152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



formation that has come to us, cannot we realize and be ready 

 to accept the idea of a more extended creation originally than 

 the one little Jungle Fowl ? 



Another matter that has interested me very much, and which 

 carries us back, is the intimation made by the members of the 

 American Legation in China during the troubles there, that the 

 records show that the Chinese people had discovered America 

 centuries before Christopher Columbus was heard of. Why 

 not, if these people came here to settle in the far north, is there 

 not enough similarity of appearance between the Eskimo and 

 the Chinese to lead us to such a conviction ? The ancient his- 

 tory of China goes back beyond anything that has ever been re- 

 corded by the ancient Hebrew or anyone else. Those records 

 are undoubtedly authentic. Taking the method and their man- 

 ner of keeping the records, it is said to convince every one who 

 has come in contact with them of their truthfulness. This be- 

 ing the fact, and it being found in the recorded history of this 

 brotherhood that they kept poultry of this mammoth size, it 

 leads me to believe that long before there was anything known 

 of the Jungle Fowl in India, there was some other fowl from 

 which those large Chinese fowls descended. Now in proof of 

 this, let me make this statement : All poultrymen know of the 

 Malay Game, a mammoth game fowl. It is a question, ac- 

 cording to the ancient records of India, whether the Malay 

 or Kulm fowl was the first. It may be somewhat unim- 

 portant whether the Malay was first or the Kulm fowl was 

 first. That cannot be decided. They do know, however, that 

 the Kulm fowl and the Chinese Shanghai were very similar. 

 From what origin came the great Shanghais and Brahmas and 

 Langshans? Some of the original of all these, like the Kulm 

 fowl, had no feathering whatever upon the shanks, while others 

 showed the development of the shank and toe feathering to a 

 slight extent when they came to us from China. The plastic 

 condition of the conformation and changes has been cited from 

 the fact that Bantams can be created almost at will. Nature has 

 willed it almost to an absolute certainty that the largest per 

 cent, of influence as to size and character rests with the female. 

 The making of Bantams is accomplished through the selection 

 of the very smallest of females, and pairing them with the small- 

 est males possible to obtain ; through the breeding of two gener- 

 ations in the one twelvemonth, and curtailing the size through 



