178 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



But yet it is desirable, and it is certainly- 

 possible, to modify points in a standard which 

 are now known to have a bad effect. Let us 



briefly summarise the chief : — 

 Desirable I- -^ superabundance of loose 



Changes. plumage is now known to cause poor 



laying and coarse skin ; and exces- 

 sive leg-feather and vulture-hocks have proved 

 correlative with deficiency of breast. Effort would 

 probably be now wasted upon the Cochin, which 

 can no longer be considered a utility fowl ; but 

 attempt should certainly be made so to alter 

 the standard as to restore and encourage tight 

 plumage, moderate feather, absence of hocks, 

 and length of body as points in the Brahma. 



2. Excessive comb is now known to be 

 directly injuring all the Mediterranean races, so 

 far as England is concerned. It has been 

 deplored by every standard writer upon Leg- 

 horns, and several upon Minorcas and Andalu- 

 sians and Anconas, and compels breeders to 

 dub many of their breeding males. It could 

 easily be checked by setting a limit, and deduct- 

 ing points for excess beyond. Being convinced 

 that many sketches of these birds, by artists, 

 really exceeded Nature, and thus increased the 

 evil by setting a pattern beyond the birds 

 themselves, we asked one of the stewards of the 

 London Dairy Show for 1899 to withdraw for 

 us four prize-winners of the Minorcas and 

 largest-combed Leghorns. Adopting as a 

 standard measure the distance from centre of 

 eye to point of beak in each bird, we found that 

 only one of the four birds reached tzvice that 

 distance, from centre of eye to the top of the 

 tallest spike in the comb ; all the others had 

 something to spare within that measure, which 

 will cover nine-tenths of all present prize- 

 winners, though we see drawings which measure 

 two and a quarter times, and even two and a 

 half It would be perfectly easy to define that 

 no comb should exceed the twice, in vertical 

 height, and that for any more, points should be 

 deducted. Leghorns would be better set at 

 rather less than twice ; but we would dread 

 violent changes, and trust to the steady influ- 

 ence of the penalised points for excess. This 

 would affect hardly a bird of to-day, and yet 

 certainly act gently and steadily towards 

 diminishing the comb. 



3. All breeds of fowl specially valuable for 

 the table, and turkeys, would be the better for 

 points in the standard being deducted for want 

 of length in the breast-bone. To increase this is 

 almost the chief point wantea in many table 

 fowls, as we have found them at exhibitions 

 during the last few years. 



We do not think that such moderate changes 



as these should be hopeless, and they would be 

 very far-reaching ; much more so than those 

 who have not studied the subject would suppose. 

 There is encouragement for such hopes in what 

 has been done in America, where exhibition 



poultry are now bred and shown by 

 Fancy and standards framed nearer to utility 

 Utility in lines. It is only in England that 

 America. jj^g Brahma has become a Cochin ; 



in America it has still the long 

 body and moderate leg-feather and close plum- 

 age which it had in older days with us, and is 

 still a magnificent layer and table fowl. There 

 the Leghorn still has a moderate comb, and 

 pens produce their 215 eggs a year. The 

 general result is noteworthy, in the vast increase 

 of the poultry industry. Stock birds are sold 

 to the farmers by thousands annually, and the 

 farmers go to the breeders on a scale utterly 

 unknown in England as yet, providing a 

 steady market at good prices, which is far the 

 best and most profitable support for a pursuit 

 like poultry breeding. Yet in some respects 

 the Americans are more "fancy" even than 

 ourselves, and will disqualify for a hidden 

 feather not visible on the surface, where an 

 English judge would take no notice whatever. 

 There is the same system of exhibition, and of 

 judging by fixed outward points ; it is simply a 

 question of modifying the judging, in quite 

 moderate degree and in certain definite direc- 

 tions shown to be required. 



We have not mentioned crests, because we 

 doubt if any crested fowl really is suitable in 

 general for the British climate, nor are we 

 satisfied that the evils alleged of the present 

 large crests are as stated. If it were necessary, 

 and opinion can be rallied to the necessity, 

 excess could be checked by diminishing the 

 points allotted to crest, and increasing those 

 deducted for want of size or symmetry. All 

 we are concerned about here is to point out that 

 such evils — real or only imaginary — are not 

 necessarily inseparable, as alleged, irom judging 

 by fixed outward points, but are definitely 

 remediable by improving the defined standard 

 for judging. It is to these practical, definite 

 directions that effort should be directed ; and 

 the default of the majority of the earlier judges 

 in such directions, at a time when unusually 

 great power lay in their own hands, is the 

 more regrettable, because judicious effort then 

 might have prevented much which it is far 

 harder to remedy now. 



Another real and growing evil is the increas- 

 ing tendency to split varieties in two by mating 

 up different pens to produce the two sexes. 

 The reasons for this are explained in our next 



