24 TURKEY CULTURE. 



light the greens and purples are extremely beautiful. But 

 black in this country, owing to unreasoning prejudice, is 

 not a popular color. Only one black variety of fowls is 

 widely popular the Langshan. The Minorca narrowly es- 

 capes being popular. But black ought to be popular, for 

 its wearers are usually hardy and always beautiful. So, 

 with this prejudice in view we need not wonder that Black 

 turkeys are comparatively few in number. The Black tur- 

 key should be black throughout. The American standard 

 makes "feathers other than black" a disqualification. But 

 despite this rigidity, the variety often "harks back" to 

 its banded ancestors, and bands will show on wing feath 

 ers and tail. These bands do not hurt the flavor of the 

 flesh, although they may prevent the bird from winning 

 a prize. If the breeders of Black turkeys will fatten all 

 that show these bands marks of heredity and use only 

 the solid-colored specimens for breeders, this tendency 

 will be reduced, though it is impossible to predict how 

 many generations it will take to obliterate it wholly. 



The Black is a much smaller bird than the Bronze, and 

 appears to have deteriorated in size, possibly owing to the 

 breeders of this variety sacrificing the best birds at 

 Thanksgiving and Christmas for market, instead of retain- 

 ing them for stock. Some of the chicks have a little white 

 about the head. The adult male should weigh twenty-five 

 pounds or more, the hen twelve pounds. 



WHITE HOLLAND TUEKEYS. 



GEORGE ENTY. 



A breed that is less widely known than the popular 

 Bronze turkey is the White Holland, or White turkey, as it 

 is called for short, yet birds of this breed are kept in consid- 

 erable numbers in some sections, and are becoming better 

 known, and each year more frequently seen among turkeys in 

 the shows and in the market. Like everything else on this 

 sphere, they have their good qualities and also their weak 



