lO. MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



which involves nothing in principle or practice v^hich any poul- 

 tryman cannot put into operation will not fail, if consistently 

 and intelligently followed for a period of years, to bring about 

 a material increase in the productiveness of the flock. The evi- 

 dence which leads to this conviction is the best of all evidence; 

 the plan has been tried and it works. 



The Color of the Hen's Legs a Help in Picking Out the 



Layers. 



For some time past there has been in progress at the Station 

 an investigation of the cause of the different shank colors 

 observed in different breeds and different individuals of the 

 domestic fowl. The results of this investigation are now in 

 hand, and a bulletin on the subject will shortly be issued. As 

 this bulletin will be of a rather technical character it is thought 

 desirable to call attention at this time to some of the more im- 

 portant, non-technical and practical features growing out of 

 this work 



It is a well known fact to every poultryman and every vis- 

 itor to a poultry show that different breeds of fowls have char- 

 acteristically different colors of the skin. In the United States 

 generally yellow skinned birds are preferred over white skinned 

 ones for market purposes. As consequence of this preference 

 nearly all of the so-called American breeds such as, for ex- 

 ample, Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds, etc., 

 have a distinct yellow color of the skin. Correlated with tb^s 

 general yellow skin color these same breeds of poultry have 

 characteristic yellow shanks. This color of the shank is one to 

 which a good deal of attention is given, both by the judges in 

 the show room and by the expert poultryman in picking out 

 stock for his pens. A clear, bright yellow leg is always pre- 

 ferred in these breeds by the show room judge. 



In the matter of this preference for yellow skin color in its 

 poultry the United States stands practically alone. Nearly 

 all of the European countries prefer a white skinned bird for 

 table purposes. In consequence the birds for table use on the 

 •continent of Europe and in England belong to breeds char- 

 acterized by white skin color, and usually by white shank color, 

 such as, for example, is seen in the White Orpingtons. 



The cause of the skin color of birds is really a layer of col- 

 ored fat which lies in and below the skin. This fat in the 



