ORIGIN AND DESCRIPTION OF BREEDS 



57 



been changed considerably, more especially in England 

 where the breeding of fancy feather points, especially leg 

 feathering, has been carried to the extreme. 



The Cochin. The meeting of the yellow Asiatic race with 

 the white race took place in 1846 speaking of races of poul- 

 try. Nothing disturbed the poultry world like the invasion 



of the yellow Cochin. 

 It was lauded to the 

 skies, just as it was bit- 

 terly execrated. Wright 

 says: "It was averred 

 that there was no prop- 

 erty that a good fowl 

 should have, but this 

 possessed it; it was de- 

 licious roasted or boiled, 

 and the hens laid two or 

 three eggs a day." 

 Again, he says: "Loud 

 and long were the pro- 

 tests made by the best 

 utility breeders, but these were written down by the glib 

 pen of the ignorant but ready writer." He tells us fur- 

 ther: "One of the greatest evils that befell the splendid, 

 large, well-formed and profitable table fowls of the southern 

 counties was the introduction of the Shanghai or Cochin." 

 Again : ' ' Then came the Shanghai fowls and the craze for 

 size, novelty and colored eggs ; and ill it fared with our old 

 breeds." "The Cochin or Shanghai craze was the first 

 blow that our ancient and almost perfect farm poultry 

 received. ' ' 



Then he sarcastically says of the Cochin : ' * They were to 

 furnish eggs for the breakfast, fowls for the table, and better 

 morals than even Doctor Watts' hymns for the children, who 



BUFF COCHIN HEN 



Exhibition type of present day. (Courtesy 



of Dr. J. J. Hare, Ontario.) 



