A FEW POINTS IN BREEDING.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 5 June 1909, Page 1

A FEW POINTS IN BREEDING.

* In the paper prepared by Mr E. } Waldron. of fl.'dney, for the Poultry I Conference recently held at Hawkes. bury College, on "Building up a * Strain." he embodied a few remarks I that are of particular interest to tlio rank and nip of pnnltryjipepers nt tins season of the year After emphasising the necessity for line_breediug in Establishing a strain, and instancing the results obtained thereby in breeding for the show pen. he went on to 'leal with the subject largely from a farmer's point of view, Referring to the introduction of tew blood, he remarked that where size was required in the stock he would ad._ vise the purchase of hens or pullets' with the desired puality% as size was only to be got on the female side. Personally he would always require a new bird to be related to his own. and also to" see the parent birds, if -possible. . These hens or pullets should bo mated with a selected cock or cockerel, and the best of the prqgor.y chosen to mate back to the old stock. Mr Waldron mentioned that he had situck to one line of blood for 16 years with results that upset many orthodox ideas. For- the first few. years he had trouble in rearing the chicks, and 50 per cent of those reared were wasters. However, by simply select, ing the breeding birds these deftcto were almost completely remedied. The chickens were no longer weakly, and the proportion of culls had diminished almost to vanishing point; while, a 1 for stamina, he had a few birds over seven years of age that looked good for yeven or eight more. For breeding purpose? lie prefene.l liens two years old and upwards ni-vrr discarding one on the score of old age. Breeding from pullets for early laying and allows was found to h.ivc an injurious effect ultimately on the standard of (he stock. Tn breeding, it was a common practice with f.ir. mers who kept from 20 to 30 stuck birds to kill the cocks at the end of the breeding season, and keep in (heir place a'fewof the nicest coek(r. els for the following year, following this method up year after year. If they killed the "nicest cockerels" and kept the other birds they would, in his opinion, obtain much better results in the "way of maintaining or improving the quality of their fowls. •A breeder who wejt in for eggs and table birds and did not trouble about line.breoding, could always improve his s'toek by selecting his best birch to breed from. and. when getting fresh blood, securing others of the s.nne strain. To procure, say. a cockerel of a different strain each year, as many did under the impression that that is the only way.to keep up the stamina and quality of their fowls, was Mr Waldron concluded, making certain of getting a mixed lot of birds and a full crop of disappointments,