Improving Fancy Birds.

If a good useful strain cannot be obtained, a systematic attempt must be made to improve the birds that can be got by breeding the good qualities into them. Get a cockerel from one fancier and hens from another, By thus crossing the two strains the lost qualities will reappear to a certain degree in some of the young birds, and by breeding from those that show them most a good result may be expected.

If a laying-breed is to be dealt with, choose a lively looking cockerel lot too big of his kind, one that crows well, and at an early age, and mate Km with hens that have a bright eye, a fine small head, and a young look about them.

If you are breeding for the table, pick the largest and best-framed birds, fancy birds have not been, as a rule, deteriorated in size.