4« 



THE LEGHORNS 



To a beginner, if a bird had a good comb he will 

 hardly look farther, but after some years he will learn 

 there are other important pcl.its. Color is usually con- 

 sidered the most important part of a Brown Leghorn, and 

 I think about the hottest place a judge gets into at a 

 show is where a bird has extra fine color but is not so 

 good in shape, while another has extra fine shape and fair 

 color. Each thinks he has the best. 



The shape of the body back of the legs is an im- 

 portant point to the eye. The fluff should extend beyond 

 the legs, giving us a balanced and symmetrical body. I 

 would like to show it in its beauty in living models; also 

 the style where the body seems to come to an end right 

 back of the legs. If you have no male with this shape — 

 the long fluff — but have the upstanding kind, mate him to 

 hens having a full saddle rising to the tail. I at one time 



Rose Comb. 



BROWN LEGHORN EGGS 



The two dozen eggs illustrated above were laid by Rose Comb and Single Comb 

 Brown Leghorn hens bred and owned by W. W. Kulp. Pottstown, Pa. Each dozen 

 weighs 32 ounces, which is eight ounces per dozen above the average weight of market 

 eggs, 



mated a high tailed cockerel to such a hen and every male 

 had the shape of the hen and but one pullet had the cock- 

 erel's shape. One had the hen's, and the others were in 

 between the two. In color this sire striped dark. The 

 ilam was medium dark only. The edge of the cockerel's 

 hackle and saddle was light red. All the cockerels were 

 only medium to very light, with not much striping, while 

 all th€ pullets had a dark ground color, penciled rather 

 light — as light as the mother — but had two pencilings 

 where she had one. This mating produced show pullets 

 while I wanted show cockerels. She had the shape and 

 ■■.omb and was medium dark. 



Of late years the great point to be gained seems to 

 DC Dlack stripes in hackle and saddle. The black edged 

 with a bright, rich red is beautiful, no doubt, and should 

 first be bred in the neck to perfection. What I mean is, 

 do not sacrifice hackle for saddle, for you can see the 

 hackle, both the black and golden red, one hundred feet 

 away, while the black of the back can only be seen right 

 by handling. The neck being arched prevents the feath- 

 ers from lapping enough to cover the black, while the 

 Standard back makes a concave sweep and this laps the 

 feathers until only the red shows, making practically a 

 solid red saddle except when handled or viewed very 

 close. 



The proper mate to use to a dark, metallic striped 



hackle and saddle is a female having solid or almost black 

 stripe in neck. Edge color should go to the end of the 

 feather or you will have a smutty hackle on your cock- 

 erels. I should prefer a plain saddle with a beautifully 

 edged hackle, the red color extending to and around the 

 end of each feather on the cape to a perfect saddle, with 

 the hackle only red on the upper part, the cape or lower 

 part being black, both the edge and center. I would ad- 

 vise this: Never give up a good hackle and fair saddle for 

 a fair hackle and good saddle. I have seen it done often 

 in the Single Comb Browns, but I was also glad to see 

 our best judges favor the best hackle in preference to the 

 best saddle. 



The pullets from a dark cockerel, and his mate to re- 

 produce him, are always bad in breast color. It is im- 

 possible to hold a salmon breast and produce the black 

 stripe in saddles. In Sint,1e 

 Comb Browns, lots of pullets 

 will get breasts like their backs, 

 and I know it will produce the 

 same in Rose Comb Browns. 

 But if the Standard and the 

 buyers demand a striped saddle 

 we will have to put up with 

 dark females. 



White is a great source of 

 tiouble between the buyer and 

 the seller of eggs for hatching. 

 Very few stop to consider that 

 white is simply the absence of 

 color. It can be and is hered- 

 itary, but it can and is just as 

 often produced by other causes 

 and blamed by the buyer to the 

 seller's stock. The color of the 

 feathers is deposited by the 

 blood. If the chick is kept on 

 limited range, or ill fed, it will 

 fail to make the color nearly as 

 good as if fed properly. If a 

 feather is bruised or fails to 

 break the skin at the proper 

 time, it will come with a white tip. This can be easily 

 proved by injuring a stub just coming through, especiaHy 

 the stub of a flight feather. 



I have been doing a little measuring to give definite 

 information in regard to length of legs. A Leghorn should 

 have a length of leg to correspond to the length of its 

 neck and tail. If short in legs it is out of proportion. I 

 find five-pound cockerels should have five and one-half to 

 six inches of daylight from the bottom of the feathers to 

 the ground right between the legs. One that is six and 

 one-half inches is fully as high as it should be. You will 

 find by taking the bird in your hand and placing a foot 

 rule against the breast-bone down along the leg, stretch- 

 ing it to its full length, that a bird measuring ten and 

 one-half inches is tall on his legs. I have them that go 

 to eleven and one-half and I consider that plenty tall 

 enough. 



The Standard colored Brown Leghorn female in per- 

 fection is a model in both shape and color. In color she 

 should be brown all over, except the neck. It should be 

 a golden color, with a black stripe down the center of 

 each feather. I do not remember that I ever saw one of 

 that kind with a brown back. If the hackle is black cen- 

 tered, the ground color of the feathers is black also, and 

 you have black, metallic black, and brown for your 

 color; while if the hackle has some penciling in the cen- 



