THE LEGHORNS 



39 



We have or had some feathers from both the Howell 

 and the Burgott champion females as well as from some 

 of the males mentioned and they are particularly interest- 

 ing after this lapse of years. 



Light colored females and heavily striped males at 

 no matter what cost as to other qualities were then de- 

 manded. The writer thought he knew then considerable 

 about the theory of color breeding and was endeavoring 

 to put his beliefs and theories into practice. It was as 

 easy as seeing a haystack that color was the big IT in 

 Brown Leghorns, as it is 

 in fact today, and prob- 

 ably always will be. 



About Single Mating 



The first two years 

 was wasted in following 

 the will-o'-the-wisp of 

 single mating this va- 

 riety and I should like 

 here to emphasize that 

 word "wasted." Plenty 

 of advice could be found 

 in the poultry papers of 

 those days how to single 

 mate for results or, if 

 using double mating, 

 what to look for and 

 what to avoid in the 

 color and marking of 

 the breeders. When put 

 into practice these 

 proved themselves to be 

 all wrong and in the 

 light of what I now 

 know — which, by the 

 way, is not nearly as 

 much as I should like 

 to know — I cannot re- 

 member a single article 

 that was of any value to 

 me. 



The theory that 

 Brown Leghorns being 

 of the black-red type or 

 of the natural color 

 scheme as found in the 

 parent stock of the galli- 

 naceous race should be 



easy to modify or control, soon had to goto smash. It was 

 true all right that red pigment is never found to exist alone 

 in the plumage of fowls, but how to modify what red there 

 was into a light brown, in fact, how to make out a red 

 Leghorn a light, soft brown one, free from the glaring 

 faults that went with this color, seemed well nigh im- 

 possible and was impossible in a single mating. The 

 heavy, striping, too, in males seemed foreign to the black- 

 red male and it was some talk overheard at the Garden 

 show that a certain breeder had used Partridge Cochin 

 blood to get size in females and color in males, that gave 

 me the idea that there might be something better used to 

 produce brilliancy and striping in males. 



After about a year's search a Black Leghorn female 

 was found that promised well and having a splendid 

 briglit male the two were mated. The results surpassed 

 all expectations and at one jump, from having little or no 

 striping, there was striping to burn. An abundance of 

 black pigment had been supplied and the reserve laid by 



A FAMOUS BROWN LEGHORN HEN 



The Single Comb Brown Leghorn hen illustia 

 Arthur C. Smith, manager of Grove Hill Poultry Yard.s 

 be the greatest Brown Leghorn hen that ever 

 first prizes at Philadelphia, one "' ^^-— ^^--.- 

 American Exposi ' " ' 



at all of the abo 



to last for many years. The young males from tliis mating 

 had such brilliancy of plumage that the tails were not 

 figuratively, but actually green. They were coveted, too, 

 but none were sold the first year. Then the second year 

 some were sold (six in one week at $25.00 each) and later 

 on, eggs for hatching were sold. It is to be feared, judg- 

 ing by the letters they wrote, that some of the buyers of 

 these eggs still believe me to be a rascal. The pullets 

 from those eggs, or the most of them, would grow up 

 with dark, almost black legs and without the usual salmon 

 colored breasts, the 

 breast being of the same 

 color as that of the back. 

 Writing these people, 

 that they were from 

 cockerel line matings 

 and very dark blood on 

 the female side would 

 not satisfy all of them. 



Persistence in dis- 

 carding any females for 

 breeding that did not 

 have a good strong 

 hackle and plenty of 

 green sheen showing 

 over back and tail made 

 it comparatively easy to 

 hold brilliancy and color 

 in the males and, as 

 showing how good blood 

 will persist in cropping 

 up, one of the best males 

 that has appeared within 

 the last two or three 

 years, or for that mat- 

 ter, that has ever ap- 

 peared, is a direct de- 

 scendant of that Black 

 Leghorn hen and the 

 bright male. 



Honor to George H. 

 Morris 



About 1896 I made 

 the acquaintance at New 

 York show of a man 

 who has done more for 

 good colored Brown 

 Leghorns than any other 

 man living or dead. I refer to George H. Morris, of East 

 Orange, New Jersey, who was exhibiting a hen at the 

 Garden that year that did not get a place. Later on this 

 man by a happy union of Howell and Burgott blood, pro- 

 duced a pullet that in February, 1899, won second place at 

 Madison Square Garden. 



Perhaps as much as 90 per cent of the show Brown 

 Leghorn females of this country today carry in their veins 

 the blood of this female. Practically no other blood 

 has won at the Garden since and even in very late 

 years females have appeared at this show that were the 

 simon-pure descendants of this female. Mr. Morris made 

 few friends, but with those he did make he was willing to 

 discuss Brown Leghorn color breeding by the hour. He 

 never advertised; he never sold any birds. He bred his 

 famous strain or family only a few years, but in those few 

 years he built well. To this foundation it was left to the 

 vi^riter mostly, in the years following, to build on in kind. 

 Mr. Morris believed in using a male, for pullet line 



New York, 

 She also bred fir 

 shows and other shows. 



She won two 

 and the Pan- 

 prize winners 



