No. 4.] FARM POULTRY. 407 



The White and BufF Wyaiidottcs are the only varieties of 

 the breed which the farmer lookino- for stock woukl do well 

 to consider, if he found what he wanted. Of the other 

 varieties, the Golden Laced, Silver Laced, Partridge or 

 Golden Pencilled, and Silver Pencilled, are difficult to breed ; 

 and the farmer who is not something of a fancier would not 

 long be suited with them. The Black Wyandottes are com- 

 paratively rare, and their color does not recommend them to 

 many practical poultry keepers. The Columbian Wyandotte, 

 with markings of a Light Brahma, should make a first-class 

 variety for the farm. The present objection to recommend- 

 ing it generally is that the breed requires very careful breed- 

 ing to bring it to such stage of color development that the 

 average novice in handling the variety'' will get encouraging 

 results in that feature. Of course the novice, in handling 

 any variety, as in doing work of any kind, makes mistakes 

 at first. It takes a year or two of experience in breeding 

 to learn to avoid the most serious mistakes. But the poultry 

 keeper who wants to make himself a good breeder of fowls 

 will succeed better by beginning with well-established vari- 

 eties, because then his first and hardest year's work is not 

 made more difficult by lack of development or permanence 

 of the special characteristics of the varieties he is working 

 with. 



The ideal Rhode Island Red is of a type interaiediate be- 

 tween the ideal Plymouth Rock and Wyandotte type, but 

 comparatively few specimens have yet been produced showing 

 that type conspicuously. The average Rhode Island Red 

 resembles the average Wyandotte more than it does the 

 Ph'mouth Rock. There are two varieties, the Rose Combed 

 and the Single Combed. A third variety. Pea Combed, like 

 a Brahma, is bred by a few breeders, but has not attained a 

 popularity at all comparable Avith that of the other two, which 

 in many sections of Xcw England seem to have matched the 

 popularity of the popular varieties of the Plymouth Rocks 

 and Wyandottes. 



For usual farm conditions in this country no other breeds 

 need be considered. In tin; section where soft roasters for 

 the Boston market are grown on a large scale, Light Brahmas 



