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The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1793 
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Poultry Inbreeding on Utility Lines 
A n EXPERIMENT CONTINUED.—An article 
under the heading “Poultry Inbreeding on 
Utility Lines” was published in this journal in the 
Fall of 1915. In that article I gave the encouraging 
results of an experiment, in poultry inbreeding began 
in 1911 with the mating of seven White Leghorn 
pullets back to their sire, and the subsequent in-and- 
in breeding for five generations. In the five seasons 
since 1915 this inbreeding has been continued with¬ 
out the least strain of “new blood.” It may be 
interesting to state that at first the introduction of 
“new blood” from good strains of Leghorns was tried 
out on side lines, but the progeny proving inferior 
to that from straight matings of inbreds, all mixed 
or other strains were eliminated from the yards. 
This inbred stock to date is noticeably 
uniform, handsome and healthy. Ex¬ 
cept an occasional breakdown in the 
egg organs of a lion the fowls are dis¬ 
ease-proof, not even a slightly ailing 
nr droopy fowl ever showing up among 
them. The pullet shown in Fig. 589 
a fair representative of last year’s 
hatch; while the bunch of pullets and 
the breeding cockerels from t; is year’s 
hatch that are five months old at this 
writ'ng promise to be even finer. These 
inbred fowls conform closely to stand¬ 
ard requirements except in the more 
upright tail and the larger combs, 
especially in the males kept for breed¬ 
ers. The plumage is pure white, with 
a satiny gloss still retained from the 
original male (a D. W. Young bird); 
the beak and legs bright yellow, with 
never an off color in legs or plumage. 
METHOD OF MATING AND 
BREEDING.—The commercial poultry 
raiser cannot give the time and watch¬ 
ful attention to breeding problems that 
tlio fancier and the salaried agricul¬ 
tural departments can. Any method to 
be practical in his case must be simple. 
The following method I have found 
simple in handling this inbred stock: 
Tn the early stage of this experiment 
the stock was hatched and reared by 
liens, but for the past six years the 
incubator and brooder have done the 
work. The season’s hatch is brought 
off in April. All eggs that do not hatch 
on time go to the discard; -no chicks 
are helped from the shell; crippled, 
ill-formed or weakly chicks are all 
destroyed when taken from the incu¬ 
bator, or as soon thereafter as dis¬ 
covered. The others are expected to 
“make good”—and they do. It is sel¬ 
dom that a chick is lost in the rearing. 
At six weeks of age the pullets are 
separated from the cockerels and 
housed and yarded by themselves. 
These are the birds that lay the high- 
priced eggs in October, November and 
December, when the hens are in tin 
various stages of their molt. 
CULLING THE YEARLINGS.— 
While all of these pullets will be vig 
orous and healthy, they will not be o 
equal excellence, hut no further culling 
is done until towards the end of their 
first laying year, when they begin to 
drop into the molt Then they are 
culled close, and only those retained 
that can pass the acid tests required 
for the desirable breeder. When they are through, 
the molt and ready to start on their second laying 
year they are used as breeders. But they are not 
mated with any of the male birds from their own 
hatch. The selected cockerels from their hatch were 
mated the first year to the yearling hens of a pre¬ 
ceding hatch, and their sons as cockerels are used. 
Thus the inbreeding is not as close as at first, when 
pullets were mated back to their sires and cockerels 
to their dams. The relationship in a direct lino 
being nephews mated to aunts. Each year's hatch 
is kept yarded by itself, and also the breeding cock¬ 
erels, until placed in the breeding pens. This has 
somewhat the effect of new strains in the matings. 
Incidentally it may be said that this method of using 
only tested yearling liens mated with vigorous, well- 
developed cockerels, and eliminating all weakly 
chicks at the start, would secure tip-top results in 
all commercial poultry raising by building up a 
■vigorous flock of fowls and cutting out disease and 
non-producers. 
THE COMMERCIAL EGG.—The domestic hen of 
various breeds and strains and mixtures lays eggs 
o.f all shapes, sizes, colors and tints. In the local 
market there is little discrimination betweeu them 
so long as the eggs are strictly fresh and sizable, and 
the small poultry raiser has not to concern himself 
with other points. But when it comes to the whole¬ 
sale trade where the egg farmer proper must find 
his market the appearance of the egg must be reck¬ 
oned with. That one fresh egg is just as good as 
another fresh egg doesn’t go in high-class grading. 
him. The flock average of marketable eggs is what 
interests him. In considering the egg, the first point 
is to secure a strong, smooth shell which carries well 
and is proof of a healthy condition in the layer; the 
second point is to secure uniformity in shape, size 
and tint. 
