JAVAS AND BLACK GIANTS 235 



In New England this opinion is reversed, and down the shore 

 south of Boston, where the famous soft-roasting capons are pro- 

 duced, the Light Brahma with its white body and the White Plymouth 

 Rock have been prime favorites for many years. 



These keen eastern farmers, tilling the sands of Jersey or picking 

 up rocks in New England, have been obliged to watch the details of 

 their income. They have found that a capon at forty-five cents a 

 pound is a better sell than a rooster at twenty-two cents. And the 

 chefs in Boston and New York hotels are not jeopardizing their jobs 

 by stewing stag roosters; they are setting before the epicures in 

 their dining-rooms roasted chicken as soft and sweet as a broiler and 

 as big as a turkey. 



The Black Giant, like the Black Java, has a single comb, black 

 shanks with yellow bottoms to feet, a dark brown eye approaching 

 black, a pure black plumage, and the females lay brown-shelled eggs 

 of good size. The Giant, however, has a larger, rounder, deeper body 

 than the Java. While the Java is shaped more like a Rhode Island 

 Red, a Black Giant female is more on the massive order of a big- 

 bodied Plymouth Rock. 



Serious color defects in the females of this variety are brownish 

 cast or gray in the plumage. White in the under-color or red in the 

 surface are serious defects more common to the males of black 

 varieties. Size and flesh qualities are of first importance in the 

 Black Giant. 



There probably have been as many Black Javas bred in New 

 Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania as in any other one section in Amer- 

 ica: and the modern Black Giant carries some Black Java blood, some 

 Cornish Indian game blood, and possibly a, trace of Black Langshan 

 blood. It is a standard bred, compared to 'the original feather-legged 

 Black Giants of New Jersey. Some really fine Black Giants were 

 shown in 1919 and 1920. and the breed undoubtedly has a future. 

 U. L. Meloney of New Jersey has taken a leading part in the perfec- 

 tion of the Black Giant. 



