THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



329 



ask a policomau was llic bunlcn 

 of an aiuieiit soii«;. We tooK. the 

 ad\"ice but (ountl that the jjuardi.ia 

 of the law was lor once at fault, 

 but expressed the opinion that a 

 bloke with that name ought to 

 get thrtv n'.onths for disturbing 

 the peace. When a ])ohcetnan fails 

 you naturally ask a bookseller, 

 and wx^ found a very obliging 

 individual in Rigby's, who , was 

 sorry " but they were just out of 

 stock but thev could get it." This 

 would have bcien a vexatious delay 

 as as a last resort w^e asked for 

 the last book on Mendelism. and 

 were given Punnctt's 1912 edition. 

 We opened it and about the first 

 thing we struck was Abraxas etc., 

 not only his name, but his picture 

 and pedigree. We jumped at that 

 lot at 6/. 



— What we Didn't Know. — 



When wp began writing on Dr. 

 Pearl'si' theory we knew probably a 

 little more or a little less than the 

 average man in the street. That 

 is to say we knew that he was 

 or had been a monk, that he ex- 

 perimented with peas, etc., that 

 he formidated a great theory, that 

 very many interesting experiments 

 had been carried out, but of the 

 actual details and working of the 

 theory, we knew little, and of its 

 scope we knew less. We, had read 

 a few popular magaziwe articles 

 and looked through a' book or two 

 and found the latter something Hike 

 a cross between Evelid's problems 

 and a chemical formula. Our six 

 shilling purchase and others quick- 

 ly added to it speedily assured iis 

 of the meagnaness of out knowledge 

 and gave us a very wholesome re- 

 spect for Mendel and his disciples. 

 It is not a I theory which can be 

 swallowed like a cup of cofiee, but 

 It is a much more lasting source 

 of interest. If we have interested 

 anyone in its theory and applica- 

 tion it is not a matter of regret, 

 even aside from its practical pos- 

 sibilities. Its relation 1 to poultry 

 is of course a very minor detail. 

 That it is " practical " to the sub- 

 ject in many aspects we have pur- 

 posely shown in previous articles 

 for it we could establish a connec- 

 tion between the theory and many 

 known instances of inheritance, it 

 would simplify the connection 'be- 

 tween it and Dr. Pearl's application 

 of it in the particular instance un- 

 der discuss on. 



Abraxus Grossulariata. 



The above, which is a moth, or 

 rather the moth may not be very 

 interesting in itself. It takes its 

 importance from, the fact that it 

 throws some light on sex infiuenoe. 



Wo need not go into the various 

 e.xperinionts which show that gi\ en 

 certain [larental conditions .certain 

 .sex distribution in the ollspriug 

 will follow. This is explained by 

 the fact, exiK-rimentally proved, 

 that in their original cells one sex 

 or the other may rei)el or attract 

 a given character. In this particu- 

 lar case the character of dark 

 color (which is dominant to light 

 color) and the character of le- 

 maleness are antagonistic. It is a 

 most interesting experiment, the 

 sex and colour distribution work- 

 ing out with mathematical preci- 

 sion. Its application to poultry 

 is that the Pearl experiment show 

 that similar repulsion exists in 

 fowls in regard to one of the unit 

 characters on which laying is 

 based. The hen takes the place 

 of the female moth and one of the 

 unit characters follows on the 

 same lines. The moth cannot 

 transmit dark colour because she 

 is a female and likewise the hen 

 cannot transmit one of the char- 

 acters for laying because she is a 

 hen. This, I of course, sounds very 

 theoretical, but Dr. Pearl's resvdts 

 show that it is very " practical." 



It is impossible to explain, at 

 least we find it so, 'in detad, a 

 theoTy founded on Mendelian . laws 

 without using Mendelian terms and 

 as a correspondent told us, that 

 treatment is worse than the dis- 

 ease, but perhaps it is possible to 

 get at the hang of things without 

 hurting anyone's feelings. First let 

 us repeat Dr. Pearl's theory. It is 



(1) That egg laying is based on 

 two Mendelian unit characters. 



(2) That by Mendelian law, birds 

 of either good, medium, or bad 

 laying capacity, can be bred with 

 certainty-j; ^ . ^ 



(3) That the male bird is the 

 principal influence and that a hen 

 however good a layer, cannot pro- 

 duce high laying pullets except 

 when mated with a male bird of 

 certain breeding. 



Each of the two characters has 

 its corresponding absence. 



The first of these unit characters 

 Dr. Pearl caUs Ivi and its absence 



11. Let us call them power and 

 no power. 



The second of the unit characters 

 Dr. Pearl calls Jj2 and its absence 



12. Let us call these Power and 

 No Power. 



Please note that one of the char- 

 acters is printed in capitals. 



It seems to us easier |to conceive 

 of a hen as having power or no 



I)ower for laying than to think of 

 her as having an alphabetical ar- 

 rangement in her inside. 



The two characters work dif- 

 ferently. 



The two characters are quite dis- 

 tinct. 



First we will take the i)()wer or 

 no power. 



The first character power is dom- 

 inant to no i)ower, and as in the 

 .Rose and Single comb the first 

 generation birds from parents 

 which between them possess power 

 and no power, , will all possess 

 power. Mated together they will 

 give 3 power chicks to i no power 

 chick just as they did in combs. 

 For the present we can leave leave 

 the question that only one of the 

 power chicks will be pure. In prac- 

 tice a high laying strain hen mated 

 to a cock from a high laying strain 

 hen, must have and be able to 

 transmit power to all their chicks. 



The second character. Power and 

 No Power, acts differently. Remem- 

 ber the Blue Andalusian, you get 

 Black, Blue and White chicks, irre- 

 spective of sex. Black has 2 doses 

 of Blue, Blue has one dose of blue 

 and White has none. You get the 

 same performance in the second 

 character for egg laying qualified 

 by sex but the results are the 

 same. 



Now for the influence of sex, it 

 arranges itself beautifully as the 



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