Page:Care and Management of Rabbits.djvu/187

Rh the male and one-half of the blood of the female.

The next mating, the father is mated to his own daughter and the mother to son. This gives a generation having three-fourths of the blood of the original sire and only one-fourth the blood of the original dam. It also gives a generation having three-fourths the blood of the original dam and only one-fourth the blood of the original sire.

You will note that by each mating a point is either gained or lost in the blood of the stock. In fact two separate blood lines are quickly established, a male and a female line. If you will carry out the system as shown in the accompanying chart, you can soon have your males all looking like the original male and the females looking like the original female of the line.

The advantage of the system is such that it achieves this very purpose. It loses nothing and enables the breeder to preserve the characteristics of an especially valuable specimen.