PRAIRIE FARMER'S POULTRY BOOK 



year. Out-crossing avoids the degeneration which sometimes 

 accompanies in-and-in-breeding but is attended with more or 

 less risk. The new blood may contain some hereditary taint, 

 entailing weakness or disease, or may lack in prepotency or 

 represent an unproductive strain or possess blood which does 

 not blend with the breeder's strain, thus destroying in a single 

 season the work of long years of careful breeding. Out- 

 crossing should not be unconditionally condemned, but the 

 breeder should study the needs of his flock and fortify himself 

 by a knowledge of the requirements of a good breeding male 

 and purchase accordingly, and he will not be disappointed. 



It is usually safer to purchase females to introduce new 

 blood than to undertake to do it through the male. The male 

 is more than half the flock and, if an error is made in his pur- 

 chase, the whole flock is injured. If an outstanding female is 

 purchased and her blood blends with the breeder's strain, then 

 her cockerels can be used to supply new blood for the whole 

 flock. 



5. Line-breeding. This is a system of in-breeding by 

 which vigor, shape, color and productive power are main- 

 tained. By this system of breeding, size and vigor are often 

 increased, there is no loss of prepotency or stamina, and de- 

 sirable characters are established and maintained. Line breed- 

 ing is begun by selecting foundation stock as near the ideal 

 as it is possible to obtain. The breeder must study carefully 

 the requirements of the Standard of Perfection, so that he 

 may know all the disqualifications as well as the points of 

 excellence of the breed. 



The picture that is made in his own mind after diligent 

 study, is the ideal toward which he must strive. The ideal 

 having been formed, he must select a female that has few de- 

 fects and that possesses the shape, color, carriage and quality 

 that measure up to his ideal. If he decides to have more than 

 one female in the pen, they should be as closely related as pos- 

 sible and sho-uld harmonize with the ideal. Each hen should 

 be leg-banded, and all should be trap-nested, and the eggs from 

 each dam numbered. When the chicks hatch they should be 

 toe-marked or wing-tagged, so that the progeny of each hen 

 can be identified when matured. 



The male should also conform to the ideal as closely as 

 possible, and he should harmonize with the females. If there 

 are any defects in the females they should be offset by cor- 



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