FANCIERS' JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 



325 



special number of pounds. The bird may weigh ten, twelve, 

 or fifteen pounds ; but if he is the heaviest bird on exhibi- 

 tion, he must be marked the highest on that point. If, 

 however, he should be a very small bird, of course no judge 

 would give him the full number. 



To make my meaning a little plainer, I will illustrate it : 

 we will take, for instance, the stone or mineral known as 

 "amber." This is composed of carbon, 79 parts; hydrogen, 

 10£ parts ; oxygen, 10J parts — total, 100 parts. Now, when 

 we take up a piece of amber, we know that T ' 5 9 ,y of it is 

 carbon; it is not necessary that the piece should weigh five, 

 ten, or fifteen pounds ; whatever the size or weight, the 

 relative proportion of carbon in it remains the same, So 

 with the other substances of which it is composed. 



Now, apply this same rule to the adaptation of the scale 

 of points, and remember that it takes one hundred marks 

 to represent a perfect or standard fowl ; and that no matter 

 what the size or weight, the relative value of each point 

 remains the same. 



The amateur will, of course, meet with some difficulties 

 in figuring, but a little thought on the subject, keeping the 

 above ideas in mind, will, I think, lead him safely through. 



A. M. Halsted. 



THE "WHAT IS IT?" 



To the Editor of the Journal : 



This peculiar fowl has finally returned to the point from 

 which we commenced to trace its history, and as the " What 

 Is It?" has attracted considerable attention in many parts 

 of the United States, having been exhibited from Buffalo, 

 N. T., to Providence, R. I., this season, we will give the 

 readers of your Journal its history and whereabouts for the 

 last nine years. 



It was left by some traveling showman at Providence, in 

 the year 1865, and fell into the hands of Lucian L. Perry, 

 of Providence. Very soon after, Mr. Perry gave it to 

 Henry Richardson, of Attleboro', Mass., who kept the "What 

 Is It?" on his yards four years, when he sold it to Mr. 

 Nathaniel Colyer, of Pawtucket, R. I., for the sum of $10. 



Mr. Oolyer soon gave it to Mr. Charles A. Sweet, Presi- 

 dent of the Western New York Poultry Association. Mr. 

 Sweet kept the " What Is It?" four years, and after exhib- 

 iting it at Buffalo, gave it, in January, 1874, to A. D. 

 Warren, President of the New England Poultry Association, 

 to be exhibited at Worcester, Mass. It went from him to 

 Philander Williams, President of the Massachusetts Poul- 

 try Association, and was exhibited at Boston ; from there 

 to Woonsocket, and from Woonsocket it has returned, like 

 the "bad penny," to Providence, and is now on exhibition 

 at Howard Hall, with the other " thousand and one " fowls 

 and animals alive or " set up " by the Taxidermist, or some- 

 body else. 



The "What Is It?" goes from here to Gen. Johnson, to 

 show at his " Merrimack Valley " exhibition, for "better 

 or worse," and may it live nine years more, and then return 

 again, as now, one of the wonders of the nineteenth century. 

 So much for the far-famed " What Is It?" 



I will close by recommending all of the readers of the 

 Journal, and all their relatives to visit Howard Hall to-day 

 or this evening, to examine its decorations, and listen to 

 melodious and harmonious songs of love and happiness that 

 are constantly filling its every nook and corner. They will 

 witness what never can be seen again in your beautiful city. 

 The first Poultry and Columbarian exhibition ever held 

 here. Though the first, it is an entire success. — Ex. 



P. J. Kinney. 



Worcester, Mass. 



SEXES AT WILL. 



" Thus having wasted half the day, 

 He trinini'd his flight another way." 



The hatching season has again returned, and with it come3 

 the old question of producing sexes at will. Cocks of one 

 year old, mated with hens two years old or more, usually 

 produce a greater proportion of cockerels than pullets ; and 

 if more pullets than cockerels are wanted they may gener- 

 ally be obtained by mating old cocks with pullets. But 

 most people who desire a rule at all on the subject would 

 like to have a more certain one, in order that they may have 

 hatched cockerels or pullets exclusively, as they may think 

 best suited to their purposes. 



It has been said that the long-shaped eggs produce cock- 

 erels, and the short or round ones, pullets ; but this theory 

 is so old that were there any truth in it the question would 

 not recur with each returning spring. Moreover, we know 

 that all the eggs laid by any one hen are of very nearly the 

 same shape. Usually they vary but slightly. Hence, if it 

 be true that those of a given shape will produce a given sex, 

 we must admit that we can select hens which will produce 

 the sex we desire ; and this no one has yet pretended to do. 



Another rule often given, and believed in by some, is that 

 the position of the air-bubble on the large end of the egg in- 

 dicates the sex — if upon the centre a male, if a little to one 

 side a female. There is some little show of plausibility for 

 this notion, yet it also has been before the public for a long 

 time without eliciting any positive evidence of worth, and 

 no general confidence is placed in it, even by those most 

 anxious of acquiring the secret of producing sexes at will. 



What leads me to speak of this rule as if at all worthy of 

 consideration, is the result of observations made some years 

 ago, when the subject was first brought to my mind, and I 

 was about testing the rule for my own satisfaction and future 

 guidance in poultry rearing. I found that nearly every al- 

 ternate egg laid by any one hen had the air-bubble in the 

 same position ; thus coinciding with the common experience, 

 that the sexes are about equal in numbers. 



Prom some cause my experiments at that time fell through, 

 and soon after I hit upon a plan which has so fully satisfied 

 me, that no futher attempts have on my part been made to 

 discern a better one. 



My rule — so simple and easy of application that any one 

 living within the regions of modern civilization can have the 

 means of practicing it— was given me by a good old lady, 

 who was famous in her day as a successful chicken-raiser. 

 I am so well satisfied with it that I never trouble myself any 

 more by testing the theories of others on this subject. My 

 mind is perfectly at rest on this point at least in the man- 

 agement of poultry, and now my chief study is to produce 

 the finest specimens of the breed of my choice, be they either 

 cockerels or pullets. The rule is : after you have picked out 

 the eggs to be set, by whatever other rule you may fancy, 

 carry them to the nest in a hat if you desire cockerels, or in 

 a sun-bonnet if you wish to obtain pullets. Illini, Jr. 



(For Fanciers' Journal.) 



SUMATRA GAME FOWLS. 



I see the announcement in the Fanciers' Journal, of April 

 30th, by E. S. Ralph, of Buffalo, New York, that he has just 

 received from Angiers Point, a coop of fine "Sumatra 

 Games, which compare favorably with his old stock, the 

 originals having been imported some twenty years ago from 

 same place," etc. 



