The Hickman courier., 1877-11-23
pecndencc OF Foreign Fonl stoeI..

-NCttI}UcF.
DecRdence of Foreign Fowl stock.
1t is fact that intelligent observant
fanciers have not lost sight of, in the
past two or three years. and which has
been noted during the present season
more emphatically than ever, that the
foreign or imported blooded poultry we
now have in the United States-more
especially among the Asiatic varieties-
has largely deteriorated, of late, in its
breeding or reproducing qualities in
many yards, including, in some instances,
the stock of some of our most noted
breeders.
This decadence has not been anticipated
by many who understand and appreciate
the common course of nature and The
laws eff procreation. Any species or
strains OF live stock will, in time,
degenerate Perceptibly, or run out al
together, by constant breeding inter Sc.
The result is as certain as is any event in
life. No breed of stock will hold its own
universally, however good it nay be,
however choicely bred, or however skill
fully manipulated, if it be bred in-and-
in from a single family or importation
too long.
The very act of so breeding blood re-
lations exhausts it in vitality, and wears
it out in few years be it never 30 good
or so strong at theoutset. The introduc,
tion of fresh blood of the same species,
not akin to the other, but possessing all
the desirable stamina, vigor, beauty and
streng characteristics Of the first, is a
sine gtlq non to success in continual breed
ing. In no other way can this decadence
be prevented.
We point to the Asiatic race, especially,
in these remarks, for the reason that in
this country our people favor this class OF
fowls more particularly, and because it
may safely be assumed also that very
large majority OF all the domestic poultry
stock kept and bred in the United States,
at the present day, belongs to the Chinese
varieties-the Cochins, the Brahamas,
etc. And where has this bIooded stock
came from, mostly, into our breeders
hand ?
None will deny or question the fact
that the thousands of what are esteemed
good strains" or families of the bluff,
partridge, white or black Cochins at pre-
sent being bred in America, come down
to US in 1876 and 1877 from very limited
number of oforiginal breeding birds. And
il may here be affirmed that of that num-
Der very few of the original stock has
reached US on this side of the Atlantic
from foreign sources beyond the limits Of
Great Britain.
These stock fowls, about which we have
pIumed ourselves so earnestly, oftentimes,
are not native Chinese OF Asiatic birds
at all. They are bred from such fowls,
imported into England from time to time
and even there the number of birds which
are received annually from China direct
is very small. In this country we hear
of no arrivals from Chinese territory.
lately.
Thus it will be seen that we have been
breeding the Cochins, and are now breed
ing them-Of all colors and descriptions
from the English descendants OF the
originally imported Asiatic fowls for the
most part. The old Cochin Cor Shanghai
stock brought into this country twenty
five or'thirty years ago di5ect by Nessrs.
Marsh, Forbes, Cope, Palmer. Gushing
and others, of course was long since
exhausted. The early Sturgeon and
Powell stock, imported into England
from 1915 to rs, has long since become
extinct. And so we, of course, are
breeding from whatever our English
cousins may have sent us-this kind of
stock got out from Great Britain in the |
last ten or twelve years, for example, /
being all British bred, and not from the !
native originals.
How long these several strains may !
have been bred in-and-in by such fanciers /
as Baily, Teebay, Cooper, Boyle, Nolan, |
Baker, Throgmore, Pents, Crier and 1
Others from whom we have " imported
our Cochin stock in rece1t years, no one
Knows. 1t may be that these different
strains have been amalgamated. to
greater or less extent-in England-since
the poulterer and stock-raiser of that
country understands this business and
maniPulates it, much better than we do
down to the present time. And tboupb
thus mixing and intermingling the diff
terent original Chinese impertations thew
have received there, they may have
coDtrived to keep the blood and original
stamina of the China fowls preserved 10
degree, among them. But we have
have not done this to any extent in this
country. And the consequence of our
mode OF management of the Anolo.
Chinese stock is what we have already
explained-its marked decadence. of late
as far as prelificness is concerned.
Not to extend our remarks on this
subject to too great length, we conclude
by observing that the consequence or
results, of this interbreeding in America
has been realized very seriously among
us ID the past year or two, and more o..
pecially have we experienced its i'll az
fects in 1877 This decadence is exbi-
oited very sensibly in one phase which :
breeders will quickly recognize, we take I
It, upon the fact being pointed out and /
hat is IL the non-fertila charac1e- IS I
'ggs laid by these fowls ofIate. Perbsns