154 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



On account of warmer climate, my thoughts now turned 

 to the Mediterranean varieties, and bought a flock of nearly 

 300 Buff Leghorns, and some Minorcas. One winter's ex- 

 perience with these varieties was enough. They did not lay 

 as well, with same attention, as did our other varieties, and 

 the Leghorns were too wild and nervous to run in our yards 

 containing oak trees. When time came for winter quarters 

 we found it necessary to run them down daytimes, as a number 

 of them preferred the tops of the trees as sleeping quarters to 

 the comfortable coops provided for them. The Minorcas we 

 discarded without quite as thorough trial, as they did not suit 

 me personally, and wished to cut down breeds. 



That spring we bought over 1,000 Rhode Island Red eggs 

 from the leading breeders and had quite a flock of them when 

 fall came. They ran from light red through all shades of 

 buff and yellow to pure white, and from dark red through the 

 smoky shades to pure black. Selected the best birds and 

 found them to be excellent winter layers and good hardy fowls. 

 Did not find them ahead of our buff varieties in any way, and 

 knew it would hurt our trade in fancy buffs to have a fowl on 

 the place that was liable to breed specimens of a buff color, 

 hence closed them all out the next year. 



During the past five years the Red breeders have made a 

 wonderful amount of improvement in the uniformity of color 

 in their flocks, as well as in excellence of individual specimens. 

 They are a valuable general purpose fowl, and, while pins are 

 a little darker than those of the buff and white varieties, they 

 rival either in attractive appearance of the dressed product. 



During the past five years have made experiments with 

 pens of Golden and Silver Wyandottes, White Leghorns, again 

 with Brahmas and Langshans, and added the White Plymouth 

 Rock once more. In turn they have been discarded, excepting 

 the whites, and I now give my unqualified endorsement to the 

 Barred, Buff, and White Plymouth Rock, and the Buff and 

 White Wyandotte, as being the best all-round general-purpose 

 fowl in existence, with Rhode Island Reds their nearest com- 

 petitor. This is the result of my own personal experience, 

 and not influenced in the least by the opinions of others. 



Ip choosing which variety of the above to give a trial, I will 

 simply advise that you take the one best suited to your personal 

 taste in color or form. They vary so little in tgg production, 



