328 



THK GARDEN AND FIELD. 



Deoember, 1913 



mitting the obWous differences be- 

 tween a hen and a bean„ we arrive 

 at this position. We may assume 

 that any hundred hens will lay 

 from say, loo to 200, the average 

 will be 150. Birds bred from either 

 will show similar variation, but the 

 average will remain constant to 

 that of the previous generation, 

 \-iz., 150. It is a 150 strain and 

 will stop a 150 strain. For the 

 present we can leave it at that, 

 but we have not finished with those 

 beans. 



— The Second Brick. — 



Next we looked at competitions 

 in this and other States. We can 

 leave out the first one or two and 

 so eliminate the aged birds, the 

 birds bred for show only and birds 

 whose laying capacity was notori- 

 ously low. What do we find, a 

 slowly and very g'radually rising 

 or failing curve. Vet it is just in 

 these later years that individual 

 selection has had its chance. A.11 

 we can say that if the indivi- 

 dual high scoring hen has anj' in- 

 fluence on egg production, she has 

 signally failed to .show it in public 

 in a broad and general way, but 

 it would certainly be unwise to 

 accept such conclusions as final. 



— Other Evidence. — 



Is there any othtr pubHc evidence 

 of the failure of the " best hen " 

 to reproduce her kind ? Yes there 

 is in the first ten years of the 

 Maine Experiment. It may be 

 asked, Why 1 if the Maine test 

 was so conclusive, was not it's 

 teaching accepted as final. The 

 answer appears to us to be simple. 

 It took away the poultryman's 

 best asset, but it did not give him 

 anything in place of it. Naturally 

 the poultry world in America said 

 " Oh, well, if that is so, we will 

 go . on worrying with the old girl. 

 If we keep on long enough we 

 shall surely somewhere." It 

 was just the best thing to do. 

 In Australia few knew about it 

 and fewer cared, and it must not 

 be forgotten that the " best 

 henites " always had something to 

 Show irom their point of view. 

 Take the White Leghorn, for ex- 

 ample. The reason for their 

 improvement is patent, and "Sun- 

 nyhurst," " Ontario," Messrs. I'ad- 

 man, Kinnear, and Bertelsmeier, 

 undoubtedly had relatively pure 

 high average strains. How far 

 they were intermixed or how they 

 originated is not for us to enquire, 

 nor is it pertinent to the point. 

 They got great results — (Vood. 

 Why ? Was it selected b&st hen 

 or the. unselected strain tliat did 

 the trick. There is no evidence as 



far as we can see in favour of the 

 former. Certainly not as much 

 as that their 1)irds were constant 

 to their own average. Sometimes 

 one or other would pick six birds 

 at the high end of his strain 

 and win a competition. It is not 

 too much to say that 90 per cent, 

 of the White Leghorn breeders of 

 the State very wiselv bought from 

 one or other or all, and the re- 

 maining lo per cent, wished they 

 could afford it. Some of these 

 buyers interbred these strains or 

 bred with an unknown strain of 

 equal value, and having the luck to 

 pick their high end birds for the 

 competition, went right to the top 

 of the tree. The breed as a breed 

 has been kept down by the portion 

 of low strain birds which has re- 

 mained in the breed and the "best 

 hen " idea is responsible for their 

 continued existence. 



— Relatively Pure. — 



It is perhaps natural, if not pol- 

 ite, to ask why, if those breeders 

 had such strains, are they not at 

 the top to-day ? In the main the 

 answer is, we believe, that the 

 strains at their best were never 

 more than relatively pure (w© 

 mean, of course, in ^regard to egg 

 laying) consequently there was 

 about a loo to one chance against 

 keeping to a high average. When ]\lr. 

 Brooks was breeding 1,400 pens as 

 easy as shelling peas, he was on 

 a temporarily pure high average 

 wicket. Mr. Padm.an has been in 

 the habit of scattering 1,500 pens 

 throughout the competitions and 

 breeding yards of Australia, and 

 adjacent continents. It inay be 

 the " best hen." To us, however, 

 it looks like the high average 

 strain. There is a suggestive 

 break in Mr. Padman's past re- 

 cords. Did the "best hen" go for 

 a holiday or did a new strain 

 clash, or did the "thi'rd generation" 

 come along? This year, for instance, 

 he has apparently missed his line. 

 It may be that or it may be that 

 ill luck, which works more often 

 against than for a breeder, is at 

 odds with him this year. We have 

 heard it said that the Padman 

 1)irds have lost their vigour, to 

 which we reply respectfully but em- 

 phatically — Rats. It is of course 

 nobody's business, but if the home 

 pens are keeping " con.stant to the 

 average " of thz strains he has 

 been working with, the future 

 won't be troubling him much. 

 Theory, of course, says that the 

 home i)ens ought to be doing 

 extra well to balance some of the 

 low enders at some of the coinjjeti- 

 tions, but the low endedness is 

 I)robably due to matters which are 



quite beyond balancing the aver- 

 age, such as moulting, or a "fault" 

 in the strain. One can ha\^ six 

 feet of steel bar, aU the same ma- 

 terial, the same making and the 

 same finishing. Five w.ll b© per- 

 fect and one will " fault." It may 

 be an air bubble or a graiu of 

 sand. Once in a hundred or a 

 thou.sand times the steel wi.l not 

 remain constant to its average. 

 Owners of 250-average 1 irds have 

 perhaps little to gain from 

 Johannsen's beans, PcaiU's roos- 

 ters, or Raynor's moths — we have 

 not mentioned them yet but they 

 ha\e their place. The^- m.ay ex- 

 plain the why but they cannot 

 add an egg to a bird which is al- 

 ready constant to the average of 

 the highest lines in existence. Theo- 

 retically, of course, such strains 

 must break down, and in practice 

 they undoubtedly are ' somewhat 

 given to that complaint. The most 

 that science can attempt to do is 

 to show why they break down 

 and how to avoid it. 



♦ 



Moths and What They 

 Lead To. 



Principally, perhaps they lead to 

 yoimg moths and it is from this 

 point of view that we wish to re- 

 gard them. We do not of course 

 forget their use as a means of 

 healthful recreation to a perambu- 

 lating entomologist, their vexations 

 to the thrifty housewife, or their 

 vocation as a source of revenue to 

 spray pump manufacturers. Their 

 principle mission is, however, to 

 become fathers and mothers of lit- 

 tlci moths. Strictly speaking, we 

 ha\ie not any great interest in the 

 matter, but as an example and il- 

 lustration of little chicken breed- 

 ing they have their good points at 

 least we have found it so. 



A month or two ago, in quoting 

 a paragraph in connection with in- 

 heritance in fowls, we came across 

 the word Abraxas Grossulariata. 

 We may confess that we had not 

 the slightest idea of what it 

 meant, whether it stood for a Rus- 

 .sian nihilist, an ancient Greecian 

 hero, or a new kind of fish, though 

 each seemed out of place in the 

 connection in which we found it. 

 The office boy was equalh' vague, 

 but thought he lived in West Ade- 

 laide. We did have a dim recollec- 

 tion of ha\ing met him before, 

 but whether in a dictionary, a 

 medical work, or a museum uas 

 quite beyond us. Evidently it 

 needed cJiquiry. When in doubt 



