286 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



cockerels if of good shape, size, colour, etc. In 

 choosing a male bird to mate with the hens, I 

 should prefer to use a cockerel or two-year-old 

 cock, a tall, stylish, well-shaped bird, close in 

 feather, as green as possible in colour, fine in 

 bone, dark eyes and brilliant red face and comb ; 

 the latter firm, erect, evenly serrated, and back 

 part of same carried close to the head. The 

 male bird should be very stylish and have as 

 green a tail as possible, legs perfectly straight, 

 and shanks set well apart. The shanks and 

 outer toes should be well feathered, but the 

 feathers not coarse. Any fault which the hens 

 may have must be counterbalanced by the cock. 



" It is quite possible to breed goijd-coloured 

 Langshans supposing the hens are short of 

 colour, if mated to a grandly coloured cock, but 

 I think it is most important in order to breed 

 good-coloured Langshans that you should have 

 the colour to start with on one side, either in 

 the cock or the hens, the former for preference. 

 Of course, if you have colour on both sides so 

 much the better. You must breed for colour, 

 and will not get it by feeding, only so far that 

 by good feeding you improve the condition 

 of your bird. 



"The modern type Langshan I find is a 

 splendid winter layer. I have one large pullet 

 in a run alone (as I was anxious to breed a few 

 cockerels from her) and for a long time she has 

 been laying splendidly. She lays for nine days 

 as a rule without a miss, she then misses one 

 day and starts again, and she has been laying 

 like this for weeks. Then as regards table 

 birds, not many breeds can surpass this type 

 of Langshan. In the autumn I sent twelve of 

 my Langshan chickens hatched late in April to 

 market, dressed, and the twelve averaged slightly 

 over 6s. 8d. each ; the four finest were sold at 8s. 

 each, and this in a market where the top price 

 for ordinary fowls was 5s. per couple. The above 

 average broke my record in 1899 of 13s. per 

 couple for the best table birds. 



" Langshan chickens are very hardy, and are 

 very easily reared, and as all breeders of Lang- 

 shans know, are black and yellow when hatched. 

 Generally speaking, the yellowest chickens turn 

 out the most brilliant coloured birds. Lang- 

 shans require practically no preparation in order 

 to exhibit them. Mine are in no way treated 

 differently during the show season, from any 

 other time of the year. Of course the legs, 

 faces, and combs require washing before sending 

 to a show, and it is a good plan to stroke the 

 birds down with a silk handkerchief when in the 

 hampers before sending to a show, but nothing 

 further is required." 



These notes, from two such representative 



breeders, leave us practically nothing to add, but 

 we may perhaps make one remark upon breed- 

 ing for colour. There is no doubt that green 

 parents on both sides are far the best. But 

 there is also no doubt that in glossy green-black 

 fowls, the male offspring of glossy pullets often 

 show red in the hackles ; and if there is no 

 other promising stock available, the experience 

 of Hamburgh breeders goes to show that such 

 a red-hacklcd cock, bred from a good hen or 

 pullet, may be used for imparting gloss and 

 green colour to his female offspring. His 

 cockerels will be red, and this red gives a great 

 deal of trouble to breed out when once intro- 

 duced directly; hence the desirability of avoid- 

 ing it and using green stock on both sides ; still 

 there may be cases where the knowledge of 

 such facts may be useful in pullet breeding. 



In regard to the plate which illustrates this 

 chapter, both Langshan breeders and our- 

 selves are under special obligations both to 

 the artist and to Mr. G. Fielder. Mr. Ludlow's 

 first sketch was based upon various photographs 

 supplied by Mr. Fielder, and all subsequent 

 slight modifications in detail were made under 

 the patient criticism of that gentleman, con- 

 veyed to us personally with the actual birds 

 before us, and illustrated and justified by yet 

 further photographs, in a manner which cost 

 the artist also an amount of time and trouble 

 quite unusual. But after all that had taken 

 place previously, no pains were thought too 

 great by all parties to procure unimpeachable 

 representation of the type now recognised by 

 a majority of Langshan breeders ; and it has 

 been a satisfaction to all concerned to have 

 received already most emphatic approval and 

 endorsement of it by those interested. 



In America the Langshan is bred to an 

 older type ; not to that we had advocated and 

 shown in the small block on page 282 from 

 Miss Croad's advertisement, but with the some- 

 what greater length of limb and higher and 

 taller tail which first began to supplant it, 

 before the reaction had become fully developed. 

 In all points, save a few minor details, the 

 American Langshan as now bred resembles the 

 type known in Great Britain as " the Croad," 

 since, in 1904, the Pure (Croad) Langshan Club 

 adopted as the model for which its members 

 were to strive an illustration representing the 

 type in vogue in the United States, and of 

 which the accompanying illustration, from the 

 pencil of Mr. Franklane Sewell, in the Reliable 

 Poultry Journal, gives a very fair idea. The 

 model may probably be taken as representing 



