BREEDING 185 
Tue MenpeL HEN 
Mr Oscar Smart, for instance, has bred a new variety of fowl 
to which he has given the name of Mendel. It is claimed for this 
breed that it is a general purpose fowl, maturing early, with all the 
laying properties of the Leghorn and all the table virtues of the 
Orpington. It would, perhaps, be more correct to say that it had 
the virtues of both fowls and the faults of neither, but too little is 
yet known of the Mendel by the public to make any definite claim 
for it. In colour it is a dull white, and in shape it resembles a 
small-sized Wyandotte. Mr Smart, like several others, is also 
busily engaged on the all-important question of breeding to obtain 
a definite sex. From time to time we hear that American breeders 
have solved the sex problem, but so far no one has been able to 
place on the market birds that will definitely and consistently 
produce more of one sex than the other. 
If it were possible to breed directly for sex, it would revolutionise 
not merely the poultry world but all live-stock industries, and 
incidentally a few other things, including the human race. While 
one remains sceptical about breeding for sex it would be un- 
scientific to say it cannot be done. The method of procedure in 
breeding for sex is roughly that, when one has a pullet that pro- 
duces an overwhelming number of one sex she is to be isolated 
along with the male. If any of the progeny again show a tendency 
to yield a preponderance of one sex these again must be isolated, 
and used again and again until what may have been an accident 
or “sport ” becomes a fixed law. So far it is all a matter of specu- 
lation—perhaps of dreams—but one should never close one’s eyes 
to possibilities. 
Consider what would happen if the poultryman could breed for 
sex. If he were a purveyor of table poultry he would breed 
nothing but cockerels; which grow and fatten quicker than pullets. 
The egg-farmer would, of course, breed only pullets, double his 
supply of eggs and get rid of the troublesome cockerel question 
when trading in light breeds, that rarely fetch in the market what 
they cost to produce. If the day ever comes when one can breed 
