LCONOMIC QUALITIES OF GAME. FOWLS. , v : > ^ 95 



some of the leading shows, and in Canada are quite extensively kept as farm fowls. They are 

 commonly reputed indifferent layers and rather delicate. I kept a small ftock secured from a 

 Canadian breeder for several years, and in this limited experience with one stock found them 

 hardy and good layers. As table poultry the Dorking has long ranked as of finest quality, and 

 fully deserves its reputation. 



Houdans are the only French breed well known in this country. They are as good layers as 

 Leghorns, and first class in table quality, but not as rugged as is desirable for fowls for general 

 use. Like the Polish, they have heavy crests which to many are objectionable. The color of 

 their skin (white) and their dark legs are also against them as market fowls. 



In Game fowls we have three distinct types the Pit Game, the Exhibition Game, and the 

 Indian Game. The Pit Game fowl is practically the Game fowl as it has been bred for 

 centuries in England, with perhaps a little more differentiation in colors. The Exhibition 

 Game is a long legged, long necked, exaggerated Pit Game, which has no place outside the 

 exhibition room and the yards of the fancier. Pit Games are really valuable economic fowls as 

 fur as productiveness and quality go, though not to be classed for general purposes with the 

 breeds of the American class. Perhaps their greatest fault from economic standpoints is their 

 "gameness," their pugnacity, and quarrelsomeness. These are qualities destructive to com- 

 fortable and profitable work with poultry, and the Game as a farm or practical fowl, soon dis- 

 jippears from sections where the economic value of a fowl becomes the first consideration with 

 poultry keepers. 



The Indian Game is a larger and meatier type of fowl than either of the others, and, as 

 bred in England and America, is less pugnacious. I think it should be regarded as a useful 

 type temporarily somewhat neglected because of the disappointments which followed its intro- 

 duction to the American public, with widely exaggerated reports of its laying and table 

 qualities. 



Of course it is out of the question to discuss in a single lesson exhaustively the qualities and 

 adaptabilities of all these breeds and their several varieties. As I said near the beginning of 

 the lesson, the poultry keeper should limit consideration of varieties to the few popular general 

 purpose breeds unless there are special reasons for not doing so. The most general illustrations 

 of exceptions to this rule may be found where one is going into some special branch of poultry 

 culture, as the production of white eggs for the New York city trade, or the production of 

 large roasting chickens for the Boston market. Even in these exceptions, the principle of the 

 rule I have given applies, and the poultryman should follow custom, and take the breed, or one 

 of the breeds most popular among those in the line in which he is engaging. 



