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Show TECHNICAL MATINGS. I C. S. Gorlinc. In the poultry publications and in the circulars and catalogues of breeders breed-ers of particolored birds we find the terms "double matings," "cockerel dialings," "pnlUt matings," "compen- saltan matings" and Hie like with no explanations whteer Jit (D flhoir meaning. To he sflreUhe 'experienced fancier into whose hands tliie litera-ture litera-ture conies needs no explanation; such technicalities arc a irt of his stock in trade, but if you please, there arc others beginners mid fanciers in a smnll way people who love the Leautiful and arc nntu rally drawn to the fancy but who have lad no tech-nical tech-nical training whatever in that greatest great-est of all schools of poultry culture that of "Dame Experience." For such, the best training school in observation is the average poultry show, where may be seen occasionally occasional-ly some particularly nice specimen of the Barred Rock, Brown Leghorn, Golden Dotte or Rhode Island Red, and if he lias tried his hand at breeding breed-ing any of the particolored varieties, he will doubtless wonder why he has not been able to produce such a beautiful beau-tiful even color, and if he has been practicing single meting, he may rest assured that he never will be wble to do so, for a male and female, both of exhibition color, will not produce the best exhibition color in their progeny. Take the Brown Leghorn, for instance. in-stance. ' An exhibition cockerel with brilliant red surface-color on hackle mul saddle, with rich black stripe, is produced from mating a female two I or tiltrcc shades darker brown than the exhibition color, with a standard todlorod cockerel, and such a union is technically called a cockerel mating. Again, mate a cock bird of standard color to pullets two shades darker brown, and wo havo a stands rdi muting. mut-ing. The cockerels of either of these mating should be of good exhibition color; hence the term cockerel mating. mat-ing. The pullets from such matings will be off color and unfit for exhibition exhibi-tion purposes. Take females of standard color and mate them to males very much lighter light-er in color than the females, and the pullets produced by such (mating should show the beautifully penciled soft brown on backs and wings so much sought after by breeders of the "Browns," and sueh a mating is termed a pullet matins; because it fliould produce standard colored pullets. pul-lets. It will thus be seen that in order to produce cockerels of the re quisite color one mating is required and tht to produce pullets of standard stand-ard color, another mating is required. or two mtttings to produce one male and one female of standard color. hence the term double mating. Double mating, however, is not confined con-fined to breeders of particolored birds. English fanciers of solid colored col-ored birds and some Eastern breeders of white birds arc practicing it, especially es-pecially of White Wyandottcs and White Leghorns, claiming that excellence ex-cellence in head points, such as comb audi ear-lobes, and general contour can only be produced in perfection by such matings. The fact that many of the Madison Square winners were produced by single .matings would seem to refute this theory, but in the particolored class, it is doubtful if there has been a winner of recent years that was produced by single mating. If one is breeding for utility, utili-ty, it will readily be seen that double matings arc useless. They arc therefore there-fore of the fancy and for the fancy only, the sole object being to produce certain results in color and contour. The practice, too, is quite expensive, as it requires double the room necessary neces-sary to carry on single matings, bi. sides the great waste entailed in discarded dis-carded pullets and tcocKcrcls that arc unfit for exhibition, but that may be used as brooders in future matings. To breeders of particolored birds who desire to have as evenly colored A flock as possible from m. single mating mat-ing it is suggested that they will arrive ar-rive at the best result from following the female line, that is, in following line-breeding, take a standard colored female and mark her eggs, and later on, each of her chicks. For the 2nd year's mating, select the best of her cockerels to mate with her. Mark and sec her eggs and again. mark the chicks and the 3rd ycer mate the best cockerel from the last hatch to the original hen, and again the 4th year, when the work may be started over ngin. The theory is that color is less likely to vary in the female line than in that of the male. In selecting the 'breeders for making mak-ing up a breeding pen, we naturally select those nearest the standard in typo, then in color and finally in miliar mili-ar points. If our best male is not so full and rounding in breast or body as h should be, but excellent otherwise, other-wise, and we find in the flock certain females that re over developed, for example, fn broast curves, but not so good in other points, by mating her to the thin breasted male we wouU hope to overcome his defect in the progeny, nd such a mating we call a compensation mating. It is to compensate the lack of one by what is over developed in the other. In theory it is apparently all right, but in practice by those experienced, it is generally conceded to be all wrong, for while a certain defect may be thus obliterated, others just as serious or more so, arc sure to crop out from such a .mating. Compensation matings mat-ings arc now generally considered a thing of the past. |