BREED TYPE 67 



duced by scratching in litter for feed; and while she will not be a high 

 layer, the eggs she lays should produce big boned cockerels of good 

 substance and good fleshing possibilities. Such birds make prime 

 capons. 



The breeder must always have a definite idea of what he is aiming 

 to produce, a clear conception of what he is desirous of accomplishing, 

 and he must adhere persistently to one standard. 



Typical shape of breeds. No matter whether you breed for eggs or 

 meat, the distinctive type of the breed should not be sacrificed. It is 

 comparatively easy to build up a flock that is strong in any one point 

 if all others are ignored. Such breeding is not well balanced, and such 

 a flock can never excite the admiration and secure the plaudits of a very 

 large section of the interested public. Such birds, even though they 

 are of pronounced efficiency in their own particular forte, never com- 

 mand the highest prices. Moreover, highly specialized breeding of 

 this kind cannot long endure; the strain so built lacks permanence and, 

 if it is not reinforced from time to time with other blood, runs out. 



"Shape makes the breed and color the variety," and no breeder 

 can afford to sacrifice the shape that alone makes a specimen typical 

 of the breed. It is not necessary to sacrifice utility in order to get 

 breed character in the Plymouth Rocks, Wyandcttes and Rhode 

 Island Reds of today, for the standards for those breeds are true, 

 not false standards. There is always a tendency to ride hobbies, to 

 get a Wyandotte a little shorter, to get a Red a little longer than is 

 typical of an active, normal fowl. However, enough old races, such 

 as the round bodied, profusely feathered Cochin, the long legged, 

 short feathered Exhibition Game, and the elongated Dorking, have 

 been spoiled as commercially profitable fowls, for modern breeders 

 to understand the importance of well-balanced, symmetrically-built 

 birds. 



Breeding standardbred poultry is not merely a pastime for the 

 rich, or a game in which silk ribbons and silver cups are offered as 

 prizes. It is a business of opportunities and responsibilities. When 

 during the show in New York one of the great metropolitan dailies 

 laid aside war, politics and big business, and came out with an illus- 

 trated editorial on purebred poultry, it was to mention, not the win- 

 ner of a prize, or the player of a game, but to give credit to a great 

 improver of domesticated fowls. 



Purebred poultry must always justify itself from an economic 

 standpoint, otherwise there is no economic reason for its extension, 

 or no basic reason for its existence in preference to scrubs or plain- 

 breds. It is, therefore, of capital importance that breed type shoul 1 

 be developed along sane lines, so that the nearer the makeup of a 

 bird approaches to standard type, the more dependably useful and 

 truly valuable that fowl will be as a breeder of chickens that will 

 grow flesh and produce. 



