BREEDING AND BREEDS 87 



chapter. It is essential to select the best individuals 

 in each generation so as to secure the largest pro- 

 portion of improvement. By this system, it will 

 be seen that while no brother and sister matings 

 are made, the system is practically that of in-breed- 

 ing. On this account any faults in the parents are 

 likely to be exaggerated in the progeny, just as 

 excellencies are. For this reason too much care 

 cannot be taken to avoid mating individuals which 

 exhibit the same kind of faults. 



COMMON MISTAKES OF BREEDING 



As ordinarily managed, poultry quickly degen- 

 erates. This is largely due to mistakes of breeding. 

 When a small flock is kept, the poultry raiser may 

 purchase or select a good male bird to head the 

 flock. This in itself is not necessarily bad, but the 

 way it too frequently works results disadvan- 

 tageously. 



Suppose a case in which the hens have different 

 ability as to good laying; some lay well, some 

 poorly. It is likely with such a flock, unless an 

 incubator is used for hatching and care is exercised 

 to select eggs from the good layers alone, that when 

 the good layers sit they will hatch eggs which the 

 poor layers have laid. Thus the chances for rearing 

 a good laying flock for the succeeding year are 

 reduced at the very outset. But suppose that some 

 of the eggs set are laid by the best layers. These 

 eggs are by no means the best that the hens have 

 laid ; the chances are they are the poorest, because 

 the hens may have been laying for weeks, or even 

 months, and may be tired. Thus the chances of 

 producing good layers are very slim. In fact, a 



