THOROUGHBRED , OR BRED TO A PURPOSE. 
power of transmitting those characteristics to 
their offspring), as though they have been bred 
solely for the points which win ribbons in the 
show room. “It is the transmission of pecul¬ 
iarities which is the essential characteristic of a 
breed,” and the peculiarities transmitted may 
just as well be the great laying or great meat 
producing qualities. The essential point is that 
we “select” the birds possessing the desired 
characteristics, and then we accomplish our pur¬ 
pose of developing and perfecting the power of 
transmission of those peculiar characteristics. 
To make the best success in his individual 
work the poultryman must study the situation, 
learn the requirements of his especial field or 
market, and choose a breed or variety which will 
best meet those requirements. He should con¬ 
sider whether he is to build up an egg-farm pure 
and simple, or combine eggs and meat or eggs and 
fruit production, and choose accordingly; after 
he has made his choice he can, by “selecting” 
the individuals best adapted to his purpose, 
greatly improve and develop the preferred char¬ 
acteristics. The gratifying success in develop¬ 
ing the egg-producing faculties of the stock at 
the Maine Experiment Station, is rich with 
promise, and indicates what may be done by 
continued work in that field, and work being 
done at the Ontario Agricultural College Ex¬ 
perimental Station, in the direction of develop¬ 
ing an improved market poultry type of bird, is 
equally promising in that field; certain it is that 
persistent effort in these two fields will be rich¬ 
ly rewarded. 
This is an age of specialists, and the man suc¬ 
ceeds best who chooses some one line of work 
and devotes all the energy with which he is en¬ 
dowed to the development of that chosen line. 
If egg-production is his specialty he should 
choose a variety known to be prolific layers; if 
market poultry is his specialty he will need to 
choose a variety best adapted to the special line 
of trade he caters to, and if he desires to combine 
both egg and meat production, he can choose a 
variety combining both the two qualities to a 
very considerable degree. After he has chosen 
he can better his profits by selecting the best 
birds and breeding from them, as the Maine Ex¬ 
periment Station people are doing in breeding 
from “hens that have laid 180 eggs each in a 
year, pullets whose mothers have laid over 200 
eggs in one year, and whose fathers mothers 
laid over 200 eggs in a year; and pullets sired 
by cockerels whose mothers and grand¬ 
mothers laid over 200 eggs each in a year”—or 
in following the similar line of work with the 
best type of market poultry bird, generation after 
generation, as is being done at the Ontario Ex¬ 
periment Station. Persistent work along these 
lines, carefully and intelligently followed for 
generations, will intensify and develop the pe¬ 
culiar characteristics selected, and increase the 
profits from the practical poultryman’s work. 
A point in this connection that is worth noting 
is that there is a rapidly growing demand for 
breeding stock and eggs of birds of known ex¬ 
cellence in practical quality, and at prices which 
compare favorably with the prices paid for stock 
bred solely for show-points; there is good proof 
of this in the willingness of buyers to pay two and 
three dollars per sitting for eggs from known 
great layers. We recently received a letter from 
a breeder who advertises stock and eggs for sale, 
asking where a good male bird of assured great 
laying ancestry could be bought, and stating that 
he would gladly pay thirty dollars for such a bird. 
When we recall that great prices are paid for 
heifers from great milk-producing dams and 
bulls of great milk-producing ancestry, we can 
well believe that there will soon come a time 
when cockerels and pullets of great laying an¬ 
cestry will be as eagerly sought for, and will fetch 
as good prices as do the winners of the blue rib¬ 
bons at our poultry shows. 
[ The Leading Practical Varieties. 
No one variety of fowl is perfect; while all 
varieties have practical qualities of more or less 
merit, some have more than others, and the 
wise choice is to select the one that possesses 
most advantages, coupled with fewest disad¬ 
vantages. We say “select the one” advisedly, 
because the commonest mistake made by the 
beginner in poultry work is to take up two or 
three (or half a dozen) varieties, with the mis¬ 
taken idea that he will learn by experience which 
one is the best for him and then keep only that 
one. The ordinary life of a man is none too long 
a time in which to fully master and develop to 
its best all that there is in one variety of fowls, 
and the man who takes up several has not time 
to carefully study their various good points; he 
gets at best but a superficial knowledge of them, 
and will find himself at the end of a few years, in 
the unfortunate position of the man who is “A 
Jack of all trades but master of none!” Besides 
all of that ground has been gone over again and 
again, the qualities of all varieties have been fully 
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