296 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



purposes than market, to be a most hardy bird 

 and prolific layer. Putting aside some of the 

 claims advanced to which there are reasons 

 for taking exception, the late Mr. Cook may 

 be given full credit for " booming " and 

 making known in other than poultry-fattening 

 circles, what is recognised as one of the most 

 attractive and useful of all classes of poultry, 

 combining the beautiful and popular buff 

 colour, with admirable table and laying quali- 

 ties. It is probable that the Buff Orpington, 

 as now known, comes as near to the ideal of 

 an all-round, general purpose fowl as is 

 humanly possible ; and it is not a small 

 service to have made such a bird popular 

 amongst breeders generally. 



In breeding Buff Orpingtons the main 

 points to keep in view are (i) colour of 

 plumage, as in all buffs ; (2) clean 

 ^"«^°e white legs ; (3) make and shape. 

 Orpingtons. "^^^ following notes are kindly 

 supplied by Mr. W. Richardson, 

 founder of the Buff Orpington Club, and well 

 known as a successful exhibitor. 



" Following close on the Black Orpingtons 

 the late Mr. W. Cook introduced the Buff 

 Orpington, showing a pair at the Dairy Show 

 in 1894, and the bulfs soon jumped into the 

 ranks of first favourites with many fanciers. 

 I took up poultry in 1895, and the first pure 

 bred fowls I had were Buff Orpingtons, and 

 I have always placed them first favourites and 

 bred 500 or more every year since. There 

 was a great deal of controversy with regard 

 to their introduction, and no doubt any kind 

 of buff fowl that looked at all like a Buff 

 Orpington was sold as such. Taking a deep 

 interest in the breed, I set out to find what 

 was their real origin and if they were, as 

 many asserted, only Lincolnshire buffs. I 

 visited about the years 1897, 1898, and 1899 all 

 the breeders I could hear of, and also several 

 breeders of Lincolnshire buffs, and I satis- 

 fied myself completely that they were two 

 different breeds. In the first place all the 

 Lincolnshire buffs bred on the farms in Lin- 

 colnshire that I visited, where they professed 

 to breed them and nothing else, were identical 

 with the original Buff Cochins as shown in 

 this book, and I have no hesitation in saying 

 that the present-day Lincolnshire buff is 

 nothing else but the descendant of the old Buff 

 Cochin. 



" I met a large farmer in Lincolnshire who 

 had bred buff fowls for many years and liked 

 the clean white-legged buff birds, and he told 

 me how they had been evolved. In the old 

 days the people kept Dorkings, and when 



the Buff Cochins came along they w-ere crossed 

 with the Dorkings, but finding the cross not 

 very good layers, they again crossed them 

 with Golden Hamburgh cocks, the result being 

 a clean white legged buff fowl of very good 

 all round qualities. By selecting the best 

 specimens to breed from every year the birds 

 bred more and more to the type required. 



" This farmer also told me that the late 

 Mr. W. Cook had bought all the birds he 

 would sell two or three years before I was at 

 his place, and he also told him how the birds 

 had been bred, so there was no doubt in my 

 mind that these birds formed some part at least 

 of the foundation of the Buff Orpington fowl. 



" Many breeders have tried to improve the 

 Buff Orpington by introducing crosses of the 

 Buff Cochin and Buff Plymouth Rock, and, 

 as far as I have seen, without much success, 

 as where one point might be gained two would 

 be lost. I have never introduced any cross 

 into my birds, though I have tried the same 

 experiments as others, because I found there 

 was no advantage, and, on the other hand, 

 a lot of trouble. I also prefer to keep the 

 breed pure and develop it from itself, and 

 this in the long run has given me much more 

 satisfaction. The Buff Orpington is a most 

 useful and handsome bird, and in my opinion 

 it and the White Orpington are the two most 

 useful fowls we have. The real Buff Orping- 

 ton is an everlasting layer, a first-class table 

 bird, and a grand exhibition fowl. It is 

 hardy and strong, and as I have always bred 

 mine on the cold w-et Sussex clay, on which 

 some kinds of poultry will not do, they must 

 be strong to stand it. If anything, I find 

 the chickens stronger every year ; out of 400 

 chickens I hatched in i g 1 1 , with the exception 

 of a few that never started, I lost but two. 



" The Buff Orpington cock should be of as 

 nearly as possible the same type as the black, 

 but owing to not having as much length of 

 feather they look somewhat taller and not 

 so massive, yet there is not much difference in 

 their body measurements. In colour the buff 

 should be of an even dense orange, neither 

 red, yellow nor brassy, and the colour should 

 be bright and as near one shade all over as 

 possible. The best specimens are very nearly 

 perfect in colour, but most of them show a 

 little dark in flights and tail, and a few of 

 them some white, and I think it will be some 

 years before they all come perfectly buff in 

 a flock, even if they are bred from the best 

 picked specimens. 



" Strain has a great deal to do with the 

 breeding of Buff Orpingtons. I have proved 



