22 LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING — SECOND SERIES. 



not reach this coudusion when in the more technical discussion of the subject to which he 

 devotes the latter half of the paper from which we have quoted, he mentions a number of cases 

 which, like those in crossing poultry which we have referred to, plainly do not accord with 

 Mendel's results, and follows with this conclusion : "Dominance, as we have seen, is merely a 

 phenomenon incidental to specific cases, between which no other common property has yet been 

 proved. In the phenomena of blended inheritance we clearly have no dominance. In the cases 

 of alternative inheritance studied by Gallon and Pearson there is evidently no universal 

 dominance." 



Now if the principles discovered by Mendel are not of wider application than to the crossing 

 of such definite varieties differing in one or a few definite characters, they would be of little 

 importance to poultrymen generally, for very few poultrymen are practically interested in the 

 development of types from cfosses of varieties. The making of new breeds and varieties of 

 poultry is generally accomplished by mingling several quite distinct breeds often differing from 

 each other in nearly all sections. Each breed or variety u.-ed is used for a definite purpose — to 

 introduce some special character or feature of its own, or to make in combination with another 

 some new character intermediate between the two. 



It has long been a common saying among poultrymen that in a first cross we get ■» certain 

 uniformity, but that in breeding together the progeny of this first cross we get a great variety 

 of results. Outside of the few breedmakers, those who make crosses have generally given up 

 trying to get uniformity out of the progeny of a cross, and if they like a certain cross content 

 themselves with renewing it as often as necessary. It cannot yet be said that the Mendel law 

 suggests general rules for, or plans which may be universally applied in bringing orderly 

 development out of the seeming confusion produced by the breeding together of crossbred 

 fowls. Nor can it be said that what it does suggest as to how a mating, which produces a 

 desired character as a dominant character, may be used and followed up to best advantage is at 

 all new to poultrymen. It does, however, suggest the introduction of a new method in breed- 

 ing which no doubt has sometimes been used accidentally, but which, so far as we are aware, 

 no breeder has ever recognized or advised. And if the Mendelian principles are demonstrated 

 to apply to the phenomena of breeding generally, and not merely to the crossing of distinct 

 varieties, their influence on breeding operations through the introduction of this new method 

 cannot fail to be of great practical value. 



To explain what we mean : — There does not seem to be any good reason why we should not 

 consider what Mendel called "dominant" characters as prepotent characters. In their breed- 

 ing operations poultrymen have been accustomed to attach importance only to those Individuals 

 possessing the character they sought to fix, and have found that some birds will reproduce that 

 character, and some will not. By continued breeding and careful selection they finally elimi- 

 nate ali the specimens that will not reproduce the desired character acceptably, but in any case 

 in which the principles discovered by Mendel operate the breeder who vporks for positive 

 results begins his work with, say three-fourths of all the stock from a certain mating showing 

 a decided character, while only an unknown third of that three-fourths will reproduce the 

 character with certainty. On the other hand — if the principle of Mendel applies — all of the 

 stock which has this character different will reproduce the different character in its progeny. 



Certainty In results is secured by working not with the individuals having the dominant 

 character, but by using those having the recessive character. 



The poultry breeder generally discards those specimens which differ in any desired quality 

 from their parents -if he knows them. Sometimes he uses a "chance" bird and finds him a 

 very strong breeder. May it not be because in respect to a certain quality or qualities he is 

 what Mendel calls a " recessive?" 



And is it not worth while for poultrymen to study their matinga in the light of Mendel's dis- 

 coveries and see whether the " science of breeding" cannot be made more accurate and satis- 

 factory by seeking out and using the specimens that retain a desired quality when most of their 

 kin in the same generation lose it rather than by working, especially with the specimens which 

 come from the mating most fruitful in producing specimens with any given desired char- 

 acteristic? 



