118 



THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



kins' yards; and the surface color was clean and pretty. He called 

 his strain the "Royal Blue Barred Rocks." In justifying his type 

 of bird, he wrote: 



Many of the judges have become so thoroughly carried away with the under- 

 barring that they pay little attention to the beauty of the surface color. They begin 

 to score from the skin and cut more severely for lack of undercolor than for an 

 inferior surface. The beauty of a fowl is what we see, and while I am a believer 

 in distinct, even barring under the surface, I do not want the bars so strong and 

 heavy underneath that they destroy the beautiful blue on the surface, and it Is a 

 fact that most of the specimens that are very strong in under-color have a muddy 

 black bar on the surface. 



Now, breeders, which will you have? What I want, and what any real fancier 

 wants, is perfection in surface color and all the under-barring that nature will sup- 

 ply with it, and not what some judges I know require, namely, perfection in under 

 barring and as good surface as we can get with it. 



Feathers from the neck of an exhibition Barred Plymouth Rock 

 pullet, owned by E. B. Thompson. 



Bradley Bros.' intense barring. Victor Bradley of Bradley Bros, 

 bred an intense color in his male line. The barring was narrow, there 

 were many bars to a feather, and the barring was heavy down through 

 the undercolor, clear to the ^skin. With narrow barring came a long, 

 narrow feather with which* was associated slower feathering. This 

 slower feathering resulted in cockerels that did not feather early but 

 remained naked until their wings and hips were sunburned, and cock 

 birds that were not through the molt until mid-winter, and it was 

 an objectionable feature. 



