SUCCESS IN POULTRY CULTURE 
families would not produce offspring very 
much like either of the parents. Two 
widely separated families in nature, which 
live under different environment, are 
analogous to two different families of the 
same breed being bred by two different 
men, inasmuch as the two different men 
would not be likely to give their birds the 
same environment and their selection 
might differ even more than the natural 
selection of the two natural families in 
the widely separated regions. 
Perhaps it would be well to state here 
that if two different strains of the same 
breed had been bred by different men, 
by different methods, towards a high 
standard of egg production, to cross the 
two strains would be likely to produce 
good results for the reason that crossing 
strains of the same breed, that are dis- 
tantly related, tends to produce offspring 
that are more prolific than the parents. 
The reason for this is obvious when we 
consider the sterile effects of close breed- 
ing. 
This obvious reason seems, to me, to 
lend an element of truth to the theory 
that exists amongst the farmers of many 
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