No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 311 



The breast is very full, veiy abundanl. This While Wyaiidolte, 

 if plucked, would have a block}' body. Notice Ihe fine comb and 

 the relinement of- type that you see everywhere; that is the fancier's 

 idea of what constitutes a White' Wyandotte. Now let's have the 

 other kind, the w^ovkaday White Wyandotte. Those of j'ou who are 

 interested in egg com])etitions, remember the bite North American 

 egg competition and that for once the White Wyandottes beat the 

 Leghorns, and this is the sort they were; you will notice the long 

 body; in fact they are Leghornized White Wj'andottes. The editor 

 of one of our farm papers said thej' were simply White Leghorns. 

 That is not quite true, but it is almost true. They have the narrow 

 back; you see w^hat a difference, instead of that great big wide 

 back they have a narrow back ; in fact we again almost have a new 

 breed. This is the workaday White Leghorn. It is up to you again 

 to say which is the prettier. 



It seems that the American Poultry Association up to this time 

 has made their standard — well, if jou will tell me who makes 

 women's fashions, I will tell you who makes the American standard 

 of perfection. I don't know; it is simply a fad or a fanc}', a chang- 

 ing fad or fancy not based on anything solid or substantial. Some- 

 times the American standard of some certain variety is simply 

 based on a fad of one man, one fancier. I shouldn't have any 

 quarrel with that, it put more money in my pocket at a certain 

 period than any other chance of making money I ever had, but 

 I don't think it is quite fair, when w^e come to sell this kind of 

 chicken to the man Avho w-ants to get dozens of eggs or pounds 

 of meat. 



Now we have the laying type of White Wyandotte in this chicken. 

 Notice the very large, high comb on tw^o or three of these hens, 

 almost lop combs, they were so large they would drop over. I 

 am proud of the fact that Pennsylvania poultry people have been 

 exceedingly liberal the last year in giving up their good dollars 

 to get these good layers, it didn't matter who owned the birds or 

 where they came from. They got the best they could buy, and 

 these chickens we are looking at are to-day on Pennsylvania poultry 

 farms and have high records as layers. 



We have here Rhode Islands Reds. Now^ w^hen I said that the 

 Barred I*lymouth Rock was the most popular chicken on the farms 

 of Pennsylvania, I am afraid that to-day this other breed is leading 

 and is slowly but surely pushing the Barred Plymouth Rocks off 

 the farms of Pennsylvania. 1 don't know why, except that perhaps 

 this is a better chicken. I am only showing four varieties of 

 chickens this morning; these four varieties practically cover what 

 is really popular to-day in America, the Rocks, the Wyandottes, the 

 Reds and the Leghorns. Take the Campfire — just two years ago 

 everybody was buying Campfires. On one farm I visited this sea- 

 son, the five first prize Madison Garden winners are not found 

 at all. The general public seems to have simmered down to these 

 four varieties. The farmer seems to like this Red. I don't know 

 why the Red is good except that the American Poultry Association 

 has done less to spoil the Red as a utility bird than any other 

 breed. The Barred Plymouth Rock, to get the colors I was showing 

 vou, we have three distinct breeds, a controlling and pullet line. 

 A certain line of chickens we breed together, male and female, to 

 give the female a certain shade and color and then bring the two 



