58 



THE ASIATICS. 



scoring less than 87 points. This last will prevent anything 

 like culls or scrubs from taking premium honors. It con- 

 demns such to strictly kitchen uses. 



All the above surely would demand a price for breeding 

 ' equal to $3 to $20 each for females, with males at $4 to $35, 

 leaving all others at a personal consideration of buyer and 

 seller, outside the thoroughbred trade. 



Then winners will breed winners and from any one of the 

 pens described we may expect to breed winners. They are 

 one of the oldest breeds; is there any reason why they 

 should not breed true if proper care is taken of them? Close, 

 grassless runs will destroy the chances of even the best mat- 

 ings from winning, except by accident. I am sorry to be 

 obliged to chronicle the fact that nine-tenths of the breeders 

 who confine their stock thus as a rule neglect them. A 

 prime breeding pen is not all there is to poultry culture. 



Experience has taught that when very dark colored 

 males have from necessity been mated to very light colored, 

 faded out hens, even those with white appearing in their 

 flights, feet, and tail, very gratifying results have followed, 

 but faded, white tainted males are a failure whenever they 

 are used as breeders. When loss of color is marked in the 

 males, it is surely time to kill them and take a new source 

 of color supply. It is only when we consult the entire ques- 

 tion of color, that we are safe. 



, I call to mind a ease in St. Louis, when a pair of pullets 

 had been tied for first place. Their owners calling my atten- 

 tion to the fact, as they put it, of two pullets being exactly 

 alike. I looked them over and said, "They are exactly alike 

 in surface color, but in no other particular, for one is solid 

 mahogany while the other is simply veneered, that is three 

 full points difference in color alone." One had a fine under- 

 color, while the other was white quilled and white in under- 

 color. When breeder or judge ignores under-color in Buff 

 Cochins, they have both sadly missed their calling. 



A knowledge of the antecedents of any flock is highly 

 necessary for the breeder to make correct predictions in re- 

 gard to the results of his matings. The show specimen 

 should by no means be the darkest one raised, but as near 

 as possible should represent the medium color of his flock — 

 for should he be caught without darker color he surely can 

 feel he has entered a stage of decay in color production. 



In. this breed, like many others, a cock and hen that 

 have ripened into standard color, both as chickens having 

 been deemed too dark for standard demand, surely are the 

 very best mating to preserve color. Such is beyond all ques- 

 tion a standard mating. I have come to the conclusion that 

 in a general sense there is no single mating. The distinc- 

 tion should be: Middle matings, not extreme or double 

 mating, though this breed is like Brahmas, one of more 

 nearly single mating than any other breed. 



THE SPECIAL CARE. 



For best results this breed requires to be furnished 

 a cool and shaded retreat in which they can repose between 

 9 and 4 o'clock when molting. Their hearts beat 150 times 

 each minute and as they cannot sweat like the horse, you 

 can see what a tax there is on their respiration, besides the 

 effect of the hot harvest sun is very disastrous to their deli- 

 cate plumage, when in its pin feather state. 



To have an even shade of color during the last stage 

 of growth of their adult or new plumage it is necessary that 

 all premature growth and the old coat be removed, that all 

 plumage of back and saddle may be of the same age, or you 

 will have a spotted back or mealy wing to militate against 

 the specimen if she or he is to be shown. Even for one's 

 own selection in one's breeding pen, this care will be needed. 

 If these birds have been early hatched and are liable to grow 

 their adult coat in July and August, then a grove or tent 

 or artificial shade will repay you well if you furnish it. 



Continued soft and sloppy food is not good for this or 

 any other breed, but a free use of scalded milk to drink and 

 one meal each day of mash, twenty per cent of which shall 

 be meat, such as desiccated fish or granulated beef scraps, 

 (avoid pork scraps) may be fed, the whole day rations being 

 so fed as to consist of fifteen per cent of meat, twenty-five 

 per cent vegetable and sixty grain. These are the main 

 points to be followed if you would raise strictly first-class 

 Cochins. 



For your chicks until three weeks old or older, you will 

 find it will pay you to have corn cracked as fine as millet 

 seed. A bread made of excelsior meal, thoroughly baked 

 and moistened in scalded milk, is fed for the forenoon, while 

 the afternoon feeding should be millet, rolled oats, fine 

 cracked corn and wheat. After a month begin the feeding 

 of meat in the morning food, giving for the first two weeks 

 the scalded milk to drink; if this be followed, there will be 

 no bowel trouble, or loss by death because of it. 



This care will start them at one month old with a strong 

 constitution that will carry them through life with a low 

 death rate in your flocks. 



Little things become great things in their results. If 

 you watch the combs as they commence to develop, it may 

 be a surprise to you that they start with anywhere from 

 four to even nine points. Pinch the ones that are desired to 

 be absorbed; nature does not always absorb the right ones 

 to secure for us the even, regulation five point comb. But 

 if this care is taken, the one which is pinched and whose 

 growth is thus checked, will be the one to be absorbed into 

 the two one each side and a serration is secured in place of 

 the point. Little cares win premier prizes. 



I. K. FELCH. 



