30 POULTRY PRODUCTION 



are compared are those beauties which, taken collectively, 

 make up the bird representing the prevailing fashion. The 

 useful type has not been made the basis of the show type 

 with poultry to nearly so great a degree as with other food- 

 producing animals and with draft horses. Improvement in 

 this line during the last few years, however, has been very 

 marked, and there is a noticeable tendency for those fanciers 

 who carry on breeding operations to become breeders from 

 the stand-point of production. 



It is to the credit of the fancier, however, that there are 

 any distinct types and breeds of poultry at all. Both 

 breeders and producers are under lasting obligations to them 

 for the possibility of that uniformity which is so essential 

 in marketing modern high-class products. 



A second reason why the fanciers outnumber the breeders 

 is that there has been no merit system in general use for 

 purchasing poultry products, and hence there has been little 

 incentive toward improved products. When market poultry 

 and eggs are universally purchased from the farmer on the 

 basis of their quality, as cream is bought on the basis of 

 butter-fat content in many sections, and a better price is 

 paid for good goods than for poor goods, poultry breeding 

 in the best sense will become a practice and the number of 

 production-breeders will more nearly approach that of the 

 fancier-breeders . 



, A third cause has been the lack of anything like definite 

 rules of selection in production-breeding practice. Sporadic 

 attempts have been made to describe an egg tj^je of hen, 

 but no distinct type has yet been described at all comparable 

 with the distinctness of the dairy type in cattle. As will be 

 seen in the discussion of the inheritance of fecundity (see 

 page 128), it now appears that so far as type is concerned 

 selection should be for vigor. Combined with this, however, 

 must be performance and progeny tests. 



The Producer. — By a "producer," reference is made to a 

 person who raises poultry primarily for human consumption. 



During the last twenty-five years a great many attempts 

 have been made to operate farms which had as their principal 

 market crops, poultry and eggs. In fact, numerous attempts 



