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Show I f T'"P O U U T R Y " I BREEDING .BY SELECTION. H J C. S. Gorlinc. I I ybiifP- jfni 1 m In the early days- of telegraphy B each instrument win cqifppcuf-lwiMi M recorder on which the message was M recorded in dots and dashes which M was afterward transcribed inlo'Iong- B hand by the receiving operator.. Then B Ganic a time when' operators'. became B s expert llti.t the recorder wns dis- B carded and the message was received B by sound: mid transcribed as received. B ifilrc recorder was tqo slow and cum- B bcrsomc Tor business methods rc- B quired morc, rapid and accurate scr- fB vice There was a time when the m orc-carrd was deemed all important B and; each bird at poultry show was B laboriously handled and scored by & M the judge who called -the cuts ttfan' B assistant who handled the cards and H & i B recorded the calls. When there was ifl m l,husn,u or more birds to be B; scored it .meant four or five days or. B' longer of time that for show tpur- B poses .might have been better spcntj m I&ncicrs .became impatient and dc m v i ( m maijdcd a .mucker service, r Judges B became, more expert a nd( comparison B judging became the fashion. There Bi u'as. n t,mc when breeders guessed B 'lor-c or 'css accurately in mating B for results in exhibition or utility B m i lines. There was a time when breedtj crs were indifferent as to -exactly the number of eggs produced by pullets r tor dicn'sj- in a year's time and could not to save them give the average ' number of eggs produced by any -pen I in their yards. Then came the trap-nest trap-nest ' and certain breeders vied with each other in keeping an accurate trap-nest record. Each layai was trapped when she sought 'the nest and was afterward 'released, her leg-band leg-band noted- and laboriously recorded in a bpok kept for the purpose. Was tlvc record accurate- and -did it not faithfully show the exact result? Tq be sure it did. If you arc old enough, did you not learn'your A, B, C's and laboriously learn to spell u p up, o x ox, etc., and when sufficiently educated edu-cated you learned to road "I can "sec'a man go lip;' did you sec the man go up? Ye. I saw the man go up." beamed to read' all right land possibly learned to spell correctly. Yk:s, in time no doubt, bu expert . teachers learned a shorter route to '. attain the same result and the mod- i crn Normal methods prevailed. , Now, this is precisely what has taken place in modem methods of breeding hy selection. The breeder for specific results who lias Iwwl, say twenty, twenty-five or thirty years' experience, who has studied his sub- " ! hi i i 1 1.. jcetm afl its ifliascs imainoDscr(l S and noted results attained year after yxar has becomeso" expert and Iso thoroughly familiar 5vith each .iiffli-vidual .iiffli-vidual in each breeding pen that (Tic exact results to be attained and (Tic slightest, variations therefrom ares clear and distinct "td limVas 'the 'disk f pi) JUrc) iitrumcnt is to the trailed car of the expert operator. To - gin, then we can not do better tlmn ' Ik quote a few lines on line-breeding by tlvc able poultry cdito,r, Mr. Thgs. .Jvj Rigg, who says: "Were my entire .stock to be wiped out of existence, I would start anew in the breeding of standard bred poultry on a basis ,vjiich my experience has taught nTc to .be correct. I would purchasclui cockerel of a breeder who has been line-breeding for a term of yeans,. This cockerel should! be the best representative rep-resentative of the breed possible- lp secure. I would then buy a pullet of the "same character We now start witli a pair, which has come clown from a line of ancestors which have been carefully and systematically bred m Jine for years. The product ,qf, this .first mating will not give us anything exceptionally good in standard stand-ard markings probably no you birds superior to the parent stock, and a large number of the progeny will have to be discarded.' This bc-cause bc-cause we have united two strong lilood lines and in the progeny ealli iW struggled for supremacy. At the close of the breeding season we scrl-aratc scrl-aratc the pair, placing the male jm bachelorhood and keeping him there until placed in the breeding pen next season, W'c call the original paTr Group No. i and the pullets we have reserved from this mating for next i r year we designate as Group No. . We have most carefully selected thesp pullets, only the very choicest being retained. Wie.will reserve cilso the choicest cockerel. Next year we will mate tlw male of. Group i to the pul-letS pul-letS of Group 2. The female of N& i is mated to the cockerel of No. j& This will5 give two pens which we will term A and B. The progeny from will be three-fourths the blood of the original sire and one-fourth the tfldod of the original dam. The progeny of B will be three-fourths the blood of the original dam and one-fourth the blood of the original sire. In selecting select-ing the stock for the next year we reserve re-serve by selection the very besc specimens. Aga'in we mate pens and use a typical cockerel from the progeny pro-geny of Aiand a pullet or pullets from the product of B. This will give us stock of but J4 the blood of the original origi-nal sire and.J the blood of the original origi-nal dam. Also the came year we mate a pullet from the produce of B to the original sire, which gives us chicks the bloodl of the original sire and J the .Wood of the original dam'. Also a cockerel from the progeny pro-geny of A is mated to the original female which gives us chicks the blood of the original dam and the blood of. the original sire. Here we liavc been changing blood without changing types. We have kept the male line unbroken without inbreeding." inbreed-ing." In each of the above matings. the utmost care is exercised by the breeder in selecting the .individuals that go to make up each breeding pen, first generally as to standard requirements, re-quirements, but if for great egg production, pro-duction, if an individual has shown a rcmiairkablc attainment for laying, she may be retained, even though she might otherwise be discarded if exhibition ex-hibition merit alone were sought. In individual selection where line-breed- I ing is systematically followed lies 1 success only. Each year a grctat numibicr must be produced in order 1 that a choice few may be selected. I In indlividual selection of layers two 1 years arc required for each successive I group. For instance, we have one X male and fifteen females in a pen. We note " first, that the germs of their eggs arc strong, denoting vigorous parentage. If weak germs, discard the male or rc-arrangc the environ 1 ment, or discard any female not ac tivc and vigorous. Now watch the egg production. In our brcd-to-lay strain we want from that pen seven , j or eight eggs per day in November, j about the same in December; January should show a 'slight increase; February Feb-ruary something like io to 12 eggs j per day; March aibout the same. April, May and June must average 14 j or 15 eggs per day, July and) August, I 8 to 10, September 6 to 8 and October 1 possibly 3 or 4 eggs- per day, giving ia total for November of 210, Dec. , 210, Jan. 240, Feb. 270, April 420, 3 May 434, June 420, July 248, August j 248, Sept. 240, Oct. 103, or ' a pen j average of say 203 eggs in the first 1 15 months, or better. Now it will fj be noted by the breeder that certain j individuals are doing more than other!. oth-er!. Eaioh individual .becomes as l 1 familiar to himasa mcmbcr of hisj I ' household., The best workers arc rc- j ' baincd for eggs for hatching Hie next year. Year after year this process goes on. The pen records arc faithfully faith-fully kept showing the pen averages only and year oiftcr year only individuals indi-viduals that have passed the most exacting requirements' as to vigor and abiHt" pre retained as breeders. |