No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 293 



has really spent a lifetime in this occupation. His life ended last 

 year; he passed away. 



Mr. Orr spoke of Mr. Cook as having risen from the position of 

 a coachman in England, and having devoted his life to the business of 

 developing fancy breeds of fowls, beautiful in form and marked in 

 qualities. He stated that when Mr. Cook passed away, he was said to 

 be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars which he had acquired in 

 breeding these birds. He originated and developed some half dozen 

 varieties. Only one has been admitted to our standard but the others 

 are likely to be admitted in the near future. Here we have that same 

 quality of flesh, nice white flesh, thin skin, shanks are the same — 

 pinkish white shanks, body full, round and long, and with a quantity 

 of most excellent flesh. 



Mr. Orr spoke of the folly of breeding the ordinary dung-hill fowl 

 of the hit-or-miss variety, and of the necessity of uniform quality 

 for marketing purposes. He said that the American people were 

 beginning to discriminate in the matter of uniformity and that it 

 was necessary to pay attention to this quality if one desires to 

 achieve success in poultry breeding. 



He spoke of having been in Missouri last year where he had a 

 practical illustration of the value of uniformity when a farmer 

 came in and offered to a buyer a lot of ordinary mixed chicks, and 

 the price offered the same was twelve cents per pound. Later, an- 

 other farmer with his wife drove up to the same buyer's place of 

 business in a spring wagon, with a fine lot of chicks of uniform size 

 and color, for which the buyer offered fourteen cents, and explained 

 to Mr. Orr that the reason he did so, was because of their more mar- 

 - ketable quality, due to uniformity of size and color, and the same 

 principle applied to eggs that were offered for sale, and the buyer 

 stated that if he didn't buy these chickens and pay the outside price, 

 they would be sent to the Kansas- City or Chicago market where they 

 would find a ready sale and if he, the buyer, did not hold himself 

 ready to pay the price, he would lose the trade of the people offering 

 them to him for sale. He said the people demand uniformity of 

 quality and they do not want to guess at it, they want to know it. 



(Mr. Orr exhibited another bird from the lot on the platform.) 

 We have here a bird surpassing any of our American varieties in 

 quality and flesh. It stands next to the Langshan in that peculiar 

 white flesh and in that desirable turkey quality of which I spoke 

 in connection with the Langshan. It is the Buff Orpington of which 

 1 spoke a few minutes ago. 



Mr. Orr spoke of his having brought into the house at his own 

 home more than once, two fowls of different varieties that his wife 

 might make a trial of their qualities by roasting them together so 

 that they might determine the difference in their eating qualities. 



