The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1908-04-23
THE WAY TO PERFECTION.

All y not SOlu Indl tOlu Ill duS.' even
though it's a Gold Rock ad. Winning
birds are seldom mated. though this
oft has been related to sell eggs and
you Not natural for a silver cup sport
to sell eggs equal to his own to hatch
show birds to compete with him at the
next contest. You're bird If you be-
lieve It. His "best in the world" aren't
going to be sold to another sport who
may turn q new breeding trick or have
a new fake card up his sleeve to make
the "best" better and thus relieve him
Of quadruple cup. When breeders
mate up they don't always take win
ners nor perfect birds. They might
hatch something too perfect, just as
people may get too awfully goody good.
And then some of these perfect prize
birds aren't just so perfect as they
SEEM Some have homemade perfect
combs and spliced feathers and pluck
ed shanks and snowy bleached backs
and indigo fight feathers, and when
you buy them for Il big price in the
showroom and take them home in
month there is as big difference be-
tween their before and after" as in
the pictures Of an anti-fat advertise
ment.
Ais not silver that shines, even IL
it's Silver Rock silver cup winner.
So fair fanciers concede that it's not
always best to mate prize winners nor
perfect birds. Too much varnish spOilS
the picture. Bad traits come from
Somewhere-maybe three generations
back Anyhow the perfect birds, espe-
cially colored breeds, aren't generally a
success, and so they adopt Il plan that
you wouldn't. They mate imperfect
birds. This is the plain truth, If some
one Is doing fancy lying.
In this perfect mating Of imperfect
birds they select male and females
and make the good traits on one side
balance the bad traits on the other. A
hens good traits may cover the bad
traits of the male, and the male may
have some perfect points the hen is
weak in, and thus, bred together, ev-
erythlng may even up and the Off
spring be just right.
A long legged Leghorn with poor
color may be bred to u short legged
hen with strong standard color.
A Silver LSced Wyandotte with a
| poor hackle is matched with hen of
perfect hackle that may be deficient In
some points in which the male is true.
A Brown Leghorn may have a four
point comb. To get the five point some
will breed five point female, while
others will take six pointer, claiming
that the four and six point combs will
neutrallze into the regular five point
| comb.
Imperfections are thus Offset by per-
tections to get the perfect.
Then there are the cockerel and pull
| let matings-not that cockerels form
into stag parties and pullets organize
girl bachelor clubs but breeding pens
| are matched to bring certain color
cockcrels or certain color pullets. For
instance, some Barred Rock fanciers
like a rather dark cockerel, and they
mate for it. They want pullet feathers
| to have narrow dark tips and all
feathers to be barred to the skin. and
they mate accordingly. SO it's not SO
simple after all. and when Il man at
st. Louis paid $1,000 for hen it was
not because he was fool. but he ap-
preciated the science required to build
that hen and knew the pleasure and
profit that come from such bon ton
brain product to breed from.
In society you have often noticed
people try to even up in the same man
ner. A brainless man will try to mar
ry the new woman to make himself
look intellectual. A man with slim
income will strive to wed woman
with a fat bank account But. as the
chicken mating may be failure, the
brainless man may seem more nor
compos mentis. and the fortune may
be tiZZle.