THE LEGHORNS 



or about that time, a concerted movement was started to 

 increase the size of this variety. This met with success 

 and in a few instances was overdone to so great an extent 

 that some strains lost all semblance to Leghorn shape, 

 being too long in body and too flat on the back for typical 

 Leghorns. Such are valuable as breeders with smaller 

 strains of well formed birds, but the extreme size that de- 

 stroys and makes Leghorn shape impossible should be 

 discouraged. 



You may ask, "To what do we owe the improvement 

 in Brown Leghorns?" To just two things. First, the 



Standard is now just what the breeders want, and, second, 

 the judges are men who have bred these birds. Formerly 

 every show hired three judges, one for the -American 

 class, one for the Asiatic class and one for pigeons. The 

 Tfmaining classes had to take the judge that finished first. 

 Lxhibitors suffered much from these well meaning but 

 incompetent men. It is only within the past four years 

 that a Brown Leghorn breeder has been selected to judge 

 a show of such magnitude and importance as the Madison 

 Square Garden show. The result has been far reaching in 

 aiding the establishment of the true type. 



Color Breeding in BroM^n Leghorns 



[istory of the Production of Some of the Finest Brown Leghorns Ever Produced— Star Birds of Other 

 Days, and the Ideals to Which they Were Bred— Remarkable Results Obtained by the 

 Crossing of a Black Leghorn and a Brown Leghorn Male — Double 

 Mating is Essential 



THE writer may as well confess that his taking up 

 color breeding in Brown Leghorns was merely an 

 accident of circumstances. A shift of the wheel of 

 life made it again possible to breed chickens and some real 

 good Single Comb Brown Leghorns, from which eggs for 

 hatching at a low price could be had, being handy, a start 

 was made with them. 



' The Madison Square Garden poultry show was then a 

 comijarativeiy new thing and wishing to know, at first 

 hand, ju<t what the color of Brown Leghorns was. or had 



to be, we visited the above exhibition several years in 

 succession, practically for this express purpose. 



Those were the days when "Chet" Howell and George 

 Burgott were showing their then famous females — 

 "Venus," "Venus H" and "Nina" and "Nina III;" while 

 in the winnings James Forsyth and Wm. Ellery Bright 

 were to be reckoned with, both in males and females, W. 

 W. Kulp appearing just a little later with a wonderfully 

 colored male, followed by Herbert Smith with a really 

 .-cn=ational bird. 



A Great Trio of Brown Leghorns 



Winning the blue ribbon at New YoiU 

 achievement. Grove Hiil Poultry Farm did this 

 type and style combined. 



