36 POULTRY BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT 



ing breeds or races and keeping them pure rather than mix- 

 ing them and making new breeds. 



If it be true that crossing improves the vigor and fer- 

 tility of the offspring and saves races from annihilation, it 

 may readily be conceded that the amalgamation of the two 

 races for the purpose of making new breeds has been al- 

 together an advantage. If it be denied that the crossing of 

 pure races can ever be beneficial we will have to confess 

 that our American breeds and varieties are without excuse 

 of origin. It is certain that the Italian or Leghorn has not 

 been replaced by a better laying breed, nor has there been 

 produced a breed superior to the Cochin and Brahma as 

 meat breeds. In American breeds the excessive weight of 

 the Cochin and Brahma has been avoided and the prefer- 

 ence of the largest proportion of consumers for a medium 

 size table fowl has influenced American breeders in the 

 making of new breeds, to the undoubted advantage of the 

 industry as a whole. 



When we speak of a general-purpose breed reference is 

 made to meat and egg-laying qualities. In other words, a 

 general-purpose fowl is a fair layer and a fair table fowl, 

 and that idea has been kept in mind by the originators of 

 the Plymouth Rock and other breeds of that type. They 

 wisely eliminate feathers on legs, which are objectionable 

 in a utility fowl. They also eliminated some of the natural 

 wildness of the Leghorn. Breeders have been somewhat 

 hampered by the demands of the show which required them 

 to select for various other points, and for this reason our 

 Plymouth Rock and other general-purpose breeds have not 

 been bred up to that perfection of flesh that has been at- 

 tained in some of the French and in some of the English 

 breeds. Undoubtedly the craze for fine barring in the 

 Barred Plymouth Rock has engaged the attention of many 

 breeders to the exclusion of points demanded in a good 



