THE LEGHORNS 



47 



ters you can have the bac^ a dull black, called brown, and 

 you want it penciled with 'those small, golden-brown dots, 

 so small and the dots so close together that if you step 

 back six to ten feet, her back and wings will look like a 

 soft, velvety brown. You cannot see a particle of black, 

 and here you have the true Brown Leghorn and the 

 shade, that is the most beautiful and the shade that wins. 

 Such a color of back and wings has been produced in the 

 liose Comb Browns, practically free from shafting— that 

 is., free from a shaft that is colored a lighter shade than 

 the ground of the feather. 



The male that should be mated to such a female will 

 be of the same shape as the male described, with the 

 comb the same. The lobes of all breeders should be 

 clear white, smooth and oval in shape and fit flat to the 

 he^d. The face should be free from white. The color of 

 the neck of the male should be golden with black center 

 on the cape and as far in and up the neck as you can get 

 it. Wings should be in color a dull brown, the duller they 

 are the less brick there will be in his female get. The 

 saddle on top should be as free from black centers as pos- 



sible. The centers should be brown. The edge should 

 shade lighter down the sides, have a golden cast dark 

 undercolor for all breeders. Legs should be yellow and 

 of proper length. Tail carried low and full. 



With such a mating you are sure to reproduce the 

 best females. For one mating take such a male, or one a 

 little darker, and mate him with light show females, part 

 of the pen to be dark females, and you will get dark males 

 from your dark females. 



Today I know there are hundreds breeding Rose 

 Comb Browns who keep them just for eggs and beauty. 

 They select them because of the non-freezing comb. I 

 would say: "Come to the show with your stock." It will 

 pay in pleasure and money. Breed the best you can and 

 keep at it. 



I will add 

 hundreds give 

 keep them in a c 



word about yaiding. I know that 

 p Leghorns because they cannot 

 imon yard. I have only two pens with 

 eight-foot fences; the rest are of four-foot wire. But I 

 clip short every bird in them, leaving a feather on one 

 side to preserve the shape. It does not spoil their looks. 



What Breeders Say 



Progress Made in 



Color and Shape in the Past Two Decades — Virtue and Faults of the V^ariety Today — How 

 The Revised Standard Will Benefit Brown Leghorns in the Future. 



THAT a well-lired modern Brown Leghorn, single or 

 rose comb, is the most beautiful variety in color 

 and markings of the Leghorn family, is generally 

 a'dmitted by close students of color. The lustrous green- 

 ish black of the hackle and saddle stripings, sickles, and 

 tail coverts; and the brilliancy of the red color of the 

 neck, back and wingbows of a Standard exhibition male, 

 are strikingly beautiful, rarely equaled and never sur- 

 passed by any other breed or variety having similar color 

 markings. The soft brown, finely stippled feathers of 

 the back, tail coverts and wings of the female exhibit a 

 color scheme of rare beauty, characteristic of the Brown 

 Leghorn only. 



It has taken years of patient labor and close study m 

 selecting proper matings, to produce and perfect the color 

 markings of Brown Leghorns, many breeders giving up 

 the task, believing it either too slow and unprofitable or 

 contrary to the best interests of the variety. They looked 

 upon the Brown Leghorns as a market fowl principally 

 so considered the egg producing quality as of paramount 

 importance; also contending that striped hackles and 

 saddles were foreign to the breed and tending to make 

 double matings compulsory in order to produce exhi 

 bition males and females, consequently reducing the num- 

 l)er of saleable specimens. ' Their creed was single 

 matings with plenty of chickens to sell, but the real 

 fancier and breeder of Brown Leghorns had higher ideals 

 He wanted the bird beautiful, so proceeded to produce it 

 regardless of the clamor and criticisms of poultry writers 

 and breeders infested with the utility bug. The work of 

 such noted breeders of Brown Leghorns as James 

 Forsyth, C. E. Howell, W. Theo. Wittman, the late Dr 

 H. W. Dorsey, James Qurollo, W. W. Kulp, Geo. C 

 Morris, Geo. H. Burgott, W. F. Brace, F. W. Weeks, H 

 E. Benedict, J. F. Carter, Tenny & Harrington, William 

 EUery Bright, L. Brown, D. M. Owen, W. Henderson and 

 Arthur C. Smith of the past and present, and the more 

 recent achievements of Miss Pitchlyn, W. R. Bowers, 

 Mrs. Forbes, J. H. Henderson, Charles O. Miers, W. H. 



Wiebke, T. H. Woods, W. H. Hearstield and other good 

 fanciers have produced magnificent results. Most of these 

 breeders stuck loyally to their favorites, and to such good 

 fanciers, the "dainty Browns" owe their present high 

 Standard of excellence in both color markings and type. 



In order to get the views of prominent and success- 

 ful breeders of Brown Leghorns, on the progress made 

 in the past two decades, and of the virtues and faults of 



ENGLISH TYPE OP BROWN LEGHORN HEN 