SECURING UNIFORMITY.—The first is obtained 
by healthy layers kept under proper conditions and 
not over-stimulated for egg production. But the 
second—how many we obtain uniformity in the egg 
production of a large flock or fowl? As there is 
more or less difference in appearance between eggs 
from even an established strain of the various breeds 
it becomes evident that our only means to that end 
is by way of the fancier’s reliance—inbreeding. This 
experiment in inbreeding was started 
with that end in view, and in the 1(1 
years it has been carried on I have 
found it much easier to get uniformity 
in the appearance of the flock than in 
that of the egg. It would seem that 
always selecting eggs for hatching of 
the desired uniformity would do the 
trick in itself—but it won’t. However, 
I am “getting there.” The past sea¬ 
son’s eggs that were sold in the whole¬ 
sale market graded up to first place, 
with but few “seconds.” The point of 
the matter is that once the utility 
poultry breeder is assured that judi¬ 
cious inbreeding is practicable in his 
case he will be free to go ahead and 
work for desired “points" just as the 
fancier does. m. busseix James. 
California. 
Six-months-old Leghorn Pullet; Ninth Generation of Inbreeding. Fig. 589. 
Field I 
Field 11 
Field III 
Field IV 
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Plan of Poultry Farm. Fig. 590. (See Page 1792.) 
For the top grade there must be uniformity in ap¬ 
pearance. The case of eggs must run uniform in 
size, shape and color. 
An over-sized egg will be 
Drugs for the Poultry 
What causes the comb to turn black or 
purplish color on the Single Comb White 
Leghorn? I have always thought of this 
as caused from some form of liver trou¬ 
ble. Am I right? This is the experience 
I have just had: My pullets were moved 
into W inter quarters September 15 of 
this year, and were the very picture of 
health. It has always been my practice 
to confine my pullets to the laying house 
after moving them in, and gradually bring 
them on to the heavy laying ration. As 
usual, a couple of these pullets showed 
some signs of a cold, so I wrote to a well- 
known experiment station for a simple 
remedy that could be used more for a 
flock than an individual. Here is an ex¬ 
act duplicate copy of what I received: 
“ T \nll and Winter Colds.—Symptoms : 
Fo- Is first show running at the nose, 
ua .1 cavities become clogged, side of head 
In omes swollen, pus forms, covering one 
eye. Remedy : Four pounds Epsom salts, 
6 oz. magnesium carbonate, 12 oz. cop¬ 
peras, 16 oz. sulphur, 12 oz. ground gin¬ 
ger. Directions: Allow one tablespoonful 
for 15 hens. Mix this thoroughly with 
moistened mash. Do not feed hens in 
-the morning until 10 or 11 o’clock. Give 
remedy three mornings in succession; 
skip three mornings and repeat if neces¬ 
sary.” 
I gave this as per the instructions, and 
on the second day I could see that all 
was not going well. It was at this time 
that I noticed the combs on some of them 
were purple or nearly black, and the birds 
were dull and listless. My first thought 
was that the trouble lay iu the remedy I 
had given, so I gave them a dose of Epsom 
salts at the rate of 114 pounds to 100 
birds. This was to counteract the poison, 
if any. You can imagine the rest, and 
it is needless to say the birds have not 
recovered yet, and some of the conibs are 
still dark. My rough guess at the trouble 
is one of two things, or both. First, the 
remedy calls for too much sulphur; sec¬ 
ond. that the druggist did not pulverize 
the copperas fine enough, as it contained 
small lumps. What is good to get these 
birds back to normal and a good appe¬ 
tite? The birds previous to this were 
laying 50 per cent, and they are being fed and cared for 
after the New Jersey methods in every way. Suggest 
some good tonic and a simple remedy for colds. p. m. 
‘"f 
, “/Acre 
lYcipo 
Fr eld 
XI 
f. Acre 
Weeds 
thrown into the “seconds” as quickly as au under¬ 
sized egg, along with all eggs of off color or even 
of off tint. 
THE FLOCK AVERAGE.—High egg production 
is not the whole thing in successful egg farming. 
This is the weak point iu our egg-laying competi¬ 
tions: they concentrate on the number of eggs laid 
and fail to give valuable information iu regard to 
the sorts of eggs laid—size, shape, evenness of color 
and condition of shell, and the various weaknesses 
that develop in the layers. The commercial egg 
farmer cares nothing about lieu stunts. The high 
egg records made by small hunches of selected pul¬ 
lets kept under ideal conditions mean nothing to 
Y' 
’OUR faith iu drugs is evidently still undaunted, 
even after this experience in curing the colds 
from which your pullets suffered. So far as I know, 
there is no drug cure for the Fall and Winter colds 
of fowls, and I know of no remedy which I can 
recommend with any assurance that it will prove 
effective. Perhaps the one you used is as sensible 
as any, and aside from its use as a physic, I can see 
no reason whatever for its administration. Let us 
see what could possibly be expected from such a 
combination of drugs. Epsom salts, the one useful 
drug in the combination, is a non-irritating cathartic, 
acting by withdrawing water from the intestinal 
blood vessels, and thus quickly flushing out the 
