39 



something of a fancier would not long be suited with them. The Black 

 Wyandottes are comparativel}' rare and their color does not recommend 

 them to many practical poultry keepers. The Columbian Wyandotte, 

 with markings of a Light Brahma, should make a first-class variety for 

 the farm. The present objection to recommending it generally is that 

 the breed requires very careful breeding to bring it to such stage of 

 color development that the average novice in handling the variety will 

 get encouraging results in that feature. Of course the novice in hand- 

 ling any variety, as in doing work of any kind, makes mistakes at first. 

 It takes a year or two of experience in breeding to learn to avoid the 

 most serious mistakes. But the poultry keeper who wants to make 

 himself a good breeder of fowls will succeed better by beginning with 

 well-established varieties, because then his first and hardest years' 

 works are not made more difficult by lack of development or perma- 

 nence of the special characteristics of the varieties he is working with. 



The ideal Rhode Island Red is of a type intermediate between the 

 ideal Plymouth Rock and Wyandotte type, but comparatively few speci- 

 mens have yet been produced showing that type conspicuously. The 

 average Rhode Island Red resembles the avei-age Wyandotte more than 

 it does the Plymouth Rock. There are two varieties, the Rose Combed 

 and the Single Combed. A thii'd variety. Pea Combed, like a Brahma, 

 is bred by a few bi'eeders but has not attained a popularity at all com- 

 parable with that of the other two, which in many sections of New 

 England seem to have matched the popularity of the popular varieties 

 of the Plymouth Rocks and Wyandottes. 



For usual farm conditions in this country no other breeds need be con- 

 sidered. In the section where soft roasters for the Boston market are 

 grown on a large scale Light Brahmas are very generally kept by farmers 

 to supply growers of this class of poultry with eggs for hatching. 



Having obtained stock suitable for his requirements the farmer is 

 ready to begin his work as a poultry breeder. The difficulty of getting 

 just such stock as he wanted will generally have convinced him by this 

 time that there is not near as much of it produced as there ought to be. 

 There ought not to be any considerable proportion of the poultry produce 

 each year that did not in a general way fill most of the requirements for 

 a good fowl for the farmer. Allowing for differences in size and in 

 purpose it is still true that whatever the variety or whatever the purpose 

 in breeding them the aim should be to produce well-developed, healthy, 

 vigorous fowls, and that these points should always be considered first. 



For the fancier, to whom superficial qualities, such as perfection of 

 comb or crest, or excessive development of foot feathering, or accurate 

 mai-kings, or purity of color, seem of prime importance, and really are 

 made so in the competitions for which his birds are produced, we can 

 find some excuse for sacrificing the substantial qualities of fowls to the 

 superficial, or for being so impressed with features that are for the time 

 being a fad that he neglects the preservation and development of useful 

 characteristics ; but the farmer, as a breeder, has no excuse for not de- 

 veloping in his fowls the qualities of most value to him, and having once 

 clearly apprehended for himself what these qualities are, all his eff'orts 

 as a breeder should be directed to making them uniform in his flocks. 



