REAL EVILS OF THE POULTRY FANCY. 



179 



chapter ; briefly, they lie in insisting upon 

 colours and markings for cock and hen which 

 Nature does not permit to be correlated, or 



produced by the same parents. This 

 Double siso could be remedied, but can 



Matings. only be remedied, by modifying the 



standards so as to describe really 

 correlated colours and markings. If this could 

 only be done, we know of no reform which 

 would have such manifold good effects upon 

 poultry breeding generally; and the recent and 

 growing agitation in America for " single 

 matings " may perhaps bear some fruit, though 

 we are not sanguine. It should, however, be 

 pointed out that this evil, grave as it is, affects 

 the welfare of the poultry fancy itself, by driving 

 people out of it in discouragement (as it has 

 notoriously done), far more than it does the 

 practical usefulness of fowls ; since the latter can 

 easily be kept and bred of one of the sexual 

 sub-varieties alone. The evil effects from the 

 " utility" side then almost disappear. 



There are yet other evils now connected 

 with the poultry fancy to which one cannot shut 

 one's eyes. When fowls come to be looked 



upon in certain circles as mere 

 Other Evils marketable investments, or as in- 

 and Abuses, struments for exciting competitions 



in which great money interests are 

 at stake ; when, in fact, they are shown by any- 

 one for mere pecuniary advantage alone, the 

 proper purpose of poultry exhibition is per- 

 verted, exhibition is abused, and evil cannot but 

 result. A new kind of poultry society often 

 met with now — the keen and business-looking 

 men who combine exhibiting with extensive 

 dealing, and judging, and borrowing, and lend- 

 ing, and " advice " for which fees are charged, and 

 other ways of making money — are not altogether 

 pleasant to reflect upon. Such men can rarely 

 be called true fanciers, though some of them, 

 with all their faults, certainly are. Evils of this 

 kind too, however, affect the poultry fancy 

 itself more than the utility of poultry, for the 

 birds these men exhibit to death do not enter 

 the stock of the country. Those of them who 

 are also breeders, may do some harm by in- 

 br-eeding carried on without knowledge, and by 

 that early breeding which has done so much to 

 sap constitutional vigour ; and these ill-services 

 to utility are shared by others, real fanciers, 

 who ought to know better. Such evils we can 

 only hope to check by the spread of better 

 knowledge. Thus it is that we must strive to 

 teach some how to breed systematically without 

 the evils of incestuous alliances ; to enforce upon 

 others the strong reasons for avoiding summer 

 shows, and even the stock of their usual sup- 



porters ; to urge upon all breeders and fanciers 

 of the true stamp the study and sedulous avoid- 

 ance of the class of shows particularly affected 

 by the shadier class of exhibitors and judges. 

 If this class of really worthless exhibitions, 

 which any amateur can easily learn about for 

 himself with a little inquiry and experience, 

 could only be extinguished by such want of 

 popular support and the growth of public 

 opinion, and good local shows substituted, for 

 local breeders only, like the district vegetable 

 and flower shows so common in England, quite 

 appreciable aid would be given to the cultivation 

 of useful poultry. 



Direct effort can also be made, and we are 

 glad to know is being made, to improve the 

 useful qualities of pure-bred poultry. As 



already observed, this improve- 

 Work of the ment in useful qualities belongs 

 "Utility" properly to those who want 



Poultry Club. poultry for those qualities, and 



the field has always been open to 

 them. The " Utility " Poultry Club was 

 founded in 1897, its primary object being "to 

 encourage the breeding of pure and cross breeds 

 for utility purposes." It provides classes for 

 table poTaltry, for eggs, and lor systems of 

 packing and marketing. The Club also 

 provides skilled advice for members, facilitates 

 "change of blood" from good laying strains, 

 and has been greatly instrumental in stimu- 

 lating the cultivation and advertising for sale 

 of strains of pure breeds bred specially for 

 laying purposes. This is really practical effort, 

 which has already produced result. We need 

 hardly say that all the leading members of 

 this useful body were drawn from the much- 

 maligned poultry exhibitors, and that their 

 utility fowls were bred from exhibition stock. 

 The honorary secretary of the " Utility " Poultry 

 Club, which now includes well over a thousand 

 members, is Mr. L. W. H. Lamaison, Merst- 

 ham, Surrey, of whom all further particulars 

 may be obtained. 



Another valuable feature of this Club is its 

 encouragement of " laying competitions," in 

 which pens of pullets are started on the same 

 day in separate yards under the same feeding 

 and management. The Club's competitions 

 have hitherto usually been during sixteen 

 weeks in winter, commencing about the middle 

 of October. Wherever held, such trials have 

 proved the vital importance and return in profit 

 of that breeding for eggs so often insisted on 

 in this work. In the 1902-3 contest, several 

 pullets laid no eggs at all, and many very 

 few ; but the winning pen of five (white 

 Wyandottes) laid 276, or on an average over 



