Of course, when your strain Is practically perfected, experi- 

 ments on the side may he made, hut keep the result of these 

 crosses out of your strain. These experiments have for ages heen 

 the chief fascination of pigeon breeding. You enjoy having 

 pigeons around. Their care is no bother and you steal a little 

 time from your business and even lay awake nights to plan their 

 matings. 



Now what are we going to do with our strain the third year 

 and so indefinitely. I will illustrate this by a chart showing 

 what I did and am doing. See chart No. 1. In reading this chart 

 don't give it a casual glance and then lay it to one side, but study 

 it until you understand exactly what every mating means. I have 

 seen family trees, of which this is only one form, tacked all over 

 the interior of the largest lofts in the far east, especially in Asia 

 Minor, the home of the Satinette, and have seen the blood of one 

 bird traced for twenty generations. 



In this chart we start with two birds, a cock and a hen, and 

 shall, by selection, endeavor to breed our ideal. A hen (A) is 

 mated to (B) a cock, having the combinations of blood, 1 and 2 

 unknown. Their progeny the first year is 3. Selecting the best 

 young hen we mate her back to (B) and produce 5, mating the 

 best young cock to (A) gives us 4. Again selecting and breeding 

 back gives us 6 and 8, which, mated together produce 9. We also 

 mate a cock from 4 with a hen from 5 or vice versa and produce 

 7. 3, 7 9, 14, 15 being the strain we own, and obtaining by selec- 

 tion the required results. 



As long as you can mate to produce these (one half breeds) 

 your strain will thrive and be strong and healthy, provided you 

 throw out all undesirable, unfit specimens, made so by a ten- 

 dency to disease, or otherwise. 



If. you want to keep the blood lines of the cock and hen 

 unbroken, follow systematically the first nine figures, repeating 

 with hen from 6 and cock from 8 taking the place of (A) and 

 (B), or if (A) and (B) are alive and in good shape, you can 

 duplicate the matings 3 and (B) and 3 and (A), or if (A) de- 

 parted this life a hen from 6 would represent her blood. If all 

 your matings of any one years, after your strain is started, 

 produce 3, 7 and 9, and 4 and 5, 6 and 8 are set aside or sold, 

 you will ruin your strain. 



Some fanciers set aside 7 and breed 9 back to 6 and 8 as 

 per chart, while others set aside 9, breeding a, "hens from 7" to 8 



13 



