90 



SHAPE. 

 One of the chief difficulties in breeding to standard 

 shape is to get the back and tail shape correct. I feel cer- 

 tain that many breeders and some judges, have laid too 

 much stress on color, and too little on shape. Glance at the 

 cut of an ideal Langshan, and then compare it with some of 

 the photographs of 95 and 96 point birds which appear in 

 the poultry papers from time to time. I maintain that fre- 

 quently birds are given high scores merely on the strength 

 of size and color, which ought never to pose as Langshans. 

 This is confusing to the novice, and opens the way for a 

 large degree of carelessness in his selection of next year's 



THE ASIATICS. if-' 



breeders. It also results in keeping I large percentage of 

 the Langshans throughout the country below the average 

 in shape. The ideal gives us a short, broad back in both 

 male and female, with a long fountain tail in the male, and 

 a decidedly long tail in the female, carried well up in both. 

 But the cuts of winners, too, frequently exhibit a long back, 

 with a decidedly short tail, carried low down. Making all 

 due allowance for difficulty in posing, etc., it would still 

 seem that in a great many instances, the punishment for 

 bad shape has been too light. 



L. A. KLINE. 

 President American Langshan Club. 



BLACK LANGSHANS TO DATE. 



Twenty-five Years' Breeding Has Not Changed the Breed Type— Generous Producers of Fine Grain 



Meat and Dark Brown Eggs— Fineness a Distinctive Quality 



of the Langshan. 



By Franklane L. Sewell. 



D TRUST that, I shall not in any way discourage the lovers 

 of some of our modern styles of fowls by telling tiiem 

 that one of the strongest reasons for the Langshan's 

 value as an economic fowl is its undisturbed type and an- 

 cient origin. The more we let the Langshan revert to its 

 natural bent — or perhaps I should say to the type it first 

 presented when Europeans and Americans took it up — the 

 more profitable, vigorous and productive it becomes, both in 

 quality of flesh and number of eggs. 



You know that the reason a flock of mixed hens is more 

 difficult to handle profitably is that there are so many dif- 

 ferent natures in the flock. What is good for the few will 

 starve some and spoil the rest by overfeeding. The more 

 the flock is crossed and intermixed, the more complicated 

 the successful management of it becomes. The average 

 farmer's flock of hens presents as many types as it contains 

 birds. This is the reason that on free range, where they 

 can suit themselves as to exercise, food, etc., they do pass- 

 ably well. But as a man regularly in the poultry business 

 cannot handle his fowls in that way — all in one rambling 

 flock — he must have a distinct race of fowl that will all 

 respond productively to one method of management. 



The Langshan (pure) to-day is the same type as it was 

 twenty-five generations of birds back. It seems to have 

 passed its "artificial selection" atage long before che Eng- 

 lish people found it. The Old English Game and the Dork- 

 ing are also counted among the few races that keep reason- 

 ably to their understood type. A fancier or farmer need not 

 spend a great amount of study on these races in selecting 

 for fancy requirements. It is the few among them that show 

 a turning out of the line, while with our later made varieties 

 only the few are fit to rely on to produce their like, or better. 

 This prepotency in the Langshan has kept its type in spite 

 of many misinformed and misdirected matings, where the 

 race has been allowed to remain pure. It has been found 

 more difficult to change the pure Langshan type in England, 

 to follow the whims of the judges, than it is to preserve 

 its original shape, and many breeders found it impossible 

 to keep pace with the demands of some of their misin- 

 formed judges without resorting to a cross. 



We took up the Langshan twenty years ago, because we 

 liked their looks. People said they were hardy and produc- 

 tive and that they were an old established race. At that 

 time we were keeping the Brown Leghorns and Plymouth 

 Rocks. We had started when twelve years of age with 

 Game fowls, the only pure-bred fowls then kept in our town, 

 but after three years' enduring their quarrelsome nature 

 we decided to keep Houdans. We liked this breed, but they 

 did not fully satisfy us. At seventeen we learned of the 

 Langshan, and have kept them ever since. 



THEIR PRACTICAL AND FANCY CHARACTERISTICS. 



The older nations that have tried all kinds of fowls and 

 fed and prepared them in all sorts of ways to suit their ap- 

 petites, require white-skin fowls. The Dorking, the Houclan, 

 the La Fleche, all have white skins. The La Fleche has black 

 legs, but this in France seems to make no difference in the 

 market value of a fowl. However, it is not the color of 

 skin that is most important in a table fowl, it is the fineness 

 of grain, the depth and length of keel bone and succulency 

 of flesh. In our experience the Langshan shows the smooth- 

 est skin and finest grained flesh of any fowl equal to its 

 size. The size of carcass in a Langshan can be overdone. 

 The quantity of the true Langshan is (and should be in all 

 races kept for profit) on the breast, and he is proud to carry 

 it well forward. 



You will not overfatten the Langshan easily unless in 

 very close confinement. Like the Jersey cow for cream, the 

 Langshan turns its food to the production of eggs that are 

 rich in their contents. I believe they are the only white 

 skin race of fowls producing dark brown eggs. 



As to their fancy characteristics we have so often told 

 them in word and in picture that we may be pardoned for 

 here writing only briefly of them. The fancy points of the 

 Langshan need not change to make them attractive, and 

 they are already of a genuinely practical type. 



I will add a few words that may prevent mistakes 

 for those who do not understand the real Langshan. Our 

 friend, Mr. Harrison Weir, who always stood so firmly for 

 the Langshan, not long ago wrote me, "A bird can be too 

 large and too coarse to be good." Remember that, when 



