MANUAL ON POULTRY. 23 



It will be seen that in four of the five instances, black birds were 

 crossed upon white, or light-colored ones, with similar results, after 

 top-crossing with the Dominique. 



The Plymouth Hock cock is a showy bird ; beak and legs yellow, 

 plumage bluish-gray, each feather having a penciling of darker 

 color across it, comb, ear-lobes, faca and wattles, all red, comb small, 

 single and erect. Ked or white feathers are not admissible in either 

 cock or hen. 



The hen is marked like the cock, except that the plumage is 

 darker in color. 



This is, at present, the most popular combination breed for eggs 

 and table use. 



The cross of the Plymouth Rock cock on the common hen, pro- 

 duces a marked improvement upon the latter. The chicks are 

 hardy and mature, early. It is far more profitable, however, to 

 breed the Plymouth Rocks pure, since after stock to start with are 

 procured, they cost no more than the grades or common fowls, 

 while the sale of eggs and stock birds is very profitable, at the prices 

 which now prevail. 



BARN-YARD FOWLS. 



i 



The great bulk of the fowls cultivated in Georgia belong to no 

 particular breed, though traces of improved breeds may be seen in 

 many of them, as the effect of crosses of some of the thorough- 

 breds. 



Indeed, grades of superior quality are often found among the 

 poultry sent to our markets. 



Crosses of the cocks of the Asiatics, or those of other large breeds, 

 upon the common dung-hill hens produce superior table fowls. The 

 chicks are hardy and mature rapicfly. 



The continued use of the thoroughbred cocks will build up a 

 yard of finefowls,but if the grade cocks are used, rapid deterioration 

 takes place, the tendency being, in accordance with natural laws, 

 to revert to the primitive inferior type. The present thoroughbred 

 types of poultry are triumphs of the skill of breeders, just as are 

 the Short-horn cattle and the Berkshire pigs of the present day, and 

 constant, careful selection is .necessary to sustain the breeds in their 

 purity, and to counteract the natural tendency to revert to the 

 original type. 



