48 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



by the late Warren T. Lord at something like fifty dollars and became 

 the foundation of Mr. Lord's fine male line. Indeed, from this sire 

 was developed the best line of Bufi^ Wyandotte males in the country. 



Principles of breeding. Thus far we have outlined in a general 

 way the work of the constructive breeder of Standardbred poultry. 

 Strictly adhering to a rigid standard, he makes closely culled matings, 

 giving the preference in reproduction only to the best; he linebreeds 

 to intensify the blood of these good specimens, and never fails to take 

 advantage of an exceptional bird that promises to improve his line. 



The best breeders are always keen students, keeping records of 

 pedigrees by toe-marking the chicks, not infrequently making special 

 or experimental matings, and always noting results. Their progress 

 has outrun science, and the teachers of the principles which underlie 

 the practical breeder's art are just beginning to present comprehensive 

 rules which classify the subject of heredity. 



The papers of G. Mendel have offered the modern basis for an 

 analysis of breeding. Mendel was an Austrian monk who was deeply 

 interested in the mode of inheritance. The results of his experiments 

 were first reported in 1865, but went unheeded. The papers were 

 rediscovered in 1900, and the last twenty j'ears have developed a 

 steadily clearing conception of the processes of inheritance. 



Mendel was aware that the subject of heredity was complex and 

 intricate, so he limited himself to simple and prominent features, such 

 as long stem versus short stem of peas. He crossed tall peas that 

 measured six feet with dwarf peas one foot high. The result was 

 that all the plants were tall. He therefore said that the tall character 

 was dominent and the short character was recessive. 



These tall hybrids were then reproduced and out of a thousand 

 plants grown, there were approximately three that were tall to every 

 one that was short. It was then found that the short plants appeared 

 to be purebred, for the following year they produced all short stems. 

 When the tall plants self-fertilized and reproduced it was found that 

 une tall plant in three appeared to be pure and transmitted tallness 

 with certainty. Thus we see Mendel reducing heredity of this pair 

 of characters to mathematical certainty. 



Inheritance of Rose and Single Combs. Mendel's pea experiment 

 has been repeated by crossing rose comb fowls on single comb fowls. 

 The results are identical, that is, all the hybrids are rose combed, and 

 when they are bred together they produce 3 rose to 1 single, and the 

 single is pure single. .'\ pure rose comb, inheriting roseness from 

 both sire and dam, may be indicated by the letters R R; a pure single, 

 S S; while a bird that inherits roseness from one parent and the single 

 form from the other parent has a comb that may be desi,gnated as 

 R S. When pure rose is mated to pure single, that is when R R 

 is mated to S S the birds produced in the first generation are all rose 

 combed, because rose is the dominant factor. 



From the standpoint of inheritance these combs are not pure 



