GO JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. t January 20 , issi 
good in points, but what is known as loosely bred, will be worthless 
for the purpose of stamping their likeness upon their offspring. 
We may illustrate our meaning by a reference to the Brahma 
fowl. The original Brahmas were of a mixed grey colour, and 
the Lights and Darks of the present day are said to be descended 
from a common ancestry. The points in each variety have been 
developed by artificial selection. The exquisite pencilling of the 
hens is a salient feature of the Dark variety, which perhaps more 
than any other feature has been produced by artificial selection. 
If the best pencilled hen that can be procured be mated with a 
bird of the highest quality, but perfectly unrelated to herself, it 
will be found that the pencilling is at once lost, and that nearly 
if not all the pullets are of a mixed grey colour quite wanting in 
pencilling. It may be that a few of them, in consequence of the 
prepotency of the hen, show a certain amount of pencilling, but 
for practical purposes the pencilling as a family characteristic is 
lost. We may be met in reference to this statement by instances 
drawn from the experience of breeders in which apparently per¬ 
fectly unrelated birds have produced well-pencilled progeny. As 
to this, we can only say that in these instances the parent birds 
were probably distantly related to each other. Most strains of 
Brahmas through the country are more or less descended from a 
common stock in the first instance, and have also at one time or 
another been crossed one with the other. In this way it is difficult 
to be certain that the parent birds are unrelated in reality to each 
other; and successful results attained with apparently unrelated 
birds are probably to be accounted for by the fact that a distant 
connection unknown to the breeder actually existed between the 
birds, or it may be that the good results are to be accounted for 
by the prepotency of one or both parents. 
In many varieties of poultry and Pigeons certain points which 
are deemed fancy points have been in existence and perpetuated 
for many years, in some cases centuries, and these points are not 
so liable to be lost by the introduction of fresh blood ; but as a 
general rule fancy points, which are the result of artificial selec¬ 
tion during a comparatively recent period, are liable to be entirely 
lost in the way we have indicated. 
(To be continued.) 
MATING POULTRY FOR BREEDING. 
Those who require very early chickens have long ere this 
mated-up their breeding pens. The majority of poultry fanciers 
are content with somewhat later broods, hatched when the days 
are less short, and when some spring sun may be expected, and 
which are consequently less difficult and troublesome to rear. 
Many such breeders are but now making up their yards. We 
have had great success at the autumn shows with April-hatched 
birds, and with even still later chickens, and can therefore assure 
our readers that it is by no means too late to think about mating 
up desirable breeding pens ; a few general rules for the guidance 
of novices in the pursuit may therefore not now be out of place. 
It is very commonly believed that if a first-prize cock and two 
or three prize hens are bought at a show and put together first- 
rate produce must necessarily follow. We should hardly think 
it necessary to warn our readers against this fallacy were it not 
that year after year we see cases of failure and disappointment 
resulting from these haphazard unions. To begin with, there are 
some varieties the cocks and hens of which, if the somewhat 
arbitrary standards of perfection are at all to be attained, must 
be bred from entirely separate pens; about these we have fre¬ 
quently written, and will not now again detain our readers on 
the point ; but apart from these breeds a certain amount of 
science and judgment is necessary in the mating of all poultry to 
ensure success, though occasionally by a lucky chance some acci¬ 
dental alliance may produce a cup bird. Money will not always 
command a well-matched pen, and often a skilful breeder will 
at very small cost make up a yard from which he can very con¬ 
fidently anticipate superior chickens, while an expenditure of £50 
in an ill-assorted collection of cup birds will result in failure. 
The first point to be discovered is that the males and females 
are of a similar if not of the same strain ; first crosses of two 
dissimilar strains of the same breed are wont to bring out the 
faults of both. All races bred up to great excellence in any one 
point have been much interbred ; the uninitiated do not know 
this, and are led away by fear of degeneracy to make continual 
“crosses” as they call them. It is the commonest thing for a 
beginner to think he is adopting the most approved and scientific 
course, and taking the royal road to poultry fame, if he discovers 
the two most successful exhibitors of his favourite breed and buys 
a cock from one and two hens from another. The result may be 
good, but the chances are against it being so ; for probably the 
two great breeders each have their own favourite type for which 
they have long selected their stock, and these two special beauties 
are both spoilt by union. 
