i8 cocker's manual. 



is shown many good breeds have been ruined by so doing, although 

 they were once very successful. To avoid this American breeders 

 breed twice in and once out, while it is said the English breeder's rule 

 is once in and once out. Our advice is, if you have a good winning 

 strain take good care of them and breed from them the best shape and 

 most active and healthiest, and do not destroy their good properties 

 by constantly crossing and changing them. 



SELECTION OF BREEDERS. 



As the selection and mating of our breeding stock is not attended 

 without some difficulty much care and patience will be required to be 

 successful. Fanciers who select their cocks from one yard and hens 

 from another mast not expect to raise fowls that are reliable, although 

 their chicks will not be related. As the hens give us size and shape 

 too much care cannot be taken in selecting them. Each fancier has 

 his own ideas as to what his breeding stock should be, yet we often 

 see some very poor fowls on such breeders' yards. Some fanciers pre- 

 fer small birds, others medium size, and again others extra large ones, 

 and each one will show his own individual preference for one over the 

 other. Perhaps there are some grounds on this point for question, 

 but for us we have no hesitation in giving our judgment for the larger 

 bird, as we can then get all the smaller ones we want without breeding 

 especially for them, as we contend that a good large one is better than 

 a good small one, and one of extra size with all the other good quali- 

 ties should not be disposed of but be highly prized as one of our 

 breeders. Another wrong is also done by some fanciers in letting 

 their old and well tried stock run out and breeding some new breeds 

 they know nothing of when, perhaps, they find they do not equal 

 their old favorites and then lament for not breeding from them. They 

 are too apt to be taken up with some new breed and each season try- 

 ing something new, and for this reason the breeder should understand 

 his stock thoroughly. It is a well known fact that good qualities in 

 parents will become fixed in the offspring if care is shown in the se- 

 lection of the breeders. The age of the breeding stock is an import- 

 ant consideration. Some fanciers claim no hen should be selected as 



