September, 1913. 



are a little off guessinc; at; present. 

 In any case the exact proportion 

 of " fixed " j^ood layers in the 

 third generation is not of the 

 greatest importance. The main 

 jioint is thnt a certain diefinite 

 nnmber will l>e so fixetl. 



— F2 Generation. — 



The result of crossing any 

 two organisms, which together 

 carry the two dominant charac- 

 ters, is, that all their ofispring 

 usually, but not always, show 

 the two dominant characters, but 

 the recessive qualities are latent. 

 Cross any two of this generation 

 and vou will get results in the fol- 

 lowing proportions. Nine will show 

 the two dominant characters, three 

 will show one dominant and one 

 recessive, three will show the other 

 dominant and the other recessive 

 and one will show neither of the 

 domiiants but both the recessives. 

 This is the Mendelian F2 genera- 

 tion, at which point the original 

 units split up to their greatest 

 variation. The nine double dom- 

 inants will breed true from genera- 

 tion to generation as long as the}' 

 are bred together, so will the re- 

 cessives. The six, if bred toge- 

 ther, will again split up into the 

 same proportions. Applied to this 

 particular case, purely as an illus- 

 tration of the thing anyone 

 mating two birds might in tJie first 

 generation expect to get all Li L,2 

 birds, with li I2 latent, and on 

 mating any two of these he would 

 get in each sixteen birds the fol- 

 lowing proportions of laying power, 

 nine birds having both Li and L2, 

 three birds with Lx, three birds 

 with L2 and one with no laying 

 power. If we assume that each 

 is worth 100 eggs, we have nine 

 200-egg birds, six loo-egg birds, 

 and one no egg bird. This is the 



12 Poultry Papers for Is. 



^|f? THE AUS 



AND FANG 



^ I * ii the genera 

 I best Poultry 



AUSTRALIAN HEN 

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 iltry & Fanciers' Paper 

 in the Cominonwe<<lth. It is published 

 twice a month and costs 5s. a year, post 

 free. But to prove its value, we shall tend 

 you 12 back numbers — a liberal poultry 

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 if you are not satisfied. Write to-day before 

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 756 GEORaS ST., SYDNEY, N.S.W. 



IJoint where the trap-nest comes in 

 to detect the Li L2 birds which 

 will breed true and of which the 

 cocks, as we understand it, will 

 throw good layers willi any hen. 

 As we have alread}- writLen, we 

 do not know what discoveries Dr. 

 Pearl has made as to the efiect of 

 sex distinction, this is the first 

 time in which product (in 

 animals) has been measured in 

 Mendelian terms. Horn and hide, 

 comb and colour, follow those lines, 

 but hitherto neither mil~ in cows 

 or eggs in fowls have been traciied 

 to their originating cell, but the 

 ground worn, is the same, and the 

 poultryman wid, we believe, be 

 able to work with the fullest con- 

 fidence that within certain limits 

 he can get equally as good re- 

 sults in egg production as in' comb 

 and colour " fixing.': Just as the 

 walnut comb of the Malay may, be 

 split up into single, rose, and pea, 

 which wUi breed true, so with al- 

 most equal certainty can lyi' 1,2 li 

 and I2 be handled and fixed, 

 liqual certainty there can never be 

 for it is obvious that while a 

 single comb will always be a 

 single comb, and in its general 

 type be unaffected by external con- 

 ditions, laying power must always 

 be so. 



— Where Trouble Comes. — 



It is at this F2 generation that 

 the (Utility man and tliie compe- 

 tition breeder stri^ve trouble at pre- 

 sent, for we see that birds may 

 be of apparently precisely similar 

 breeding, and yet be of quite dif- 

 ferent laying power, and the odds 

 are hea>)r against, picking six from 

 the nine to send to Parafield, 

 and keeping the seven at home. ■ It 

 is here that we come to the ex- 

 planation of the " better pens at 

 home," which ha^e no doubt been 

 a worry to their owners and com- 

 petition conductors. 



As we have already written, we 

 are not doing any guessing as to 

 proportions, though the answer 

 seems pretty apparent /on the facts 

 before us, but that they are fixed 

 and definite may be taken as cer- 

 tain, for we read that Dr. Pearl 

 reports that according to his 

 theory the 996 pallets bred from 

 his matings were expected to give 

 476 good birds, 464 medium birds, 

 and 56 bad, whilst tested by trap- 

 nest th.e actual result was 460 

 good, 459 medium, and 77 bad. 

 Dr. Pearl " does not claim that 

 his results are necessarily true, 

 for all breeds and strains of po|ul- 

 try, and he recognises that differ- 

 ent schemes of inheritance may ap- 

 ply to other breeds. In fact, he 

 suspects that the two breeds with 



which he experimented — the Ply 

 mouth Rock and the Indian Game 

 —may differ in the working of one 

 of the unit characters he has uos- 

 tulaled." This is the reasonably 

 cautious attitude of the scienti.it 

 and is not as we understood it to 

 be taken to mean that the essential 

 principle of the theory does not 

 hold good for all breeds. In any 

 case Dr. Pearl has ojiened up an 

 immensely interesting ti(l,l of ex- 

 periment which we shall follow 

 with considerable interest. 



Weight of Eggs. 



The Parafield competition birds 

 got through the " weighing the 

 eggs " ordeal very satisfactorily, 

 apparently only four pens failed to 

 pass the test, a very considerable 

 improvement on last year. There 

 seem, however, to be a fairly large 

 number which got through by the 

 skin of their teeth or the "bloom" 

 of the shell. There is certainly 

 need for the clause which is de- 

 signed to ■t'-eep up weight, but one 

 can sympathize with the unlucky 

 ones, who fail to pass, because the 

 margin between them and those 

 who just i^ick the beam is practic- 

 ally unnoticeable, certainly unuo- 

 ticeable lor all ordinary purpose's. 

 As underweight is penalized as un- 

 desirable, overweight, at all events 

 to a moderate extent, is desirable 

 and, should be encouraged, at least 

 one would think so. A safe 25 

 oz. is certainly better, of size of 

 egg is inherited, than a more or 

 less dubious 24 oz. It would seem 

 to be possible to devise some slid- 

 ing scale by which .weight of egg 

 over the standard, should receive 

 some recognition when the num- 

 bers go up. There is one point 

 often overlooked, and that is, that 

 if a quarter of an ounce short 

 weight to the dozen eggs is bad, 

 a death in the pens is worse, yet 

 as far as we know, there is no rea- 

 son why a competitor should not 

 win a competition with six quite 

 different birds to those he put in. 

 If we remember correctly, the pre- 

 sent S.A. record is shared and held 

 by seven or eight birds and not by 

 six. It would seem that to lay 

 200 eggs and live is better than 

 to try to lay 250 and die on the 

 job. If the owner of the 23^ ounce 

 egg gets a walking ticket, what 

 about the dead bird trouble ? 



Meals, whether two or three in 

 number, should be given with the 

 utmost regularity. 



