WHITE WYANDOTTES 



197 



ing up a great breeding establishment, and his customers are located 

 in every state of the Union as well as in every province of the Do- 

 minion. The success of Mr. Martin may be attributed to sound busi- 

 ness principles applied to poultry selling and the fact that he has 

 persistently bred a well balanced type of White Wyandotte regard- 

 less of what extremes might be the fashion of the hour. 



The western breeders, too, including Keeler, Demberger, Sullivan 

 and Fishel have kept their stock conspicuously free from injurious 

 types. All prominent eastern breeders of today have also given up 

 the overly short bodied type, and breeders as a whole have so com- 

 pletely come together on what should constitute a good specimen of 

 the variety, that there is little opportunity for fads or hobbies to 

 again enter into our own show rooms. 



Modern White Wyandottes. The popularity of the White Wyan- 

 dotte has been remarkable. At the St. Louis, Louisiana Purchase 



Pair of White Wyandottes owned by Chas. V. Keeler, Indiana. 



Exposition, 1904, there were 808 White Wyandottes exhibited. This 

 record has never been equaled by any one variety of any breed. At 

 the New York and Boston shows of 1905 there were more White 

 Wyandottes entered than any other variety. It was about this time 

 that T. E. Orr penned his famous phrase: "A Wyandotte should 

 emphatically be a bird of curves." The quest for curves then entered 

 into the breeding operations to an extent that led some breeders to 

 shorten the backs of their females to the point of sacrificing egg 

 production. Extremely short birds were found among the winners 

 at New York about 1911-12. This abnormally short type is now in 

 the discard and breeders have returned to the true Wyandotte form 

 as not only the most showy but the infinitely more practical. 



