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Chapter XIII. 
GUIDE FOR MATING AND BREEDING EXHIBITION POULTRY. 
The selection and mating of high-class Toultry to produce Show winners or stock of great excellence require 
a vast amount of knowledge and skill, and the more complete manner in which this is carried out rules the 
result of the season's chickens. The ultimate profit or loss in the season's breeding often hinges on the day 
of selecting and mating the adult stock. Experience has proved unquestionably that unknown birds (of 
doubtful and unknown pedigree) are of little or no value for the breeding-pen, because they cannot be 
depended upon to transmit their good points to their progeny. At times it is occasionally noticed a fine bird 
or two may be produced from birds whose origin is obscure, but at the same time it is folly to expect satisfac- 
tory results generally from birds picked up haphazard and mated with one another. 
In breeding Exhibition Poultry, there is scarcely another single subject upon which opinions differ to 
such a remarkable extent. Many breeders have succeeded in producing birds of great excellence by pursuing 
widely different methods, but the rule will hold good that in-breeding must be resorted to in a more or less 
degree if ituifuniiitx in tJic pn,<^cnv is desired. This is caused by the system of artificial selection^ i.e., the 
arbitrary fixing by man of certain points and characteristics which he desires to perpetuate, being diametrically 
opposed to the system of natural selection which all of the feathered tribes in a state of nature follow. Birds, 
and animals in their natural state, select their mates partly on account of their superior strength, etc., 
and partly on account of possessing certain beauties to the eye. In addition to this the survival of the fittest 
is carried out in its entirety ; the weak or deformed of each brood die, and those in which the plumage is less 
adapted for concealment from their natural enemies fall a prey to the latter. By this natural course the 
vigor of the race is kept up to a high standard, and the particular type and plumage are perpetuated for all 
time ; but, by the system of artificial selection being entirely different, the points sought to be gained are 
more or less difficult to retain, continually reverting back to some remote ancestor, and this must be 
counteracted by in-breeding. This latter consists in mating birds to one another which possess in some 
degree the same blood. No matter how distantly apart, it is still in-b'recding if the stock birds are descended 
from one common ancestor. All successful breeders of Show birds know well what reversion will do with 
their stock if crossed, and this is kept well in mind when it is necessary for them to procure fresh blood to 
increase the vigor of their stock. As an instance of our meaning, the original Brahmas were of a mixed 
grey colour, and the two colours now known as Lights and Darks are descended from the one source. The 
extreme points and characteristic markings in each have been perpetuated by artificial selection. The 
accurate markings of the Dark hens has been studied and fixed entirely by selection and preference; 
and if a Dark hen, herself being accurately pencilled, is mated with a cock of the same variety excelling 
in every point, but totally unrelated to the hen, the pencilling on the pullets so bred would be 
almost lost, the chickens in nearly every instance turning out a mixed grey colour, like the original Brahma. 
A very small proportion of the pullets may exhibit fair pencilling, but for Show purposes would not be of 
great value. This statement may be denied by some breeders as being incorrect, but if the pedigree of the 
birds is turned up it will be found that if any success has attended the crossing that the birds bred together 
were related in some degree. The Fancy Points of a breed run great risk of being entirely lost if fresh blood 
(by this we mean totally unrelated stock) is introduced, the Fancy Points being the result of artificial 
selection, though there are some points considered as Fancy Points which have been in existence and 
perpetuated for centuries ; these are not so liable to be lost if fresh blood is introduced. Many beginners, 
