14 



Color is a matter of taste. Take the breed possessing the quality 

 you want and then take the variety suiting you best. You can get 

 most of these in any color you wish, with exception of Rhode Island 

 Reds. The comb determines the variety of Rhode Island Reds, one 

 being rose comb and the other single comb. 



Each variety and each color has its good and bad points. 

 The following story is a good one in regard to color: "Uncle 

 Sam, what is the best chicken?" a gentleman inquired of an old 

 negro. Scratching his head, he said: "De white 'uns is de easiest 

 to see on the roost, but the black 'uns is de easiest to hide when you 

 catch 'em." 



Some people in the country object to the very white chickens on 

 account of hawks and owls and thieves. The white chickens are 

 the easiest to breed, yet this offers an objection to them in some sec- 

 tions. The Brown Leghorn is preferred to the white on that account. 

 Most of the egg farmers in the northeast use White Leghorn females. 

 The large meat breeds, Brahmas and Langshans, are good 

 chickens, but are not adapted to General Purpose Breeds. 



The question may arise, "Shall we keep pure breds, mongrels or 

 common stuff?" I am pretty well acquainted with the poultry con- 

 ditions in the country, especially in the southern states, and I do not 

 know of a single instance where a man has made a success of the 

 poultry business to any great degree where he has used common stuff 

 or mongrels. I would just as soon try to go bear hunting with a 

 bird dog as to go into the poultry business with common, dung-hill 

 stock. 



In addition to furnishing produce for a Baltimore house, we 

 were, on one occasion, furnishing fresh eggs daily, paying us ten 

 cents above market price, but the demand grew so great on us during 

 the hatching season that we were compelled to put in some common 

 eggs to help supply this egg trade, but we found a very small per 

 cent of the eggs from common fowls were fit to sell as first class 

 eggs. We did not get the same value for our feed. We only tried 

 that once and then abandoned the mongrel hens, and the next year 

 we closed out the grade hens because we got better results from 

 pure breds. There is no mongrel or common chicken that will com- 

 pare with egg-producing breeds, because these breeds have been bred 

 for centuries for egg production, and you can get more dozens of 

 eggs from them. 



Compare the size of the eggs from the egg breeds and general 

 purpose breeds. The Minorcas and Spanish lay the largest eggs of 

 any of the breeds. The Leghorns, well-bred, lay about as large eggs 

 as the general purpose breeds. All of the general purpose breeds lay 

 brown-shelled eggs and the egg breeds lay w r hite eggs, so if your 

 market calls for a white egg you will perhaps need an egg breed to 

 get it. If your market calls for a brown egg, you will need the general 

 purpose breeds. Some say that this is all foolishness, and that eggs 

 are all alkie, but if you are in the poultry business, instead of fooling 

 away your time trying to convince your customers as to what they 

 should have or want, you had better just give them what they ask 

 for. The pure breds, as compared to the crossbreds and grades, have 

 a chief advantage in uniformity. To get highest price for anything 

 on the market you should have uniformity. They are uniform in size, 

 shape and color. I have been told that it makes no difference what 



