August, I9il.] 



139 



Live Stock, 



over, in a happy-so-lucky way, the errors 

 of the past due to a lack of proper con- 

 ception of the importance of thorough 

 selection. Never breed from the un- 

 sound or unfit and your work will 

 progress, but if one parent be unsound 

 no amount of fresh blood will give any 

 definite improvement. Such a course 

 may enable you to continue a faulty 

 system not worthy of the name of 

 " breeding." 



Second Year. — Select from the progeny 

 resulting from the first mating as 

 follows, with due regard to type, con- 

 stitution, activity, and main outward 

 points generally characteristic of layers. 

 Toepunch all chickens when hatched. 

 Place numbered legbands on each adult 

 retained. Enter number and detail in 

 a book kept specially as a record of the 

 breeding from year to year. Put each 

 pullet in a single testing pen, and take 

 her record for 12 months. Put the 

 cockerels in spare yerds or pens, as far 

 removed from the hens and pullets as 

 possible. These cockerels will be wanted 

 for breeding from in the second year. 

 They may run with other hens not 

 used in this scheme. 



Third Year.— Select for the breeding 

 pens all the pullets which gave a satis- 

 factory yield in the siugle pens. 1. 

 Mate some of these back to the old male 

 bird- 2. Mate the rest with selected 

 males of the same year and breeding. 

 3. Mate one selected cockerel to one- 

 half of the original hens. 4. Mate one 

 selected cockerel to the other half 

 of the original hens. You will now 

 have four groups, three of which are 

 continuing the strain by line breeding, 

 and the other group, No. 2 (one or more 

 pens), will continue the strain accord- 

 ing to Mendel's law. 



The Fourth Year.— Continue the line- 

 breeding groups as far as desired, but 

 the Mendel groups (inbred) should have 

 given you at least one line of fowls pure 

 for high egg production. If all your 

 methods have been accurate, this strain 

 will prove of the highest value. It is 

 hardly necesary to point out that it is 

 infinitely preferable to single pen each 

 hen in the breeding season and to let the 

 male bird selected be with each hen for 

 a given period. Fertility may be de- 

 pended upon, and, in addition, you may 

 discover cases of sexual antipathy from 

 which no good results can be expected, 

 and re-mating must be resorted to. The 

 utmost precision and accumulation of 

 detail will give you certain results at 

 an early date. Your work once done 

 will be valuable and lastiug. If other- 

 wise, you will always be at work with 

 indefinite and even negative results. 



The Single Pen. 



Some people who have had no practical 

 experience of the system of single pen 

 testing have expressed the opinion that 

 the health of the birds must suffer, and 

 that their subsequent value as breeders 

 must be lessened, if not destroyed. 

 Accumulated experience teaches the 

 opposite, but of course much depends 

 on the construction of the house and 

 yard, forming the pen, and also the 

 method of feeding adopted. In South 

 Australia the mild climate admits of 

 very simple but none the less effect- 

 ive structures. The severe climates 

 of some other countries necessitate 

 modifications in construction. In all 

 mild to warm climates the mate- 

 rials used and the method of construc- 

 tion should offer as little harbour for 

 vermin as possible. For Australia and 

 similar climatic conditions the frame- 

 work of the houses should be of hard- 

 wood free from all cracks, and should 

 be moderately smooth. The covering 

 material may be of corrugated galvan- 

 ized tinned iron (narrow fluted), or 

 compressed asbestos ( fibro-cement ) 

 sheets. Weather-boarding, and similar 

 material, offer harbour for vermin, 

 and are liable to crack, twist, and warp. 

 The single pens may be fixed or movable. 

 The dimensions of the pens need be not 

 more than 3 ft. by 20 ft. and the roosting 

 and laying house 3 ft. square. To have 

 the yards less than 3 ft. in width is incon- 

 venient for the average person ; any 

 additional width adds to the expense 

 of construction. Portable pens allow 

 the ground to be changed daily, and 

 where grass, clover, etc., are abundant, 

 this method is much appreciated by the 

 birds. Fixed pens are more convenient 

 where large numbers of birds are being 

 simultaneously tested. In all cases the 

 pen, portable or fixed, should be num- 

 bered, and the hen therein should also 

 have a legband with a corresponding 

 number. 



The continuous shed is most suited to 

 this climate, and a permanent structure 

 should be of the following dimensions 

 for testing 20 pullets :— Length, 60 ft.; 

 height in front, 4 ft.; height at back, 3 ft. 

 Set out two lines of posts each 3 in, by 

 2 in. and 3 ft. apart inside, posts in each 

 line to be spaced 3 ft. apart from centre 

 to centre ; set them about 18 iu. in the 

 ground and in perfect line and level at 

 top. Now securely spike a soft wood 

 rail 2 in. by 2 in. and housed flush into 

 the posts and level with the top of back 

 row of posts. A rail of same dimensions 

 is similarly affixed to and 2 ft. from the 

 tops of the front row of posts, which 

 should be b ft. above ground, The 



