52 



THE ASIATICS. 



Qcherous, either light or dark, shading from lemon to light 

 brown, and when these colors prevailed the shape ap- 

 proached that now acknowledged as perfect • and their 

 shanks and feet were more heavily plumed. 



This country is fast following in the footsteps of Eng- 

 land. There is a strenuous effort to produce an over abun- 

 dance of plumage and in too many cases it has produced 

 nothing less than an excrescence. But for all that a prop- 

 ejly feathered Cochin is, even in comparison with the other 

 sub-varieties of its class, most profusely feathered in the 

 Buff variety. As the Brahma is the largest of all breeds, 

 so is the Buff the longest and most profusely feathered 

 Cochin. For all that I do not think this should license pro- 

 nounced vulture hocks to win prizes in our exhibitions. We 

 had vulture hocks in 1852; we have them to-day. They 

 were unsightly and a disqualifying defect then; the Stand- 

 ard so declares them to-day. Yet oftentimes we see the law 

 ignored and see vulture hocks on the winners. They are an 

 objectionable extreme and usually such birds are mated to 

 pullets having bare middle toes, both being disqualifica- 

 tions by our Standard. Yet because the breed is acknowl- 

 edged the heaviest plumed of all breeds, nineteein-twentieths 

 of the judges become a law unto themselves and pass them, 

 and the worst feature of it all, they allow them to pass 

 uncut. Were the disqualifications raised in our Standard 

 and the defect cut a reasonable amount these specimens 

 would not win, and it would soon reduce the plumage to a 

 reasonable condition, and the egg product would be the 

 greater for it. 



The use of any disqualifying extremes is but to harbor 

 inherent defects to be reproduced from time to time, and 

 the breeder known to thus indulge in their use hazards his 

 reputation; eventually his loss in sales will far outweigh 

 any gain ho may derive through the' use of disqualified 

 stock. 



All the breeders both of England and America have 

 striven to breed out this eye sore, and why? It is not only 

 unsightly, but this stiff, coarse plumage that results in vul- 

 ture appearance generally has accompanying it a long stiff 

 tail plumage, very objectionable in a Cochin sense, and the 

 progeny, even though they in themselves may be termad 

 first-class, still have the repeating influence in transmitting 

 the defects of their sires, even producing the bare toes of 

 the females and the vulture hocks of the males. 



"We can never be free from our ancestors" is as true 

 here as in the mammals, but this breed was destined to have 

 the greatest effect upon American fowl culture and to 

 awaken in the minds of our farmers and fanciers the fact 

 that the raising of poultry could be made one of the largest 

 agricultural industries. Who has not read Burnham's "Hen 

 Fever?" Ludicrous and a burlesque that it is, it disclosed 

 the fact that over the ancestors of the Buff Cochin was cre- 

 ated the wildest excitement ever experienced in poultry 

 culture. It reached presidents, kings, queens, senators, as 

 well as the humble occupants of our village homes and 

 farms, and $20 to $300 was paid for specimens. 



Crude as the breed then was, I fear that to-day in their 

 accepted exhibition form they do not maintain the merit of 

 egg production that they did, when not required to carry the 

 volume of plumage now demanded of them. 



REQUIREMENTS OF THE UTILITY BUFF COCHIN. 



This leads up to the question: What do they need to 

 make a more practical, money earning breed? 



I believe I will be sustained in the assertion that to-day 

 they are shorter jointed, shorter bodied, heavier and more 

 profuse in plumage, the eggs smaller and thicker shelled, 

 with the need of fully twenty-five per cent more males, 



compared to females, than formerly to secure satisfactory 

 fertility. (This last is equally true of all Asiatics.) 



I fear the shortening of body structure, the lowering of 

 the weight center and the greater amount of lower thigh, 

 shank and foot plumage has proved a sad mistake for the 

 practical merit of the breed, and has lessened the call for 

 the breed outside the exhibition demand; even with the cov- 

 eted outline of hocks, we would have more of them if bred 

 to a longer conformation. 



The earlier birds I speak of in 1872 to 1876 were longer 

 bodied and more generally pronounced in the convexed 

 feature of hock and cushion. Fads make shuttle cocks of 

 any breed. 



The desire to intensify and develop to a wonderful de- 

 gree any one single section, such as enormous leg and foot 

 plumage, or to make a fad of unnatural developments that 

 have come in the place of features sought for in our mat- 

 ings, should sink into utter insignificance as compared to a 

 development of beauty that has come in company with won- 

 derful development of muscle growth or egg production. 

 To produce the latter is much greater honor and surely of 

 greater profit to the breeder. 



The angular, over long, flat sided specimens of early 

 days are being supplanted by birds of the other extreme, 

 until these excessively short necks, short. legs, backs and ex- 

 cessively feathered specimens have lost so much of merit in 

 egg production that we hear the clamor for the old time 

 excellence and productive power. 



Is it not history that the most practical and prolific ele- 

 ments in a breed carry it into popular favor and secure for 

 it a prominent and lasting position there? Surely it is such 

 that secures continued demand in the purchasing world at 

 large. 



Periodically does this breed come to the front to de- 

 mand the breeder's attention and adoration. 



It is hard to forget the furor and fire of interest kindled 

 by the advent of the Hodgen trio at New York in 1866, at 

 which exhibition they sold for $315 at auction, the record 

 price at that time, and for a decade breeders were not con- 

 sidered in it that could not boast of the blood of that trio 

 in their breeding pens. 



For a score of years following the above the interest 

 drifted west, where in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan seemed 

 to center the home of this breed, the breeders there becom- 

 ing their champions and defenders. During this time it was 

 my lot to judge, at Indianapolis, a class of 180 specimens; 

 nine of which had cost twenty pounds or more each in Lon- 

 don. 



The eastern states for a time found other favorites, let- 

 ting the Buffs fall into careless hands, but would they have 

 maintained their position even in the states named had 

 they been other than the catchy and beautiful color that 

 they were? 



History has been repeating itself again with this breed 

 and, as with others, we see about every ten years a revival 

 of interest in them. The last time the controversy was over 

 types— the effort of the breeders to raise the disqualifica- 

 tions of vulture hocks, even going to the extreme of giving 

 classes outside of the Standard which allowed such to com- 

 pete under the name of Full Feathered Cochins. The con- 

 troversy served to awaken the American breeder, to sustain 

 and in. fact triumph with the American type and breeding, 

 and the full feathered classes were abandoned. To the 

 Sharp Brothers, of Massachusetts, should be given the credit 

 for they have demonstrated that the American bred speci- 

 mens are in every way the equal of the full feathered birds, 

 and that the soft, clinging plumage, to fall about and down 

 upon an ample foot plumage, can be secured without the ob- 



