THE LEGHORNS 



11 



and says they can have Brown Leghorns like Black Red 

 Games "by crossing with that breed. But the time will 

 come when breeders will know the difference between 

 crosses and thoroughbred stock." 



Here I leave his first article to review his second, 

 which is found in the "Bulletin" of September, 1873; and 

 almost the first thing he tells you is that "he has learned 

 how to mate his fowls so as to retain the beautiful pencil- 

 ings in the hens and produce black-breasted cocks, or 

 mottled-breasted, as six hundred chickens in his yard will 

 show." If I were in his place, I should suppose people 

 would very naturally think there had been an introduction 

 of a Brown Red Game cock, in accordance with the 

 advice of Article I. But again he seems to forget himself, 

 and tells I. K. Felch, in the "Poultry World," he "mav 

 have his Black Red Games," and that one may "as well 

 compare Black Hamburgs with Black Cochins as to com- 

 pare Brown Leghorns with Black Red Games." Wonder- 

 ful consistency! 



His peculiar forcing system he should give to the 

 world, for he says he can make his fowls weigh two 

 pounds more than the farmer can with "good farmer's 

 care." This may account for his eight-pound cock; this 

 may also account for his strain weighing two pounds 

 more than any strain of Brown Leghorns I ever saw. 



But wonders do not cease here. Old Red Ribbon! 

 Who of my readers ever before heard of a hen which, in 

 eight years and ten months, laid the marvelous number of 

 2,200 eggs? And who before ever heard of a breeder 

 chalking down every egg a hen laid for nearly nine years? 

 Two hundred and forty-one eggs each year for eight years 

 and ten months of the laying life of a hen! But Mr. Kin- 

 ney must have forgotten one item, or else is reserving it 

 for a further surprise for the poultry breeders of America, 

 viz: the number of eggs "Old Red Ribbon" laid in her 

 most productive year. According to the ratio of produc- 

 tion by other fowls, it could not be less than four hun- 

 dred. Was the account in his "Poultry World" article of 

 these old hens among the farmers, from ten to twenty- 

 one years old, a dish served up as an appetizer, that his 

 readers might swallow his statistics in relation to Old 

 Red Ribbon? Unless he tells us who collected the eggs 

 from Old Red Ribbon and Signora while he was "travel- 

 ing over that large extent of country" he speaks of, or 

 presents for inspection the original entries of the ac- 

 count, he must excuse me for doubting the account, or 

 kind o' thinking Old Red Ribbon might be like a hen that 

 was owned by a boy who used to live with an uncle of mine, 

 who was wont to assert that he had seen twelve eggs laid 

 by that hen with shells colored seven different shades. 

 Now, it was hard work for my uncle not to believe that 

 six of his hens helped that hen lay those twelve eggs; but 

 the boy saw his hen lay them all, and, as he was a boy of 

 truth, he had to believe that the hen laid different colored 

 eggs. 



In conclusion, if Mr. Kinney's fowls are all he repre- 

 sents them to be, what occasion has he to pull down his 

 neighbor's house that he may build a barn? But he does 

 this: First, by attempting to establish his strain as the 

 only one of white ear-lobes, and then throwing suspicion 

 on his neighbor, who in his very article he acknowledges 

 advertised two years he shows that he received his white 

 ear-lobed hen, from which he commenced to breed into 

 his stock this characteristic. Second, by asserting that he 

 can grovv these very chicks two pounds larger than his 

 neighboring farmers can with good care, by some hidden 

 process of forcing, which, if true, is all right; but is it 

 likely that size can, in a short time, be increased fifty per 

 cent? Thirdly, by the publication of marvelous produc- 

 tions of eggs, which may best be dismissed with the navy 

 saying: "Tell that to the horse-marines; the sailors won't 

 believe it." Fourthly, by misconstruction and use of per- 

 sonalities in comparing the writing of others with that 

 of his own in relation to the merits of his fowls; all of 

 which will lead the unthinking novice in breeding to come 

 to his net. 



I do not care a straw for his allusion to what I said 

 of Brown Leghorns as they were in earlier days. I do 

 not now breed Brown Leghorns, and I do not cry out be- 

 cause he is in any way mjunng my business. But when 

 people write of poultry, I like to see it done with some 

 degree of fairness. But, closing, I will say I do not want 

 a, Leghorn, be it White or Brown, as large as a Brahma, 

 or a cock that has Golden Hamburg plumage. 



In September, 1875, the "Poultry World" puilished a 

 letter written by O. H. Peck, of Franklin, Mass., which 

 contained the following statements regarding the first 

 importations of "Leghorns" in America: 



For a year past there have appeared in "The Poultry 

 World" quite a number of articles on the origin of Brown 

 Leghorn fowls. The articles in question having been 

 written by eminent breeders of said variety, it may appear 

 presumptions in me to attempt to add anything to what 

 has already been said; but with your kind permission, I 

 will state that about forty yeai s ago, Mr. N. O. Ward, of 

 Fulton Street, New York City (the then celebrated 

 cracker baker) received a few of these fowls as a present, 

 direct from Leghorn. This is, I think, the first record we 

 have of them in America. The eggs from these fowls were 

 distributed among his friends, one of whom was Mr. J. C. 

 Thompson, of Tompkinsville, Staten Island — once an 

 eminent poultry raiser, now deceased. Mr. Thompson 

 writes as follows: 



"I raised from six eggs, five cocks and one pullet. The 

 size of the comb and wattles of that lot exceeded any- 



s t white: leghorns oi c \. pitki\ is 3 



thing I have ever seen since. The length of the combs 

 (actual measurement) was six inches. The comb extended 

 so far out over the beak, that it was in the way of their 

 picking up grains, and they were compelled to press the 

 protruding comb on one side to get their bills to the 

 ground." 



On two or three occasions subsequent to this, Mr. 

 Thompson obtained the fowls direct from Leghorn, once 

 through his son-in-law, who was master of a vessel. They 

 matured early, pullets laying at four months old; and Mr. 

 Thompson was of the opinion that they oftentimes died 

 from exhaustion, actually laying themselves to death. I 

 once knew of a party who had them and sold the eggs 

 under the name of "Sicilian Fowls." That they are ex- 

 cellent layers, no one will question, for they will lay more 

 eggs in a given time, than any other pure-bred fowl 

 known. 



An attempt was made by an American poultry 

 breeder, to investigate the origin of "Leghorns" in their 

 native land. How this failed to accomplish satisfactory 

 results is clearly explained in an article written by J. H. 

 Davis, an old and well-known writer on poultry topics, 

 for the "Fancier's Gazette" some twenty years ago. We 

 reprint the following extracts from Mr. Davis' interesting 

 summary: 



Twenty or more years ago there was a little book 

 issued, bearing the above title, by F. H. Ayres, of Mystic 

 River, Connecticut. Mr. Ayres conceived the plan in 1878, 

 of visiting the great Paris Exposition for the purpose of 

 looking over the fowls placed on exhibition there, and 

 then going to Italy to hunt for Leghorns, as he desired to 

 bring home with him all the varieties and colors obtain- 

 able. 



Arriving at Marseilles, he at once proceeded to look 

 at the fowls in the Zoological Garden. Here he found 



