565 



# Poultry 



THK RUI^ AND THE NICK. 



In the South Australian 1913 

 Toultry Report we lind the ques- 

 tion ol heredity discussed as fol- 

 lows : — " As regards heredity in 

 eg-g- production, experience adds 

 further proof to iny original con- 

 tention urged many years ago. 

 Bevond all doubt, the capacity for 

 high egg production can be fixed 

 and is hereditary. That is to say, 

 the character can be transmitted. 

 Some writers believed that the 

 character for laying depended upon 

 the *eg;g iiroduction of the mothers. 

 1 laid special stress upon the im- 

 portance of the sire and eventual- 

 ly published my rule that in egg 

 jiroduction, both fecundity and size 

 of eggs are inherited as follows : — 

 That the sire transmits these char- 

 acters thouj^h his daughters, and 

 the dam transmits her characters 

 through her sons." Stripped of 

 its usual hum-ourously egotistical 

 trimmings, " Hardshell," in a re- 

 cent " Evening Journal," quotes 

 the above and preaches from the 

 same text, or perhaps it is only a 

 case of great minds thinking alike. 

 What our hardcased friend thinks 

 and his reasons are always so in- 

 teresting that we reprint the para- 

 graph in full. To those who have 

 not previously read it, the sermon 

 will be helpful, and its re-reading 

 will do no harm to those who 

 have : — 



— On Breeding. — 



" That the capacity for high egg 

 I^roduction can becouie fixed, and 

 made hereditary, has been proved 

 by breeders throughout the Aus- 

 tralian vStates and New Zealand. 



All the breeders who have be- 

 come noted for big jecords in lay- 

 ing competitions owe their . position 

 to the isLCt that the bottom of 

 their success has usually been one 

 very fine layer, that was discover- 

 ed bv means of single testing, and, 

 when found, was bred from. 



In some instances the record 

 layers have been pen bred (that is, 

 they have come from a yard where 

 there were several hens with the 

 male bird) ; but, if you dig down 

 a bit you will find that all of them 

 were descended from a hen that 

 Dut up big figures in a single pen. 

 The big laying comes and goes, 

 but it has been proved that the 

 most suiccessful men consistently 

 breed from their best performers, 

 which proves that the big laying 

 habit may be fixed and become 

 hereditary ; or, in other words, 

 may be transmitted." 



— The Rig-bt Way of it. — 



" Now, how is it done ; how does 

 it work out ? Well, you can't go 

 wrong in proceeding on the lines 

 that the sire transmits the laying 

 chart^cter through his slaughters, 

 and the mother ]) asses it on 

 through her sons. iCvery experi- 

 enced breeder knows that this is a 

 fact. 



This being so, it will be recog- 

 nised as most important that the 

 greatest care should be exercised 

 when mating birds. The sire should 

 come from a strain that has been 

 noted for several generations for 

 high egg production, and the hens 

 should come from a strain where 

 similar conditions have existed, 

 and if there is some amount of 

 blood relationship so much the 

 better. As a matter of fact, if you 

 produce big layers from an out- 

 icross — that is, from unrelated birds 

 —it w"ill be a fluke, because you 

 should not get them this way. In 

 breeding operations it is pedigree 

 that tells, and if you produce pul- 

 lets from parents that are related 

 — and where the laying ability has 

 been pronounced on both sides for 

 several g-enerations — you are fairly 

 certain to maintain the egg-ilaying 

 habit in the- bulk of the progeny, 

 for the reason that this fixed char- 

 acter is the same on both sides 

 and the " nick " is in the mating 

 — in other words, the breeding is 

 in line." 



— Words of Wisdom. — 



When two such, authorities — one 

 the official head of the State poul- 

 try industry, the other a practi- 

 cally successful breeder and the 

 most progressive and w'idely-read 

 journalist on the subject of utility 

 poultry in the Commonwealth — 

 make so definite a statement, one 

 which is so entirely admirable in 

 its basic simplicity ; the ordinary 

 individual is apt to take such 

 words of wisdom for granted, or 

 — -look around for evidence. Un- 

 doubtedly they are words of wis- 

 dom — or the beginning of it. In 

 passing and as the resurrection of 

 long buried and forgotten rules 

 sieems to be in fashion, perhaps we 

 may be permitted to quote our 

 own recipe for breeding competi- 

 tion winners written at the time 

 of the Masrill competition. " Se- 

 lect your best hen by observation 

 or the trap nest, mate her with a 

 son of your next best layer, kill 

 any weakly chicks, feed the sur- 

 \T:vors as much as they will eat. 



put your trust in luck for you 

 will have done your share." There 

 is, we know, notliing jjarticularly 

 brillitvnt about that, l)ut we do 

 iu)t seem to ha\e got much more 

 forward in the years that have 

 passed, as far as fundamental ])rin- 

 t iples are concerned. ICssentially it 

 comprises, to ((note the chastened 

 nurtlesty of the report, " The me- 

 thods of breeding and feeding re- 

 commended by me, adopted by 

 thousands of Australian breeders 

 in this and other States," ])ossibly 

 a certain amount of common sense 

 inherent in the i)oultry breeding 

 cominunity has had a great deal 

 more to do witli its adoption than 

 any recommendation. 



— More Interesting. — 



To return to more interesting 

 matters. How delightfully simple 

 The Rule sounds. Boil it down 

 and you get a "high" laying hen 

 (she is unboiled bv the way) and 

 a male bred from a similar hen. 

 Mate them together, and you get 

 " high " laying pullets. Simple even 

 to baldness. The only objection 

 that we can see, is that during 

 the last ten years, there have been 

 in the competition pens of Aus- 

 tralia, some thousands of living ex- 

 amples of the fact that you do not 

 invariably, or even usually, get 

 those " high " laving pullets. Now 

 what can be said of a rule which 

 requires some thousands of excep- 

 tions to prove it. One is general- 

 ly considered sufficient. 



— An Amendment. — 



It appears to us that it misses 

 half the question — ^the Important 

 half. Now let us first assume 

 that " high " laying is a separate 

 additional character, which may be 

 added to " good " laying and 

 amend the rule to read " The sire 

 may transmit the character of 

 " hi eh " laying to and through 

 some, all or none of his daughters, 

 the dam cannot transmit the char- 

 acter of " high " laying to and 

 through her sons or daughters but 

 she can transmit the character of 

 " eood " laying to both. Does not 

 this amendment, which it mAist be 

 admitted knocks spots off The 

 Rule, which, as " Hardshell " re- 

 marks is " known to be a fact," 

 seem to explain the general situa- 

 tion in poultry breeding and many 

 a]iparentlv otherwise inexplicable 

 results in competition work. Even 

 if it unfortunately, does not get us 

 right on to what is after all the 

 important point — its practical ap- 

 plication, it does seem to get us 

 a lone way ahead of the rule and 

 giye the mysterious "Nick" points 

 and a beating. No one reading 

 Bulletin No. 205 of the Maine Ex- 



