SUCCESS IN POULTRY CULTURE 
mit to the future flock a weakness that 
will surely cause future loss. 
If we are not willing 
to accept the theory of a 
single conception of life 
from which all animal life sprang, lest it 
conflict with our religious belief, or for 
any other reason, then we need only to 
go back to the time of Noah’s ark to get 
a starting-point from which nature began 
with a single pair from which to breed all 
of the different families of a given species 
that now exist throughout the world. We 
will choose, for instance, the pair of fowls 
that came safely through the flood in the 
ark the nearest akin to our domestic fowls 
of the present time, or from which sprang 
the jungle fowls which are supposed to be 
the ancestors of our domestic fowls. If 
Nature started with a single pair of birds 
and bred so many different families, of 
the same species, and always kept them 
healthy, strong, vigorous and prolific, and 
always keeping close to a certain standard 
of perfection which she has established 
for herself, and does so without any bad 
effect which would result from inbreed- 
ing, it is very good proof that she has 
162 
Simple Rules for 
Breeding 
