Cross Breeding.

New Zealand Mail, 22 April 1887, Page 15

Cross Breeding.

It ha 3 long been a question amongst breeders of horses whether it is more advisable to put heavy mares to a thoroughbred horse, or blood mares to a heavy ho- si. lam probably in the minority, as my faith still rests in the old -saying, ‘ put blood on top.’ Numerous are the clever weight-carriers and stylish harness horses that I have seen bred from the cross I most favor ; and so, in spite of the many discussions and verdicts againet, I still “old the same opinion. Suffolk m>re3 and a blood stallion have, to my knowledge, bred splendid huntera, not steady creepers in a close country, but real ‘ flyers ’ for Leicestershire fences ; and, so far as my own experience goes, I have not known so many good ones bred the other way. • Now let us come down a peg, even to cocks and hens ; my wiDgs are clipped, but •still we can have a fly amoogt-t the roosters, and those justly terrible traps to hunting men, wir fences.

We are going forth to seek a good * cross. Nothing beats tbe offspring of a white-legged Game and a Dorking fowl, we are told ; but shall we have a Game cockerel and a Dorking hen, or the other way uppermost ? Oh, what a lot of letters would come in answer to this question if all wrote their experiences and opinions, I. however, will just record mine in ■ n short sentence, 1 Either will answer well, but I, prefer the Game cock line.’ Now, Brahma Dorkings are wanted. Which way shall we get them ? At once I advise the Dorking cock supremacy, and for the reason that Brahma hens lay in the winter and are careful mothers, whereas Dorkings are clumsy sitters and mothers oftentimes. £io there are wheels within wheels in the poultry yard—difficulties and their solution not to be found in the brood-mare question. Of course we have to face a very big fence at the very outset : * Which is the blood fowl ?’ Here’s an old pedigree Dorking, bred by Pope Leo 1., and there is a descendant of the old Derby Game that killed the fox centuries ago ; but fond as I am of the. Dorking, much as I have said for the purity of his breeding, when the Game appears on the scene, I must allow that my Dorking must be as the pedigree Suffolk mare—that high-blooded Game cock must be on the top of the tree. Or shall we regard the matter generally as choosmg hens from tbe weighty breed. That will do often, though not'always, for now we waut eggs chiefly and table fowls occasionally, but only one run is available, so Minorca bens and a Dorking cock must be tbe arrangement. Thus there is really no ru’e ; we are dealing merely with a matter of taste or prejudice, not exactly either. As I have shown, valid reasons exist for the easy and decided settlement of the question under certain circumstances, otherwise the Game cock, to my mind, is as the thoroughbred of fowls, aud I put him ‘on top’ whenever I want him. ‘ But 'here’s a drawback to that system,’ some one says, ‘ for we want to keep three or four cocks in the same yard.’ Not so much difficulty as you think, my friend, unless you are intending to be always chopping and changing your birds. It is quite a mistake to suppose that cocks of the Game breed brought up together are continually engaged in a bloody, blinding war. I have had two live oa the most affectionate footing possible, and have even taken up one to test the nerve of a young untried lately acquired cockerel ; and when the two birds came together again, marked as one was with blood of the (spurcorked) harmless fray, they took up the old lines of friendship without hesitation. A Game cock is neither the bully nor the aggressor many people represent him to be. I would not give sixpence for one that turns tail, because he could not and would not be the real thing. But Ido not want my birds to fight, still if they should have to enter the lists they will not turn away, or if they do they never live to fight another day. Game chickens, however, do fight too much, but though cocks are being discussed here, it must be remembered that we are breeding chickens for the table, consequently a ‘ cross.’ —W.J.P.