THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 105 



fowls promiscuously bred in a farmyard. But the ob- 

 servant breeder knows that such is not the case. 

 Nothing is more difficult than to establish a permanent 

 intermediate race even between nearly-allied varieties. 

 In a few generations, the character reverts to that of 

 one or other of the parents ; the peculiarities of an old 

 type reappear, and the new cross, on which the fancier 

 was beginning to glorify himself, vanishes. The more 

 heterogeneous are the parents, the more sudden is the 

 return to old established characters. The hybrid 

 progeny are either utterly barren, or their young ex- 

 hibit the likeness of their grandfather or grandmother, 

 not of their actual parents. 



As a general rule, domestic animals of all kinds, 

 which have been produced by crossing, are the most 

 profitable both for meat and milk. But in all cases, 

 where a cross is attempted, with the object of improv- 

 ing a breed, be sure to have pure blood on one side. 

 In raising fowls, then, for laying, for the fatting coop, 

 or for the market, a convenient number of hens, either 

 pure bred or mongrels, may be obtained, which pos- 

 sess such properties as may be desirable, as regards 

 size, shape, color of the skin, tenderness of the flesh, 

 size and flavor of the eggs, hardiness, aptitude to lay, 

 sit, and rear their young, together with a requisite 

 number of pure-blooded cooks of such a breed as is 

 known from experience to be fixed in its character, 

 and whose progeny have proved profitable to the owner. 

 Allow these to run promiscuously together, and breed 

 from year to year, for four or five seasons, killing off, 

 or separating all the chickens as fast as they arrive at 

 maturity. In the meantime, however, should any 

 of the hens be lost from accident or disease, their places 

 may he filled with others of a similar breed, or with 

 the pullets of the first, or at farthest of the second 

 cross. Should the cocks die before they arrive at the age " 

 of five years, or become quarrelsome in their disposition, 

 or disabled in any way, they should be killed, and 

 others of pure blood and of the same breed, placed in 

 5* 



