THE WAY TO COMMENCE. 51 



been done. The difficulty is, first, to pursue such a course with 

 out extreme and injurious in-breeding ; and secondly, to har. 

 monise it with the claims of the several points or properties 

 which are so very seldom found together in perfection. 



The very first step, then, is to consider the various points 

 required in special relation to the difficulty of obtaining them. 

 Directly this is done, it will be found that some points are 

 obtained much easier than others, a single cross often being 

 enough to impart one property, while generations of careful 

 breeding may be necessary to secure others. Where this 

 seems not so, and the difficulties are more equal, it will still 

 be found that some points are of more value than others, though 

 we suspect that value is determined by difficulty in most cases. 

 This comparative appreciation being arrived at, then, any 

 reader who has followed us will see the conclusion to be arrived 

 at. Picking out one or two of the most difficult points, fasten 

 attention on that one, or at most two, and keep it there. In 

 selecting the first stock, and ever after, pay such heed as 

 possible to other points, but never lose sight of these. 



Again, at the outset, at least two, and where possible more 

 pairs should be provided, in order to avoid any necessity for 

 a cross until the new strain is tliorotighly established. This is 

 all-important to any one who means to have a strain of his own. 

 We have already seen that there is a tendency in all animals to 

 throw back to long-lost characters ; but Mr. Darwin has clearly 

 shown that this tendency is tremendously developed by the 

 mere act of crossing, whenever the cross is real and thorough. 

 Thus it is that when two distinct races of non-sitting fowls are 

 crossed the progeny often recover the long-lost faculty of in- 

 cubation, and more or less of the colour of the wild jungle- 

 fowl. Suppose, therefore, A has been breeding Carriers with 

 chief reference to size of beak-wattle, whilst B has been 

 attending more particularly to the form of that point, and to 

 the development of eye-wattle. A finds his birds have plenty 



