THE K U R..A. Lv NEW-YORKER 
1371 
Poultry Inbreeding on Utility Lines. 
REJUDICE AGAINST IT.—The opinion is pret¬ 
ty general that inbreeding is back of about all 
the ills which afflict poultry. This has given rise 
to that prejudice against strictly purebred stock 
so common among ordinary poultry raisers and 
farmers, and leads to the practice of outbreeding, 
crossbreeding, “swapping roosters”—anything to 
get “new blood,” and the newer and more hetero¬ 
geneous the better. Now, if this scare-head, in- 
breeding, were changed to ill -breeding it. would 
fit in nicely with the common conception of 
the word. Breeding from birds lacking in consti¬ 
tutional vigor, undersized, ill-shaped, ill-conditioned 
—this is ill-breeding. 
EFFECTS OF INBREEDING.—Inbreeding con¬ 
centrates and fixes the qualities of the parent stock. 
If the qualities are desirable inbreeding makes for 
an improved and dependable strain of fowls along 
those lines; if the qualities are undesirable inbreed¬ 
ing means going from bad to worse at an extra fast 
clip. Through an intelligent understanding and 
practice of the laws of inbreeding the expert fan¬ 
cier is able to reproduce in flesh and feathers the 
ideal fowl formed in his mind. Why should not the 
utility poultry breeder avail himself of this help, 
and by judicious inbreeding secure that uniformity 
of product so important in commercial poultry and 
egg farming? This is a matter well worth his at¬ 
tention, and as results are more convincing than 
reasons, perhaps the writer’s experience along this 
hatch of this mating, brought off January 27, 1912, 
the best cockerel and four of the best pullets were 
selected and mated the following December. The 
next year, from a pen of 16 pullets of this mating 
headed by their sire, the fertility of the eggs was 
high and the viability of the chicks strong. Feb¬ 
ruary, 1914, the same male bird, then two years old, 
was paired with the best hen from among his four 
original mates. The first eggs from this pair were 
engaged in advance, but later two hen hatches were 
brought off from which nine pullets were secured. 
Four of these pullets were hatched April 19 and five 
of them May 24. The April hatched began to lay 
in October, the others a month later. Their egg 
record to September 30, 1915 stands thus: October 
34 eggs; November 94; December 194; January 
133; February 131; March 20S; April 206; May 
216; June 194; July 169; August 132; September 91 
—a total of 1802 eggs, which gives an average of 
200 and two-ninths eggs per bird, with four of the 
nine laying 12 months and five laying 11 months. 
CARE GIVEN.—In keeping the daily record only 
marketable eggs were counted; in fact, there were 
few abnormal ones. After the first two or three 
months of laying the eggs averaged 24 ounces per 
dozen and most of those marketed went into the 
grade of “extras.” The last of August three of the 
birds dropped their feathers and quit laying, and 
one in September. Now, the first of October, these 
four are practically clothed except that their tail 
and wing feathers are not full length. Another one 
began dropping feathers in September but con- 
the eggs proved fertile and 12 chicks broke the shell. 
Two met disaster in the nest, but the remaining 10 
were raised. They came into the world at the be¬ 
ginning of a long rainy spell and were six weeks 
old when they got their first glimpse of sunshine. 
They were housed in an open shed, and the mother 
hen was left free to run in and out of the rain with 
them, which she did; at night a box with dry sand 
and straw was furnished to nest in but during the 
day they were always on damp ground even when 
under cover. According to all poultry laws and 
prophets they should have turned up their little 
toes—closely inbred from pullet mothers and out 
of the natural breeding season, hatched in mid¬ 
winter and exposed to weeks of chill and dampness 
—yet they “got across” without a dumpish day or 
even a case of snuffles, and a finer bunch of young¬ 
sters (five cockerels and five pullets) would be hard 
to put over. A snapshot of part of the number is 
here reproduced. The first egg was dropped June* 
27 when the pullets were five months old. Their 
eggs are unusually large for pullets, perfect in shell 
and uniform in shape and chalk whiteness. The 
cockerels are lusty fellows. We contemplate mat¬ 
ing one of them with the nine birds whose egg rec¬ 
ord is given—his mother and aunts. 
California. m. kussell james. 
Auto Trucks and Farming. 
Through Northern New Jersey extends one of the 
most interesting farming and trucking sections of the 
country. During the Summer great crowds of peo- 
line may be of interest to the utility poultry breeder. 
MIXING BREEDS.—Like poultry novices in gen¬ 
eral I began with several breeds and mixed them up 
for vigor. In time a measure of practical exper¬ 
ience and poultry knowledge was gained, and the 
hodge-podge was reduced to pure breeds, and event¬ 
ually to one pure breed, the S. C. White Leghorn. 
