6o WYANDOTTES. 



scrubs taking the name of White Wyandottes, the name being a 

 passport to their sale and value. 



Those who watch the system of breeding thoroughbred fowls 

 and animals, are not surprised at these periodic or spasmodic booms. 

 Our ingenuity and enterprise must not rust for want of friction, nor 

 will we accept the maxim that "true genius is ever modest." We 

 rush at things without weighing the ultimate results; failure is un- 

 known in our vocabulary, for, when we make a false step, we do not 

 retire to examine the ground, and calculate on the obstacles before 

 us, but we start on a new path, and manage to reach the objective 

 point by the shortest road. Away back in the " fifties," we worked 

 up a hen fever craze, which appears to have taken deep root in our 

 soil, as it comes, like other contagious fevers, when our blood is 

 morbid and sluggish and needs stirring up. Our English brethren 

 do not have this fever with such virulence, but they have learned 

 many of the Yankee tricks at manipulation; not in making new 

 varieties, so much, but in working over old stock for the American 

 market. 



We may take to ourselves much praise for producing the 

 finest class of fowls known to the American or European poultry 

 fancier. Indeed, it is hard to discriminate between the " Rocks " and 

 " Dottes," as far as beauty and utility go. It is, perhaps, known to 

 the amateur, that the White Wyandotte is one of the best, if not the 

 best, of the American class, for every purpose. We know there are 

 many enthusiastic admirers of this variety, who make very extrava- 

 gant, and, indeed, ludicrous statements of their superiority in lay- 

 ing, but it is pardonable on the part of those who sometimes con- 

 tribute to their favorite poultry papers, an article on the variety or 

 varieties they are breeding; so it is not the White Wyandotte, 

 altogether, that receives all the fulsome adulation of an enthused 

 amateur; every Standard breed is recorded, in cold type, the "best 

 breed in the country." 



It is a mooted question who originated the White Wyandottes. 

 The friends of Mr. Geo. H. Towle claim that he was breeding and 

 improving the White Wyandotte in 1872, while the friends of Mr. B. 

 M. Briggs, of Wyandale, N. Y., insist on his right of priority. A 

 few others, too, modestly hint that they had " white sports " as early 

 as those who are claiming the honor, but, on investigation, the 

 credit is due to one or the other of these two gentlemen; the latter, 

 however, having the first strain of pure-bred birds in a presentable 

 condition, and this honor was conceded by the White Wyandotte 



