APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING 483 



have an influence on profits with poultry of no particular color type, 

 or may qualify a specimen as of some particular color type. In 

 breeding for market the breeder, as a rule, avoids black and dark- 

 colored birds, especially if they are to be dressed and sold before 

 maturity. In breeding to color standards (even without close atten- 

 tion to the finer points of color) a line must be drawn between color 

 faults which may be tolerated and those which ought to condemn 

 a bird for breeding purposes. 



Superficial characters. The fine points of color and of shape, 

 particularly of shape as not affecting any useful quality, are su- 

 perficial characters. It is the superficial points which make the 

 differences between those individual specimens of a race that are 

 worth consideration for exhibition or breeding purposes, — which 

 give to the specimen finish and proportionately increasing money 

 value, provided these superficial characters are found with the de- 

 sired essential and substantial characters. Remarkable finish in 

 color or in some other conspicuous feature is often found on birds 

 of poor shape, or distinctly inferior in size, or lacking in constitu- 

 tion. Such birds are not usually salable at high prices, but the 

 breeder is strongly tempted to use them, in the hope of getting a 

 proportion of offspring with their excellence and without their faults. 

 An experienced breeder who knows his stock thoroughly, who re- 

 lies on other matings for most of his stock, and who uses such birds 

 only in special matings may sometimes succeed in doing this. A 

 novice rarely gets the desired results, and if (as is too often the 

 case) the use of such a bird for breeding affects a large part of the 

 produce of a season, he may lose more than he could possibly gain 

 if the bird bred up to his expectations ; for a bird of this kind 

 rarely impresses its good quality on any considerable proportion of 

 its offspring. 



Progressive selection, with the elimination, at each step, of all 

 individuals which fail in the requirements under consideration, pre- 

 vents the development of stocks strong in some fancy points but 

 lacking in essential and substantial characters. The more rigid the 

 selection, the smaller becomes the number of birds that will pass it. 

 As a matter of business policy the breeder must so regulate his 

 selection of available stock that he can make the most profitable 

 use of it as a whole, but to establish himself firmly as a breeder 



