84 THE PRACTICAL POULTRY KEEPER. 



2. The breast must be broad. On this depends the 

 number of slices it will yield. Internally, this depends 

 upon the width of the flat part of the breast-bone. 

 Externally, it is seen on looking at the front of the fowl. 

 The Brahma, even of the true type and not bred to Cochin 

 models, will often exemplify failing here. The breast is 

 deep, and often long ; but it is apt to be narrow. Hence 

 the need of carefully choosing any Brahma selected as a 

 cross. 



3. The breast must be long. On this depends the length 

 of the slices cut from it. Very few Langshans we have seen 

 had this fault; it has been lately more and more common in 

 Cochin-bred Brahmas. It is curious that some turkeys are 

 particularly bad or short in breast, a fact showing that 

 careful selection has the matter in perfect control. 



Stock of the varieties chosen can always be found, 

 except perhaps amongst some Asiatics, sufficiently free from 

 the faults here pointed out ; and by thus using judgment, a 

 good table model can be secured. The ideal model is seen 

 in the breast of a well-reared pheasant ; and next to that, 

 perhaps, in that of a fine Dorking or old-fashioned Game 

 fowl. 



There are many crosses to choose from, and opinions 

 rather differ as to the best ; there probably is no best. It is 

 a mistake to suppose that French breeds are better than 

 English ; we have heard one of the most celebrated French 

 feeders declare that the English Dorkings as she saw them 

 at the Crystal Palace show were u perfection " from a 

 fatter's point of view ; and so far from endorsing the narrow 

 and biassed obiter dicta of certain dogmatic writers in this 

 country, the French have recently built up their own most 

 favourite table fowl (the Faverolle) mainly upon a basis of 

 light Brahma, the very cross which such writers have 

 treated with scorn ! In America, again, that identical 



