486 POULTRY CULTURE 



from its immediate parents, 6.25 per cent from each of four grand- 

 parents, 1.50 per cent from each of eight great-grandparents, and 

 .39 per cent from each of sixteen great-great-grandparents, it is 

 plain that if a breeder undertakes (as most breeders do at the out- 

 set) to avoid consanguineous matings, he will always have in the 

 ancestry of each generation of stock so many chances for reversion 

 and recombinations of latent characters that his stock will never 

 reach a high grade of excellence in many qualities. 



In selecting like parents for any generation the breeder usually 

 finds that the birds most like in appearance (and generally in per- 

 formance as well) are of near kin, — that is, they are like in ances- 

 try as well as in appearance. The advantage of mating like birds 

 of like ancestry is so plain, and has been demonstrated so often in 

 practice, that it is universally recognized. But there is a popular 

 belief that close breeding (in-and-in-breeding), while of advantage 

 to the fancier, is almost immediately destructive of vitality and of 

 practical qualities, and quickly leads to sterility. This fallacy is 

 less prevalent than it has been, and would soon disappear from 

 among poultrymen if breeders did not, as a matter of policy, say 

 as little as possible about this part of their breeding practice. ^ 



The rule of good practice. Mate the best (for the object in view) 

 individuals available, disregarding relationship, is the general 

 practice of skillful breeders. It makes close breeding the usual 

 practice, and at the same time leads to the introduction of new 

 blood in small flocks every few generations, and in large stocks at 

 less frequent intervals. As long as a breeder's matings within the 

 blood lines of his own stock are giving him such breeding birds as 

 he wants, there is no object in his going outside for new blood, 

 but when he finds another breeder producing birds better than his 



1 The poultry breeder's ordinary and low-priced stock is bought mostly by 

 novices who insist on having stock not akin. A large breeder making many mat- 

 ings can furnish birds mated for breeding that are not near kin. The purchaser 

 would usually get good results from a mating of this kind. But in a great many 

 cases, so fearful is he of the dangers of inbreeding, and so distrustful of the breeder, 

 that he buys from two different breeders at the same time and changes the males, 

 or if he has some stock of his own, mates some of his females to the male pur- 

 chased and one of his males to the females. An expert breeder who knew all the 

 stock might do this with a specific object and get the results sought, but one who 

 has no reason for a mating except to avoid inbreeding seldom gets good results 

 from such changes. 



