232- 



THE GAEDEN AND FIELD. 



October, 1913 



<f Potiltry Notes # 



Frauds About ? 



The inllueuce of the male bird on 

 the laying of the pullets got by 

 him is a well recognised fact in 

 more advanced poultry breeding. 

 This recognition is far from gene- 

 ral, still in successful work it may 

 be taken as the rule. It is not 

 often that one reads of so marked 

 an adverse instance as that re- 

 corded by Mr. A. E. Terry, in con- 

 nection with one of the Tasm-anian 

 competitions, as follows : — 



" In the second competition a 

 pen headed the list with 1,318 eggs 

 — a very creditable performance. 

 During that j^ear the exhibitor 

 referred to very much admired a 

 certain strain of birds, which cer- 

 tainly caught the eye so far as 

 appearances went. The male bird 

 was purchased and mated to some 

 of his best-laying hens. I under- 

 stand that the pen entered in the 

 third competition was the progeny 

 of this mating. The six birds 

 onlv produced 900 eggs during the 

 12 months; 418 less than won the 

 previous year. Subsequentlv I be- 

 came aware that the cockerel came 

 from a strain of birds which in the 

 competition onlv averaged 100 eggs 

 per bird." 



In such cases as the above we 

 are on plain ground. The bird 

 makes no pretence to be other 

 than he is. As far as we know 

 his history he is a plain and un. 

 concealed rotter, but he isn't a 

 fraud. 



— The Fraud. — 



A fraud is something which j^re- 

 tends he, she, or it is something 

 he is not, and it is just this which 

 makes him dangerous. Do such 

 things exist in our poi'iltry pens ? 

 It seems more than possible. Put 



A Blue Andalusian male with a 

 Blue Andalusian hen and you get 

 blue, white and splashed chicks. 

 Why ? There are fraiids aljout, 

 though it m'ust be admitted that 

 the apparently genuine article is 

 the real fraud in this case. Put 

 a certain type of Rose comb to 

 anothe'r Rose comb and vou giet 

 rose and single combs. Why ? 

 There are frauds about. The Rose 

 is rose in appearance not in breed- 

 ing. IMate a certain type of white 

 lyeghorn together and you get 

 Browns, Whites, and splashes. 

 Why ? There are frauds about. 

 The parent whites were bred from 

 brown and white but did not show 

 it. They were not what they 

 seemed. ^ Mate a rose comb with 

 a pea comb and you get which ? 

 Each, you say ; wrong, you get 

 neither, but walnut. I\Iate these 

 two walnuts together and vou get 

 what ? All walnuts, vou say ; 

 wrong again. Things are evi- 

 dently not what they seem for you 

 get single, rose, pea, and walnut. 

 Why ? Rose is dominant to no 

 ro.se, Pea is dominant to no pea, 

 Walni'vt is the form taken by the 

 comb containing both of the dom- 

 inant characters, and single ap- 

 jjears when the dominant of 

 neither is present. Mark that sen- 

 tence please. It has, we believe, 

 a message to all thoughtful poid- 

 trv keepers. 



— A Problem. — 



You mate a 250 laying hen with 

 a 250 descended cock and you get 

 what ? and why ■? As to the 

 what, competitors in seven States 

 answer with one acco'rd, anything 

 from loo eggs to 250 eggs, and 

 they . wish they didn't. They do 

 it in public, there is no appeal 

 from the published figures. Truelv 

 there are some frauds about^ birds 



which are not what they seem. 

 As to the why. Competitors have 

 no answer beyond bad luck. Science 

 has no time for bad luck, it is a 

 word unknown in its vocabulary 

 and in the few examples of many 

 which we have quoted above, is ' 

 giving us a hint. What is the 

 weak spot of our poultry breeding 

 work, it is the hidden fraud, the 

 bird , which is not what she or hie 

 sefems. It isn't their fault, it 

 isn't that they won't use a quality 

 which iSTature or their parents 

 have given them, it is simply that 

 thev do not possess a quality 

 which Nature or their parents had 

 not the power to transmit to them 

 and man has not known enough to 

 read the signs, but he is learning. 



— A Possible Solution. — 



Is there not something very sug- 

 gestive in the walnut comb ; bear 

 in mind, this is not fancy bjat 

 amply demonstrated, scientificall}' 

 proved fact, recorded with a hviu^ 

 dred others in a -hundred books 

 which are the text books of mod- 

 ern biology and to a less extended 

 extent of breeding. Moreover, they 

 not only always act in this way 

 but do it in certain known and 

 definite ratio. Is there not some- 

 thing which can help us from un- 

 certainty to a measurable degree 

 of certainty. It seems worth mo(re 

 than a passing thought. If the 

 production of a certain form of 

 comb depends on certain inborn 

 gametic qualities, if the produc- 

 tion of a certain colour of feather 

 depends on certain quite different 

 inborn qualities and so on 

 through the list of proved facts, 

 is it not more than conoeivablj' 

 possible that the production of a 

 certain form or capacity of egg- 

 laying is dtie to equally defi- 

 nite inborn qualities and that they 

 can be eqaiallv sorted out and once 

 soJ"ted out be fixed for genera- 

 tions. You see the external differ- 

 ence of the comb, but are the dif- 



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Y 

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