This is the first point to be considered, but then follow others. 
We by no means lay claim to originality when we remind our 
readers of a long-established conclusion among breeders of various 
stock—viz., that for the most part the male parent chiefly influ¬ 
ences the external appearance of the offspring, the female its 
internal qualities. We have observed this constantly in orrr own 
poultry yards. From generation to generation certain beauties 
or peculiarities of form have been handed down through cocks, 
while, on the other hand, the daughters of well-known early layers 
have proved themselves early layers ; and likewise as to the size 
and number of eggs laid, like has produced like. This is a point 
of great interest to those who aim at producing peculiarly useful 
as apart from peculiarly beautiful races, and one which we have 
before now commended to the would-be poultry farmer. To this 
rule as to the cock’s influence on the external points of the chickens 
there is one partial exception—we have found the hen to have 
the greatest power in transmitting size to the chickens. Thus, 
while from small but perfect cocks we have often bred magnificent 
fowls, we never remember having strikingly large birds from 
small hens. 
The age of the parent birds is not so material as their health, 
but as a rule the strongest and finest chickens come from hens in 
their second year mated with early cockerels of the previous 
season. In our opinion hens of twenty months old lay as well and 
as early in winter as pullets, and much finer eggs. Later in the 
season—viz., after the middle of March, pullets of a year old with 
strong two-year-old cocks produce large and excellent chickens ; 
earlier than that, cocks of many breeds are not to be trusted unless 
the season and climate are exceptionally mild. 
Another question is frequently put to us—viz., as to the respec¬ 
tive influences of the cock and hen upon each sex of the pro¬ 
duce. In this we have observed a difference between the case of 
the union of two birds of the same breed and that of the union 
of birds of two different breeds. In the former case as a rule each 
sex will in appearance generally follow the parent of its own sex. 
We say generally, for in some breeds there are exceptions which 
only great and careful observation discovers; indeed we have 
always considered it to be the height of poultry lore to know the 
particular points in the one sex which correspond with and pro¬ 
duce particular points in the other, but, speaking generally, we 
believe the cockerels will follow their fathers and the pullets their 
mothers. For this reason we fancy that the many elaborate 
schemes for the breeding the sexes of certain varieties separately 
are as superfluous as they are troublesome, and that a little care 
and intelligence would produce both sexes in beauty from the 
same stock if only a compromise were made in one or two points 
difficult of attainment together. On the other hand, where crosses 
of two perfectly distinct breeds are tried, each sex for the most 
part takes after its parent of the opposite sex. We have specially 
been struck, too, with this fact in Pigeon-breeding, where it is 
common to mate two birds of different colours. 
These are some general conclusions roughly drawn from our 
own experience ; such may, perhaps, aid novices in avoiding the 
mistakes we have ourselves made. To recapitulate them they are 
briefly— 
1, Breed from the same strain as far as possible, or at least from 
two strains which are known to go well together. 
2, Look for perfection of points in the cock ; for size and useful 
qualities in the hen. 
3, For early chickens mate up vigorous early cockerels of last 
year with hens in their second year. 
4, If cocks and hens are both of the same breed and the same 
strain, the colours and markings of each parent will be repro¬ 
duced in the offspring of the same sex ; but in crosses of absolutely 
different breeds the feather peculiarities of each parent will to 
a great extent re-appear in the chickens of the opposite sex.— C. 
POULTRY NOTES. 
The Poultry Club.— The election of officers and Committee 
of the Poultry Club is taking place this week. It has been delayed 
some days in consequence of nominations being sent in somewhat 
late. The members of the Committee who retire this time are 
the Hon. and Eev. F. G. Dutton, President; Mr. H. R. Dugmore, 
Treasurer ; Mr. 0. E. Cresswell, Hon. Sec.; Mr. R. E. Horsfall, 
Rev. J. D. Peake, Mr. E. Pritchard, and Rev. W. Serjeantson ; all 
are eligible for re-election to their present or any other office on the 
Committee, but the Hon. Secretary begs not to be re-elected. The 
number of the Committee is to be increased from thirteen to twenty. 
The following are nominated to fill the vacant places :—For the 
Secretaryship, Mr. A. Comyns; and for the Committee without 
