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Chapter XII. 
FORMING A RELIABLE STRAIN. 
This Chapter will only be of interest to the Fanciers in embryo of Show or high-class specimens of Poultry. 
There is no information contained on Utility matters, as the system adopted in breeding the former, applied 
to the latter would court disaster. Granting that the beginner has definitely made up his mind as to 
which breed he intends to keep, and the colour of the variety, that he has studied the breed for some time, 
and gained some practical knowledge of the management of Poultry, and also banished from his mind the 
thought that he can purchase Champion or Cup winners for a few shillings, the easiest course to pursue is to 
approach a breeder of the variety, and purchase a breeding pen of birds from the one yard if quick results are 
desired ; but if it is not wished that high results should come so sudden, and the beginner would like to have 
the honour of forming a strain of his own, which would in time, with due exercise of careful selection, produce 
birds that would take high honours in the Show pen, the best course then is to purchase a Cockerel of some 
well-known strain, and a couple of hens from another breeder. This latter plan is the best to follow, as the 
birds are not as likely to be in-bred, and this would give the breeder a better start in carrying out his object. 
The third plan is to purchase a sitting of eggs ; but this can scarcely be recommended, as breeders in very 
rare instances sell eggs from their best birds, and if the beginner has a little patience, the second system will 
be found the best to adopt, as in this case the birds would, no doubt, be totally unrelated to one another. 
Great care must be exercised in noting that the birds are not suffering from any disease, or that they have no 
really glaring faults, such as crooked breasts, wry tails, duck feet, etc. ; minor faults in plumage ivill not be 
of such importance, the hints we intend giving will " breed those out," if the mating of the stock each 
year is weighed welt towards banishing the defects. 
Let us suppose that the breeder possesses a cock and hen to start with, and that they are totally 
unrelated to each other, and have no glaring faults such as we have described, though, perhaps, are only 
moderate specimens of the breed— the cock being purchased from Jones, and the hen from Brown, these 
being mated together, and all the eggs laid during the season being set. On the chickens arriving at maturity, 
possibly, it will be found that not a single bird produced is any improvement on either parent, but, probably 
inferior. This must not discourage the breeder, being but the natural laws of reversion at work, and, to 
combat the difficulty, the system we intend giving, will be found the best to' adopt. The best Cockerel must 
be chosen, and mated with the Brown Hen. From this cross a Cockerel must again be chosen, and mated 
again with the Brown Hen. 
The Jones Cock should be mated with the best Pullets from the first year's breeding, again being mated 
with the best Pullets from this cross the following year. 
The stock bred the first year will be composed of one-half the blood of Jones and one-half the blood of 
Brown, and a Cockerel of this cross being mated with the Brown Hen, the progeny would be one-quarter 
Jones and three-quarters Brown, and repeating again the following year with a Cockerel thus bred, will give 
progeny composed of one-eighth Jones and seven-eighths Brown blood. 
By carrying out a similar system on the Cock side, we have progeny the first year that are one-half 
Jones and one-half Brown. The following year the stock would be three-quarters Jones and one-quarter 
Brown blood ; and again repeating the following year, will give progeny composed of seven-eighths Jones and 
one-eighth Brown blood. 
This will provide the breeder with a number of birds, which are seven-eighths Jones blood and one- 
eighth Brown, and a number which are seven-eighths Brown and one-eighth Jones blood, and also some 