Still, it was long before I ventured to use any 
but an unrelated male bird in the breeding pen, 
though keeping the female line intact. The crop¬ 
ping out of variations in the progeny of a uniform 
lot of hens through the introduction of males from 
other White Leghorn yards, first inclined me to the 
consideration and practice of inbreeding. This 
practice has been followed more or less closely in 
my flock during the last five years. 
SELECTION OF STOCK.—In selecting breeding 
stock the first consideration is constitutional vigor. 
No bird, however fine its points, is chosen if it has 
ever had a mopish hour, much less a touch of dis¬ 
ease. Next, it must be true to breed type, of active 
temperament, and in the pink of condition. When 
birds can pass on these points little attention is 
paid to the degree of consanguinity of the mating. 
Results are proving highly satisfactory. The chicks 
come like peas in a pod—uniform in shape and other 
characteristics, with few or no culls. The eggs 
have that very desirable uniformity of shape, size, 
and color which is the saving margin in egg farm¬ 
ing. As to egg production and chick stamina, the 
following gives the history and record of the most 
closely inbred pen: 
EGG RECORDS.—In the Fall of 1911 seven pul¬ 
lets were mated back to their sire. From the first 
Lusty Youngsters Hatched from Pullets’ Eggs. 
tinued to lay. The four earlier molters were not 
the older pullets; but, as is almost invariably the 
case with the earlier molters, they were the poorer 
layers. Only one of the nine pullets ever showed 
the least tendency to broodiness. Their mother, by 
the way, is in her fourth year and has never made 
a “cluck” in her life. Incidentally, it may be said 
that these pullets have never had a stimulant nor 
tonic, not even a dash of red pepper, nor much meat 
food. In fact, they have had hardly enough of the 
latter class of food, as no commercial meat pro¬ 
ducts are used. About a quart of pounded beef 
cracklings or the soup from a shin bone on an aver¬ 
age of twice a week in the mash for each 50 fowls, 
comprised their meat food. Usually they have an 
abundance of green food, both cut and on range, but 
since June their range is dried up, and while they 
have had one full feed of cut greens a day they have 
not had sufficient for best results. There is nothing 
phenomenal in their egg production. A glance at 
their record will show that the highest monthly 
average was 24 eggs and that was made in only one 
month. 
PULLETS AS BREEDERS.—As a first cause of 
lack of stamina in poultry, breeding from pullets or 
other young stock is placed second to inbreeding by 
popular teaching and opinion. This actual exper¬ 
ience rather upsets such “findings.” Last December 
the sire of these nine pullets was put with them. 
Happening to have a broody hen January 2, a sit¬ 
ting of the pullet eggs was placed under her, not 
with any expectation of a worth-while hatch, but 
simply to get a line on the probable fertility of the 
eggs from this mating. Much to my surprise all 
pie come to the seashore for recreation—which includes 
heavy eating—while two of the largest cities in the world 
are within short driving distance. The land is well 
farmed and produces heavily of produce which must 
be shipped promptly and rapidly. The big auto truck 
is becoming a factor in the distribution of these great 
crops. One of our correspondents at Freehold, which is 
at the heart of this farming section, sends in the fol¬ 
lowing : 
Buyers come as far as 40 miles to buy the produce. 
Those from the shore cities come mostly in wagons 
and the auto trucks are a great help to the potato 
farmer. These great trucks carry from 35 to 100 bar¬ 
rels at 165 pounds to the sack. It makes one almost 
hold his breath to see one of these 100-barrel trucks 
come quietly along on the solid rubber tires about six 
miles an hour. I was talking to the driver of one of 
the large trucks and he told me he made four trips 
in the morning and five after dinner, from Creeksburg 
(11 miles away) in 50 minutes, backed up to the ear 
door to unload. I asked the buyers what they thought 
of it and they said that was so, they could do it at 10 
cents a barrel and $20 a day for expenses beats thrash¬ 
ing or any kind of farming. I have looked the trucks 
over and outside of the engine I cannot see just where 
the great cost of the trucks come in. The work on 
them is all heavy and strong but very, very plain. It 
has caused me to think this is one of the railroad 
troubles, and is bound to increase by great strides, for 
you can see what it means for one of these great trucks 
or moving vans to back up to the storehouse, load up 
and deliver the goods to its destination 50 miles away 
in half a day. A\ ith the railroad the best they could 
do would be to load and get it through in 24 hours. 
I said in half a day, I should have said in six hours. 
One can see how the market is, low or high, weak or 
strong, full or empty. The farmer has his ’phone and 
in six hours have 100 bushels of potatoes or any kind 
of produce at New York or Philadelphia. It is'surely 
the coming thing, and the truckman can make a big 
thing besides. A farmer 10 miles away could not cart 
over 16 barrels a day, and his team comes back empty. 
See what it would and does cost to get the produce to 
the shipping point. t 
