Farm and Garden

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 290, 31 August 1910, Page 3

Farm and Garden

STRAIN OR LINE BREEDING. Many breeders do not seem to have the least conception as to what constitutes a real strain. The writer's idea is that poultry or live stock of any kind should be bred in line for generations, so as to establish unquestionably some one particular point or points before it can claim to be a distinctive strain. It does not matter what these points are—the eye, the comb, the shape, the colour, or any predominating characteristic of physical conformation of mental quality. But these, or some of these, must be established without a shadow of a doubt, and the animals must be capable of reproducing a very large percentage of young having this or that particuslar characteristic. I know some breeders who are breeding for comb, and others for shape of body, in hopes of establishing a distinctive strain. This is not' done in a year or two, by any means; it takes years of hard Take, for instance, the leading strains of horses, cattle or sheep. The Dangar Suffolks, the Weinholt Clydesdales, the Oakbank Ayrshires, or the Wanganella merinos. The owners have spent the best part of their lives in establishing the characteristic points that have made them popular, and the favourites of today. What holds good with one holds, good with another, so far as scientific breeding is concerned, and in breeding any kind of animals you must have your particular point or points so indelibly stamped on your stock, so embedded in the blood, that the points for which you breed will persist for many generations. For the foundation of your strain, first select a sire that you know is well bred, coming from generatons of winners. Let him be, if possible, the very counterpart of his sire. This gives a double guarantee that he will control his offspring. In poultry raising, breed back the pullets from this sire to grandsire. Thus, if properly mated, a successful start is made. Use no sire but this one, or males of his get, and none of them that have not his unmistakeable likeness. You-will thus establish a strain of blood that will give you uniformity in all your stock. In selecting hens, be quite sure that they hav6 robust constitutions, good colour, shape, size, bone, and markings, and possessing the best of laying qualities. From this mating select the largest pullets that most resemble the sire, and breed theni back to him. This second crop of birds will be three-fourths the blood of the sire selected as the foundation of the strain. Constitution and vital force must come from the dam; type and colour from the sire. And in al matings the introduction of new blood must be with a view to that end. The crossing of two well-bred strains frequently produces a distinct and new type, and occasionally the new type is very beautiful. If you wish to secure such a result (which is in itself a proof that the two elements producing it were of equal strength, as neither predominated in control of the breeding), and if you wish to perpetuate it, you would be wise to select a dam of sorpewhat delicate constitution, and negative characteristics, thus giving the sire all the chances possible to stamp his offspring with his likeness. Then by breeding his pullets back to hiiu, you will concentrate his breeding on his grandchildren, they being also his children. Go on then, by selection of coarser dams, to provide new blood for the strain. There is but one way, in my opinion, to establish uniformity in breeding, let it be fowls, horses, cattle, or sheep, and that is by "line" or in-breeding. The harvest will be according to the good judgment displayed in the use of this scientific principle. Whenever a new dam is introduced to a strain, never use sires from this new blood until the blood has become thoroughly subjected to the strain. Use no male with less than seven-eighths of the blood of the strain, and no female with less than three-fourths of the same blood of the strain, as stock birds. I have bred more winners than any other poultry fancier south of the equator, so that I have some claim to the knowledge of the value and importance of pedigree, or line breeding.—Oscar Wilson in the "Farmer and Settler."