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CHAPTER IX. 



ON THE UTILITY OF "FANCY POINTS." 



In the preceding part of this work wc have treated of poultry and their management in the general 

 way, or with a special view to the production of eatable food ; we now propose to devote a few 

 chapters to the practical details of breeding fowls of the highest class in accordance with tho 

 recognised show standards. But it may be well first to say a few words as to the utility of 

 having such standards at all. Many people doubt it ; and when we admit, as we have done in 

 our last chapter, that certain breeds have perceptibly deteriorated during the last few years owing 

 to the effects of show competition, it may be thought that the question is at once decided in the 

 negative. But this would be to take a very superficial view of the matter. 



We may at once repeat our admission and our regret that many of the most successful birds, 

 as regards competition at shows, have perceptibly fallen off in the useful qualities for whicli they 

 are supposed to be distinguished. Some of the largest Dorkings exhibited have shown a coarseness 

 of bone and a yellowness in the skin, neither of which would have been tolerated in bygone years. 

 Similarly, Brahmas and Houdans have in many yards lost their former reputation as layers, though 

 easy victors in competition ; and other instances could be given if needed. But this is only half 

 the truth, and before a judgment can be formed as to the effect of "the fancy" and "fancy 

 standards" upon poultry generally, we must go back to consider what poultry was before that 

 fancy came into existence. 



And so doing we shall find that great and real good has been accomplished. To go back only 

 thirty years — let us say to 1840 — very few breeds of fowls were known, and very few were the 

 people who kept them. Game, Spanish, Polish, Dorkings, and some of the Hamburghs formed 

 the stock of our yards ; and not one person in a hundred kept fowls. Small indeed were the 

 average birds brought to market, and rare and precious were new-laid eggs in those days. Little 

 was known about either the birds or their proper management, and hence the few who did keep 

 them usually owned honestly that they scarcely paid their expenses. The comparative ignorance 

 that prevailed at that time can scarcely be realised by modern amateurs, but may be illustrated 

 by the discussions on " exhibition fever," roup, and other diseases, which for years after occupied 

 the poultry papers of the period, though they are now thought very little of by any one. It might 

 be said, with little exaggeration, that at that time hardly any one either understood fowls, cared for 

 them, or kept them. 



Five or six years later Cochins came upon the scene, and created both a "sensation" and a 

 mania, which really for a time rivalled the tulip craze and other epidemics of modern times. We 

 had never seen any fowls so big, or so tame, or of such bright colours. They were gentle and 

 lovable, and everybody tried to get those immense birds which laid every day. But that was not 

 all the secret of their popularity, which we believe lay in the fact, very rapidly discovered, that 

 they would thrive in a very small space. A few square feet and plenty of green food granted, and 

 these great birds were happy and contented. That, in our opinion, was the new fact which Cochins 



