ground color, evenly barred with a deeper 

 blue throughout, will produce more valuable qualities and as fair, if 

 not fairer, proportion of well-matched chickens than any other mat- 

 ing of which we know. 



THE NE PLUS ULTRA MATING. 



For the benefit of those who have not read the views of Mr. 

 I. K. Felch on mating, we take the following extract from an article 

 which he contributed to the National Poultry Monitor under the 

 above heading nearly eighteen months ago: "A cockerel weighing 

 eight and a half to nine pounds, having a low, straight, evenly ser- 

 rated comb of six to eight serrations; medium size head, bluish 

 gray, marked across with dark blue; eyes a bright red; wattles 

 rather large, though of fine texture; fair size, bright red ear-lobes; 

 neck of fair length, well arched and full in hackle, the color being 



