“Purity” Is There Such A Thing As Pure Gamefowl

Here I go sticking my neck out on this purity subject again. I
don’t know what pure is, so far as game fowl are concerned, and
in all the thousands of articles which have been published by
game fowl magazines on this subject I have never seen even an
attempt made to define the word purity.

The chemist knows what pure oxygen, hydrogen and various other
elements are, and exactly what they will do and how they will
react when combined with other elements. Exactly the same result
will be obtained every time they are combined.. not most of the
time or nearly all the time…but identically the same a
thousand times out of a thousand.

 It probably is correct to say that many or most of our wild
birds and animals are pure in there bloodlines. They are true to
type in not one physical, mental or nervous characteristic, but
in all of them. This has been accomplished by millions of
identical matings until each and every characteristic has been
positively fixed and made pure. More or less has appeared in the
game fowl magazines about the Mendelian laws of heredity.

They are right to so far as they go, but for some reason or
another most of these writers fail to mention one of Mendel’s
most fundamental and important discoveries, namely that each
characteristic is inherited separately.

Did you ever stop to think how many characteristics are embodied
in a piece of living organism? Whether it be man beast or fowl?
I dare say there are more such characteristics-mental, physical,
nervous etc., than there are dollars in the national debt.

You have a cock with a crooked prop toe. Let us say he is pure
in that one characteristic. You mate him to a hen, his full
sister, which is like-wise pure with respect to the crooked prop
toe,1,000 out of 1,000,and if these chicks are mated together
not to anything else) all their million offspring will have
crooked prop toes. Now mind you, I stated in the beginning that
both hen and cock are PURE with respect to this crooked toe
characteristics, not hybrid in such respect. Not every cock with
a crooked prop toe is pure as regards such characteristics. In
fact the overwhelming majority of them will be hybrid, in which
case some of the offspring will come with the crooked toe and
some will not. Cross such offspring even with each other, and
you will get some crooked toes from parents whose toes are
straight, and plenty of straight toes from parents whose toes
are crooked

Ever seen that happen in gamefowl? Sure you have, plenty of
times Muffs from clean heads, clean heads from Muffs, and a
thousand such other characteristics. Why? Because one or the
other or both of the parents were not pure as regards to that
characteristic. Had both parents been pure as regards crooked
toes, muffs tassels or anything else, you would reproduce that
characteristic in every chick. How are you to tell whether a
bird is pure or hybrid as regards any give characteristic? You
can’t tell by looking at him. It can be determined only by the
results of his breeding. You may have two full brothers that
look the same one may be pure and the other hybrid with respect
to any particular characteristic. Or you may have 15 full
brothers same cock, same hen-possibly only one of the 15 may be
pure with respect to the particular characteristic you are
looking for. All the other 14 being hybrids. How are you going
to find that one? Only by mating him to a hen that you have
previously proved to be pure in that same characteristic and
observing the result in the offspring. Will the hybrids impart
the desired characteristics to their offspring? Sure they will,
too some of them maybe to most or all of them. But the one cock
in the lot which is pure in that respect will impart that
characteristic every time if mated to a hen that is likewise
pure in that same respect.

So let us assume that by trail, error or accident we somehow got
a hen and a cock both of which are pure with respect to the
characteristic of the crooked prop toe. Now from this pair and
there offspring, if bred together we can produce absolutely pure
crooked prop toes to the end of time…So what? Will they be
pure in the millions and billions of other characteristics that
make up a chicken? In some characteristics yes in numerous
others; no. They may not be pure with respect to feather, leg
eyes, and even gaminess. But they all will have that crooked
prop toe. they are pure with respect to that one characteristic.
Now a game cock is a mighty complicated piece of mechanism. He
is what he is today by virtue of billions of matings. Happily
for us, nature and to a limited extent man has by certain
selections fixed or rendered pure most of his characteristics,
both physical and nervous. It isn’t difficult nor does it take a
very long time to fix or render pure any one particular
characteristic please note I said just one) Not some generality
which might be composed of a hundred different ones. Once the
individual cock and hen are located, both of which are pure in
the desired respect, you are all set to go as far as that
particular characteristic concerned. But the trouble comes in
finding the brood fowl which are pure in ALL the respects we
seek. We may find purity with respect to power but hybrid as
regards to cutting etc. Then when we find just what we want on
the male side, try and find those same qualities on the female
side.

What a chore! You think you’ll not live long enough to establish
purity in all the characteristics you desire in your fowl? Don’t
despair. You could not do it if you live to be a thousand years
old. Nature is to complicated for that. We can and have
developed purity in many respects but never in all. For example,
it isn’t difficult today to obtain 100% yellow legs or round
heads, or muffs, or a hundred other characteristics but show me
the family of game fowl that are or ever were pure to all
characteristics, physical, mental, nervous. They don’t exist and
never did and never will as long as man has a hand in the
matings So and so develops a family which are very very uniform
in looks, appearance and pit qualities. We call them pure. they
are not and never were. They likely are pure in many respects,
but they are hybrid in many others. As this family are bred
together they start to show certain distinctly individual
characteristics. Why? Simply because some of the hybrid
undesirable characteristics which were from the beginning
present in the original cross. and that’s all it ever was), but
were dormant and did not show up, have gotten together through
successive matings, become fixed or pure remember it is just as
easy to fix or make pure undesirable characteristics as
desirable ones), and we say so and so has ruined his strain,
that is bull crap! He never had a strain that was pure in the
first place, no matter how famous the name or how many times it
won in the pit. His fowl at one time may have been pure in a
great many characteristics but not in all. Probably for a
certain length of breeding time, such a family showed very few
undesirable characteristics. But don’t fool yourself! They were
there all the time, and when bred together long enough started
to show up. This poor breeder, what is he to do? He makes a
lucky cross or combination, gets a uniform looking and fighting
bunch of winning hybrids, gives them a name, extols them in
print and advertisement, old-timers sing their well deserved
praises and then comes the rub.. the job of perpetuating them.
If he tries to inbreed them, in time the hidden undesirable
characteristics will come to life and become so fixed and
pronounced that everyone condemns his fowl because they are no
longer winning. If he crosses them with something else they no
longer look and fight like the original cross. What’s he to do?
Well even as you and I, all he can do by the use of good
judgment and skillful observations 365 days a year and in the
pit, do the best he can. I believe I can supply you with a pair
of pure robins or seagulls or mackerel or rabbits, but a pure
gamefowl? Pure in all characteristics? No way no how never. Nor
can anyone else.

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