Some of the Original Breeding Stock. 



"How can I breed a prize winner?" 



"What is a strain?" 



"What is pedigree breeding?" 



"What is line breeding?" 



"Can any one start a strain?" 



"I am a poor boy earning $ per week. Can I compete 



with the wealthier fanciers in the show room?" 



I will try to answer the letters through this magazine so that 

 all can easily understand, using as my illustration a strain of 

 Blue Barred Muff Tumblers which is well known. I am using 

 this strain because its founder, E. Percy Olive, a Boston pho- 

 tographer, owing to the death of his only son four years ago, has 

 retired and I cannot be accused of advertising through the arti- 

 cle. 



In 1897, E. Percy Olive, while visiting the Boston show, 

 seeing the Clayton Cup, a beautiful affair, which was awarded 

 the best young Blue Barred Muff Tumbler, made this remark: 

 "By George, I would like to win that." Previous to this he had 

 kept Pantails and other pigeons, but had never owned a prize 

 winner or a Muff of any kind. He went home thinking seriously. 

 "How?" 



A week or so later he was called to the door one evening by 

 a couple of boys who wished to trade a pigeon which they carried 

 in a bag. When they showed it he found that they had a Blue 

 Barred Muff Tumbler. He traded a pair of Homers for this hen 

 Tumbler, as he supposed, and tossed it into his loft. The next 

 morning he found that he had a merry cock bird, splendid in 



