Brown Leghorns, Past and Present 



A Review of the Standard-Bred Brown Leghorns ol Twenty Years Ago and Those of Today 



Job. F. Carter 



BROWN Leghorns were my first love in poultry, and 

 for more than a quarter of a century I clung to 

 them with almost bull dog tenacity, despite the 

 fact that the Standard has done more to injure them than 

 a dozen years of good, faithful work, on the part of those 

 who champion their cause, can undo. However, I believe 

 the damage will be undone and that the Brown Leghorn 

 will again come into its own. The older breeders can re- 

 member that wherever one went, there the sprightly, 

 brown, egg-machines were decidedly in evidence. 



Double Mating Necessary to Produce Desired Color 



I say brown. Are the rich, soft, brown birds to be 

 found today save in the yards of those breeders who 

 practice double mating? Is it any longer possible for the 

 average man who keeps a flock of Browns on a city lot, 

 say "40 by 40," even think of raising some of the pros- 

 pective prize winners? Is it because the variety is any 

 the less worthy of public recognition than it was two, 

 three or four decades ago, that we see so few of them as 

 compared with those times? These are questions that 

 must appeal to the breeders of the variety, and I am 

 pleased to note that they are sitting up to take notice and 

 that those most interested are willing to admit that the 

 black stripe in the saddle has destroyed the rich golden 

 brown in the plumage of the females. 



Color Governed by the Male 



As an evidence of this fact, I will give you an illustra- 

 tion. First, every intelligent breeder will admit that size 

 is taken from the female and that color is governed by 

 the male. Having settled this matter in our minds, let us 

 take up the subject of the pigment or coloring matter that 

 enters into the feathers. Suppose we take black, red and 

 orange (or yellow) and mix these pigments as an artist 

 would, a color printer or lithographer, until we get that 

 soft, rich brown with which the female Browns were 

 once adorned. We noted carefully the proportions used 

 and made, at least, a mental memorandum of it. We will 

 now take the same colors as previously used and will cut 

 away twenty-five per cent, of the red and orange and in 

 its stead we add an equal amount of black. Well, that is 

 first what was done with the Brown Leghorn males. And 

 inasmuch as the male controls the color, is it any wonder 

 that the females of today are anything but brown? Shall 

 we sacrifice the color of all the females for the purpose 

 of gratifying the idiosyncrasy of a few who think the 

 black stripe in the saddle of the male is more to be con- 

 sidered than the color of all the female birds to say 

 nothing of injuring their popularity as a variety of a noble 

 breed? 



My Early Experience 



I recall that many years ago I had the pleasure of 

 entertaining a prominent poultry judge. I remember how 

 enthusiastic he was over the black stripe in the saddle 

 that was fast beginning to take hold upon the fanciers of 

 the Browns. I remember, too, when he went out to look 

 over my flock, his exclamation: "Oh! you are a pullet 



boy." Yes I was. But I didn't know as much about color- 

 ing material then as I do now, nor did I realize as fully as 

 I do now the extent to which the male bird transmits the 

 coloring matter to its progeny. And so, like thousands 

 of others, I fell into the pit that someone else had dug 

 for me, and the joy I found in the black stripe in the 

 saddle came near being my undoing. A few years ago at 

 an exhibition, a gentleman said: "Come and see my prize 

 winning Brown Leghorn hen." I went the length of the 

 hall with him to see a bird that, for color, was a "frosty- 

 edged" nondescript. I wouldn't have carried it home for 

 it. 



Standard of 1883 vs. Standard of 1910 



Before me, as I write, I have the Standard of Excel- 

 lence of 1883. Here is the description for the back of the 

 male bird: "Very dark red, approaching black on the 

 lower part, each feather striped with golden bay." The 

 same Standard calls for a hackle thus: "The hackles being 

 a rich golden bay, striped with black." The present Stand- 

 ard calls for saddle feathers, rich brilliant red with lus- 

 trous greenish-black stripe running through the middle of 

 each feather, same as in the hackle. I now call your at- 

 tention to the difference between a rich golden-bay and a 

 rich brilliant red as shown by the color charts in the 

 present Standard. The tendency has not only been to 

 supplant the "Golden Bay" in the saddle of the male 

 birds of 1883 with black, but the color of red has been 

 darkened. The whole tendency has been to greatly darken 

 the plumage of the male bird. The present Standard in 

 its description of the back of the female calls for "a light 

 brown finely stippled with a darker brown, the lighter 

 shade predominating. I would like to have the party, in 

 whose fertile brain this description originated, stand right 

 up in his place and tell us how he intends to produce it 

 with the present Standard requirements for the male bird. 

 Or doesn't he intend to use a Standard male bird to get 

 it? .'\nd if not, of what earthly use is the male bird, of 

 not only the present Standard, but every other Standard, 

 that has called for the black stripe in the saddle, except 

 for show purposes only and for the made bird only. ' 



Mating For the Desired Color in Females 



If you would have that beautiful brown for which th» 

 females were once noted, get a male bird that is abso- 

 lutely and wholly devoid of black in the saddle and with 

 a hackle that, instead of a black stripe, if you can find it, 

 has a dark maroon stripe. Mate it to your female birds, 

 and then to its own daughters and see if you don't get fe- 

 males that it will be a pleasure to look at. Will the breed- 

 ers of Brown Leghorns go back' to the 1883 Standard de- 

 scription for the color of the back of the male and once 

 more give to the females the beautiful brown color that 

 belongs to them and of which they were, doubtless, un- 

 willingly robbed? I think they will. If not of the volition 

 of the master minds, at least by a popular clamor for a 

 restoration of the earlier color that made the varieties 

 famous. 



