No. 6. DEPATMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 309 



chickens. He brought these chickens to his Pennsylvania farm; they 

 are low in vitality, they have never paid, they have simply lost their 

 money. Why, to my notion it is a crime for any man, for any 

 chicken fancier to sell that sort of chicken to tliat sort of person. It 

 is not fair, and I do wish the chicken fancier, much as I respect 

 him — it is a profession that I belonged to for many years — I wish 

 he would quit that, quit fooling our Pennsylvania farmers and 

 our people who are trying to make good with their chickens. 



Now notice the dilference; this is a workaday hen, a Pennsylvania 

 hen. This is the hen whose mother and grandmother and great- 

 grandmother and great-great-grandmother has been bred for egg pro- 

 ducing. This is a hen that laid 283 eggs. This is a hen that could 

 not win in any poultry show in the United States. You can com- 

 pare the two types; one is a show lady and the other a work lady; 

 you see the difference; feathers is everything here; the ability to 

 lay eggs is everything with the other hen. This man had only one 

 thing in view, to see how beautiful, how exquisite he could get his 

 chickens, and just as long as there are men and women that love 

 the beautiful flowers and beautiful painting, just so long there 

 will be men and women who will love the beautiful chickens and 

 just so long will there be poultry fanciers, but most of us I am 

 afraid want the other kind of hen. 



There is quite a difference in type in these Barred Plymouth 

 Rocks. The owner of this hen — and he is a Pennsylvania man and 

 a well known breeder — will tell you if you ask him to describe in 

 a word this chicken, he will tell you that she s a Leghornized Barred 

 Plymouth Bock. That is his description. I think you all get what 

 I am talking about. I fear that the chicken fancier has made of 

 his Barred Plymouth Bock a member of the "pound" family; it 

 is not usual to find in other types of Barred Plymouth Bock 

 birds weighing 8 or 9 or 10 pounds, but if the Barred Plymouth 

 Bock is to be a worker and a layer, it will have to be reduced 

 something in weight. Now we have some White Leghorns. I was 

 talking of Barred Plymouth Bocks and the emphasis we put on 

 Barred Plymouth Bocks and how many men had been working at 

 it, and the same is true of White Leghorns, only a New York man 

 was able to outstrip everybody else and his name is known the 

 world round, and to-day it is simply impossible to win anywhere 

 in any poultry show in the United States of America unless you 

 have this man's TVTiite Leghorn. A great many in the room know 

 whom I am talking about. This man has had a wonderful income 

 the last few years because he created this kind of chicken. This 

 sort of chicken is the result of many, many years of very faitliful 

 and very enthusiastic labor, because he will talk chickens from 

 morning to night and then some. He gave up a wonderful position 

 so that he could devote all his time to chickens. He has given us 

 this elegant, stylish, beautiful W^hite Leghorn, and everybody who 

 admires the beautiful, it seems to me, cannot help but admire that 

 bird; everything is a curve; the beautiful head, the style, every- 

 thing that we think is exquisite in chickens is embodied in that type 

 of White Leghorn; but again I fear that this is not a workaday 

 chicken; in fact I know it to be true, I know it to be a fact, that 

 if you ask the man who produced this chicken why it is that his 



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