BLACK LANGSHANS. 



Early Ideals and Recent Improvement— Commendable Laying and Market Qualities— Breeding for 

 Color and Shape— Toe Feathering and Standard Weights— Preparing for Exhibition. 



By John Hettich. 



TO THE question of "What do you know of the origin 

 and history of the Black Langshans?" there is little 

 to be said, since we are convinced that it is a dis- 

 tinct breed and not a variety made by crossing a 

 number of other breeds as are many of the varieties we have 

 to-day. 



The first account we had of the Langshan was in 1872, 

 when an English army officer stationed in the northern part 

 of China sent home some of these fowls to his uncle, Major 

 Croad, of Birmingham, England. The first report of their 

 exhibition was in connection with the Crystal Palace show 

 in the winter of that same year, when they came in compe- 

 tition with the then more popular Black Cochins and were 

 described by the Cochin breeders of that day as nothing 

 more than poor Cochins. 



The first Langshan club was started in England in 1877, 

 and the first importation to America was in the same year. 

 While this most excellent variety met with all kinds of 

 prejudiced opposition in those earlier days, more so in 

 England than in America, yet it was not long before their 

 many good qualities became known. 



Major Croad, no doubt, improved them very much 

 from the time the first ones were received by him up to the 

 time of their first importation to this country, and the Lang- 

 shan in America to-day is a great improvement over its 

 ancestors, so much so that they hardly resemble the first 

 importation if we may judge from the illustrations made 

 of them by the best poultry artists of their day. I saw an 

 illustration some time ago made by the late B. N. Pierce 

 in 1882 of a pair of Black Langshans belonging to Fred 

 Greensland, of Highland Park, 111. Of course they repre- 

 sented an ideal pair at that time, but I am sure that at the 

 last show at which Judge Pierce made the awards on the 

 Langshan class he did not judge them by that ideal illustra- 

 tion. Nor did his son "Mac" judge the big class of Lang- 

 shans at the late Chicago show by his father's ideal of the 

 first American Langshans. Another early illustration that 

 I saw was drawn in 1880 by Ludlow from an imported pair. 

 No doubt that was a fine pair of birds at that time. There 

 is but little difference in these two drawings in either style 

 or carriage, which shows that the Langshans of that time 

 were of a uniform style, but very different from the Lang- 

 shan we have to-day. 



LANGSHANS AS LAYERS. 

 In an old article that I read some time ago it said: "After 

 the appearance of the Langshan at Birmingham a local 

 Paper stated that its only good quality was that of being a 

 good layer.. Another publication said: 'One of the judges 

 was heard to say that the Langshan was a good table fowl, 

 but fit for nothing else.' " The former was right as to their 

 laying qualilies, the latter as to its good table qualities, but 

 both wrong in saying that they were fit for nothing else, 



for they possess both of these good qualities and many 

 more. 



As egg producers the Langshans unquestionably take 

 front rank. They will lay just as many eggs the whole year 

 round as any breed, except perhaps Leghorns and Minorcas, 

 and in winter when eggs are scarcest and command the 

 highest prices they will lay proportionately more. This 

 proposition has never been successfully contradicted. My 

 earliest pullets nearly always begin to lay by October 1st, 

 and many a promising exhibition pullet has gone back on 

 my expectations on account of her laying just a little too 

 early for my purpose. 



I mated my yards for last season in January; I began 

 filling orders for eggs for hatching in February. Nearly 

 every pullet was laying when I made my mating, four yards 

 of ten females each. Up to April 10th I had only four hens 

 broody, and had I depended on sitting hens from my own 

 yards for my early hatches I would not have had many early 

 chicks, but thanks to the invention of the incubator, I do not 

 depend upon the hens. I have in my yards two yearling 

 hens that were laying some time before I put them in my 

 breeding pens and they have laid continually up to this 

 time — April 10th. 



LANGSHANS AS MARKET FOWLS. 



While I do not raise Langshans for market, but strictly 

 for the fancy, yet I market a few every fall after carefully 

 culling the flock, and they always brjng the very highest 

 price that is paid for market poultry at that season. There 

 is no better taihle fowl than a Langshan, especially when it is 

 fully matured. The flesh is white, very fine grained, tender 

 and juicy. The skin is a clear white, not a dark bluish 

 white, but creamy white. The chief objection offered 

 against a Black Langshan is, as I said before, their color— 

 they are black. It is said they are hard to pick and show 

 pin feathers, but I am sure no one that has ever dressed a 

 pure-bred Langshan will raise such an objection. The 

 Langshans are a rather loose feathered fowl, unlike the 

 short and close feathered Black Leghorn, Minorca, or Black 

 Spanish, and they are for this reason more easily picked, 

 and show few pin feathers. 



It is' not advisable to use a cock in the breeding pen 

 after the third year. I have always had very satisfactory 

 results from mating a cock with pullets, and a cockerel with 

 hens; in fact, I am convinced that this is the proper way 

 to mate Langshans. If the pullets are fully matured then a 

 well-matured cockerel will give equally good results. What 

 I mean by good results is in producing strong, vigorous 

 chicks. During the breeding season I was compelled to 

 make a change in one of my yards, one of my cock birds 

 having contracted something like chicken pox. I put in his 

 place a big full grown cockerel and the chicks hatched from 

 that mating are as big and strong as any I have ever seen. 



