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IN THE POULTRY YARD. 43 
after two mote days, he was replaced in the small room. Two 
days after that he and the hens were placed in the out-door coop. 
‘The chickens from this cross showed wonderful uniformity. 
Nearly every ‘one had a pencilled neck, the feathers being reddish 
with a black stripe down the centre. The bodies of the birds were 
a dark reddish-brown. In shape they were excellent—legs not too 
long and plenty of breast. They matured early, and the pullets 
were most prolific layers. A few showed a most decidedly dung-hill 
origin, evidently having “cried back” to some long prior ancestor. 
‘Altogether we set 37 hens and raised 271 chickens—an average 
of a little over seven to each brood. S.me poultry keepers will 
probably think this a poor hatch, but the reader must remember 
that many of the setting hens were small, and not very good 
mothers... Of these 157 were cockerels, which we killed, and either 
used or sold, and r14 were pullets, of which go were considered 
good enough to keep. At the close of the season we sold most of 
the hens that were in the old house and yard, together with the 24 
culls. The price received was quite satisfactory, and in this way 
we got rid of all this old stock. In the winter we placed the go 
young pullets in the house, but without any rooster. As they were 
late birds they did not begin to lay as early as we would have 
hiked, but they continued laying all through the summer months, 
and, in order to see what the result would be, we selected seven of 
the best, mated them with a Brown Leghorn from another yard, 
and raised enough chickens to supply us with fifty good pullets. 
These pullets were three-quarter Brown Leghorns, and showed their 
origin very ‘clearly. They were smaller than their mothers, but 
were good layers. 
It is astonishing how rapidly a cross can be brought back to any 
breed simply by using thoroughbred males. Thus— 
The first cross produces half-bloods. 
The second gives us three-quarter blood. 
The third produces seven-eighth. 
The fourth produces fifteen-sixteenths. 
_ The fifth brings it to thirty-one-thirty-seconds, 
which’ is so nearly pure-bred that few people can tell the difference. 
