PRAIRIE FARMER'S POULTRY BOOK 



diminish, it is evident that the line of breeding should be 

 abandoned. A new mating should be tried. The tendency 

 by which a character, on the one hand, persists and intensifies 

 or, on the other hand, diminishes and disappears, we call the 

 principle of "persistent and diminishing characters." Its 

 operation is quite hidden from the view of the breeder. 

 Whether the desirable characters will become fixed and in- 

 tensified in any line of breeding or whether they will diminish 

 and disappear depends on the blood lines represented in the 

 sire and dam, upon the discordant elements that may have 

 been introduced in the line of ancestry and have not been 

 bred out, an^ upon the prepotency of the mates. 



6. Transmission. In sexual reproduction the male deter- 

 mines color, fecundity and prepotency, while the female de- 

 termines type, size, temperament, and vitality. If these state- 

 ments are true, it follows that the male should excel in color, 

 prepotency and fecundity. It has been found that trap-nested 

 hens with high egg records do not reproduce the quality of 

 high production, but if a male bred from a hen with a high 

 record for production is used in the breeding pen, the in- 

 variable result is an improvement of productiveness in all the 

 offspring. If greater size is desired, large hens should be used 

 for breeding. 



7. Intensifying defects. Similar defects must not be pres- 

 ent in both sire and dam, else they will be intensified and never 

 bred out. If a defect occurs in the female it must be offset 

 by an excellence in the male. The practice of offsetting the 

 evil with the good should be practiced on every farm where 

 pen mating is used. It will work a marked improvement in 

 the flock. 



8. Physical deformities jn reproduction are the result of 

 physical defects and occasionally may be due to injury or to 

 malnutrition or to faulty incubation. 



We conclude, therefore, that the very essence of poultry 

 breeding consists in the selection of variations which appeal 

 to the breeder and so intensifying them by repetition that they 

 become fixed characters. 



We have found that breeding is an artificial process, yet 

 scientific. By it man seeks to mold and develop groups of 

 individuals for the attainment of certain desired ends. There 

 are several varieties of breeding which will be described in 

 detail on the following pages. 



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