XVI 



LINE BREEDING AND MENDEL'S LAW 



Root Meaning of Special Terms — Multiplied Ancestors 

 for Every Bird — Giving a Fowl Fewer Ancestors — 

 Possible Evils — The Emphatic Point — The Theory 

 of Line Breeding — Double Mating — Applied Heredity 

 — Color Domination — Scope of Mendel's Law — Its 

 Limits — Brevity Points 



If you are a fancier just budding, you will be looking 

 over everything you can find about breeding, and will 

 often stumble upon the expressions, " line breeding," 

 " Mendel's law," " atavism," " strain," etc. While these 

 words are in the dictionaries, poultry keepers sometimes 

 shade the meanings a little, and, in order that we may 

 have them grouped together, I<will give the root mean- 

 ing of each of several terms which are almost sure to be 

 used in any discussion of this kind. 



Strictly speaking, the word " hybrid " means the 

 progeny of a union of two species ; " mongrel," that of 

 the union of two breeds. A "cross" is a mixing of 

 stock, "a hybrid of any kind." A " mongrel " is also 

 the progeny of a cross of any kind. "Inbreeding" is 

 breeding together animals that are closely related. An 

 " outcross," according to Professor Pierce, Poultry In- 

 structor of Iowa State College, is the result of breeding 

 together birds of different varieties, or even dijferent 

 "strains'' A "strain" is the resultant of inbreeding, 

 more or less, together with selection. When birds of 

 any flock have been selected for certain qualities and 



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