10 LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING — SECOND SERIES. 



and thus the number of different kinds iind degrees of attribules which the fowl may inherit, 

 are reduced, wliile its inheriticnce of qualities common in its aiu'estiy, is increased and intensi- 

 fied. Of course this applies to faults as well as to merits. It is liecause inbreeding increases 

 or fixes the faults as well as the excellencies of the line that when it is practiced by those who 

 do not give proper attention to selection to avoid weaknesses, or whose methods of handling- 

 fowls are injurious, it may make their stock deteriorate more rapidly than if they were con- 

 Btintly bringing in new blood. Indeed the frequent introduction of new blood tends to a gen- 

 eral mediocrity in the stock, without either strikini; excellence or marked degeneracy ii) iiny 

 respect. 



The breeder, however, is not working for mediocrity, but for excellence, and the highest 

 excellence obtainable. To get this experience has demonstrated that inbreeding — and very 

 close inbreeding — is necessary. 



What is Line Breeding? 



Line breeding may mean many different things. The phrase is used very loosely. It is com- 

 mon In advertisements and circulais. Breedirs speak of their stock iis " line bred," or line bred 

 for so many years. So used the term conve\ s no definite information. 



In varieties in which special malings are used toproduceexhihition specimens of the different 

 sexes, each sex is produced accordingto a general system of line breeding, tbeniales and females 

 of the different lines being of distinctly different color tyiies. Often a breeder of such varietits, 

 speaking of his stock as bred in line means only that his stock has been bred alu ays from birds 

 of the a|iprnpriate type and general line of breeding. 



Again, when a breeder says be breeds in line he may mean only that his present stock con- 

 tains some of the same blood as that with which he started, or as that from which he dales his 

 line breeding. The stock may not have been bied at all systematically, but he calls it line bred 

 because he can follow a certain line of blood back through it. 



But systematic or " scientific " line breeding is something quite different. Asa rule it begins 

 in the distover\ of a single bird of unusual excellence and breeding power, or prepotency. 

 The breeder who is intelligently seeking for certain results may make many efforts to start a 

 satisfactory line of breeding, but not until he begins to get satisfactory results does he settle 

 down to one line. The others are merely tentative. 



Having produced, or procured, and discovered through its progeny a specimen fit to become 

 the head of a line, I lie breeder proceeds systematically to perpeiuate this line. He studies to 

 get the type of the opposite sex best suited to use with his phenomenal bird to reproduce its 

 excellencies. Us finest offspring of the same sex especially are mated as far as possible to main- 

 tain in at least a few of each generation the highest possible development of the excellence 

 reached in it. At the same time other matings are made both along the same blood lines, and 

 with promising <'omliinatians, that in case at any time tte main line, or the direct line as main- 

 tained in the finest l>reeding specimens in each generation should prove unsatisfactory or need 

 reinforcement of the same line of blood, there may be abundant material from which to select. 



Breeding in tids way many of our best breeders continue a single line of breeding through 

 many years. Sometimes it is a male line that is kept unbroken; sometimes a female line. Some- 

 times there is nut direct continuily in either male or female line, but an irregular alternation 

 according to the judgment of the breeder as to the best way to use availal)le birds. 



Rarely is the breeding according to n prearranged schedule. Eesults of matings are too 

 uncertain for that. The successful matings, howe\er, and those which produced birds whiob 

 became of importance in their line are a matter of records, which constitute in a general way 

 the pedigree chart of the stock. This, brielly,is line breeding as practiced by the most suoces- 

 fill breeders and fanciers. They breed closely, often breeding in and in, again and again, but 

 always intent on tlie points of excellence they prize most, and never maintaining a line merely 

 for the sake of continuing it. As I stated at the outset, with the intelligent breeder a system 

 is a means to an end, and any special s> stem or line of matings is to be followed only as long as 

 it appears to be the best means to gain the ends sought. 



