116 POULTRY CULTTJEE 



Plumage. — Varies according to season. Heavy layers are 

 busy, hence feathers soon become worn. Preference to be 

 given to late molting hens in the fall and early winter months. 

 Pullets will become closer feathered as the body fat is used in 

 egg production. 



Skin Color. — In varieties having yellow skin the color of 

 the skin all over the body, especially vent, eye-ring, ear-lobes, 

 beak, and shanks will indicate egg production by bleaching 

 but. The more they bleach or fade the greater has been the 

 production. This color returns in the order named when 

 laying ceases. 



Meat Qualities. — ^In birds bred for meat production the 

 breast should be deep and well fleshed out. The breast bone 

 should be free from deformities. The skin should be soft and 

 kid-glove-hke to the touch. The pelvic bones thick with 

 well developed muscles. The body should have good depth 

 and length and well developed muscles giving an abundance of 

 meat. The back should be moderately broad. 



MENDELISM 



Mendel first gave to the world the proved fact that anatomic 

 units were characters inheritable. 



Altered anatomic units due to environment, that is, post- 

 natal deviations, are not inheritable. Thus a dog's tail may 

 be cut off, but his progeny would not be tailless dogs due to 

 the fact that theu- parent had his tail cut off. A cow may be 

 dehorned, but her progeny will not be hornless due to the fact 

 that their mother had her horns cut off. Tailless dogs and 

 hornless cattle are originally "sports" and are readily ex- 

 plained by the laws of Mendel. The Jews have practiced 

 circumcision since time immemorial, yet they still find circum- 

 cision possible. No better concrete example can be given 

 than this for the Orthodox Jew is supposed to marry only 

 within his own race. 



It was Weismann who first showed that the inheritable 

 factors we may call unit characters are transmitted through 

 the germ plasm. There remains little doubt, after his ex- 

 haustive studies, but that it is the microscopic granules or micro- 



