The Huttig news., 1908-01-11
BUYING BREEDING POULTRY.
Good Blood in Poultry Yard Is Not a
 Mere Whin1, But Money-Maker.

Breeding stock should be acc1tS- toned to their quarters before ahe breeding season opens. Those of our readers who have made up their minds to dispose of their old cocks should get them out of the way and replace them with new ones without much delay. The old ones will never taste much better than right now. A tough old bird can be made very palatable if put into stew and cooked slowly long enough. If the old ones are not out of the way before the new ones arrive, the old ones will look upon the new ones as intruders, and fights will result than can serve no good end. If the new arrivals find no opponents they will accommodate themselves to conditions very quickly, and the flock will be ready to get results by the time eggs are wanted for matching.
 There can be no doubt about it, no doubt that those who are reading progressive farm papers will want to improve their focks. If they do not this year, they will next or the year after. This thing of having good blood is no mere idle whim. It is a money making proposition. The sooner good blood is got into the flock, the sooner will more pride be taken in the busi- ness and more profits taken out of the business.
 It requires so much money to stock up on both males and females for the larger classes of live stock that most farmers feel they can not afford it; but this is not the case with poultry. A good male and a small number of females can be got at small outlay. If there are no other males on the place the new male can be used with the whole flock. This will give a few standard bred birds and many others that are not standard bred. If one de- standard bred blood and to know which are pure blooded and which are not, it will be necessary to have pen for the pure bloods. Usually pens for poultry on the farm should not be tolerated. but an exception might
 
 kind.
 Where possible, the poultry raiser should begin at the top every time that is, start with standard bred fowls in every case by using standard bred breeders of both sexes. If this can not be afforded-usually it can-then get standard bred males, and make a practice of doing so each succeeding year. The change that will be wrought in the flock in twelve months will be enough to make anyone proud. The second year the offspring will look so much like their standard bred an- cestors that it will begin to be hard to tell the birds. of mixed breedir~ from those that are stSaadard bred. !. When flock reaches this degree of excellence, it begins to be very prac- tical fowl for the farmer whose chief eggs and nice carcasses for selling and to have every lot of eggs and birds marketed grade evenly and con- sequently make that pleasant impress sion on the eye that makes good sales.
 It so happens that after a poultry man starts with one breed of fowls he concludes he ought to get new blood by crossing with some other breed. Such violent crosses are un- fortunate, since a common result is that the offspring do not develop the good qualities of their immediate an- cestors so much as they do their bad qualities. The offspring looks too much like mongrels. Always get new blood by using birds of the same breed.
 The experience of practical breed CTS have so repeatedly shown that these principles are correct that there is no use in listening to the free ad- vice given by some one who is unable to tell whether a fowl is standard bred or not. Wide experience and many observations are necessary to formulate rules for breeding, and it is safer to follow the advice of those who have attained great success than it is to follow the advice of some one who has really never accomplished much.