BREEDING BLACK LANGSHANS. 



A Beautiful Variety With Genuine Practical Worth-Notes From Fifteen Years' Experience With 



These Superior Fowls. 



By Henry L. Allen. 



' ITH the exception of a short period early in life, my 

 experience as a breeder of fowls in the Asiatic 

 division of breeds has been confined entirely to 

 the Black Langshan; in fact, it may be said that to the 

 Black Langshan has been devoted all the time which could 

 he spared from an exacting business, for nearly fifteen years. 

 I have never been blind to the beauty and excellent points of 

 other breeds, in fact, I have always been willing to admit 

 that there are other breeds more desirable for some people to 

 breed, but for me, I know that no other breed or variety 

 could ever come to possess the same interest that the Black 

 Langshan does and I feel that the same can be said by any 

 one who has become thoroughly familiar with the qualities 

 of the lordly black beauties, both from a fancy and a utili- 

 tarian standpoint. 



To begin with, the Black Langshan, although almost 

 unexcelled as a producer of eggs all the year round and as 

 a table fowl, is pre-eminently a fanciers' fowl on account 

 of the great beauty of plumage and carriage which charac- 

 terizes the breed. Its lordly stateliness combined with an 

 activeness which is not a characteristic of any other family 

 in the Asiatic division, makes the Langshan stand out in 

 sharp contrast with the other Asiatics. In color the Black 

 Langshan is, to those who have come to know its coloring 

 in its 'highest perfection, a fowl of surpassing beauty. Look- 

 ing at one in the sunlight, one forgets that it is a black 

 fowl, the rich green sheen making it appear more like a 

 piece of beautiful green silk, so brilliant is its lustre, and 

 he who imagines that perfection in color is easy to attain 

 in the Black Langshan because the breed is of "solid color" 



First Prize Black Langshan Hen at Illinois State Show. 

 Score 95^. Bred by Jesse T. Bateraan. 



has only to make the attempt in a careless way to learn how 

 woefully he may be mistaken. 



As a rule, I have found that the best and most satisfac- 

 tory mating is that of one's best male with the pick of the 

 females. There are some who contend that the best show 



birds are not the best breeders, and while that may be so 

 in instances where the natural vigor of the birds has been 

 impaired by long continued showing or by improper treat- 

 ment while preparing them for the shows, my own experi- 

 ence has been that my best youngsters have been raised 

 from a pen of my best show females headed by my best 

 show male. By this it should not be inferred that one can 

 always succeed by simply mating a good show male with 

 a pen of show females. In the first place, there is a marked 

 difference, sometimes, in good show birds. 



ANCESTRAL CHARACTERISTICS IMPORTANT. 



Then, too, a breeder can get the best results who is 

 familiar with the characteristics of the ancestors of the 

 birds being mated. A good show specimen decidedly off in 

 some one point should be used cautiously. For instance, 

 an otherwise perfect male with a decidedly poor comb should 

 be used experimentally before being placed at the head 

 of a largt breeding yard. The same holds true if the male 

 is good in other respects but weak in leg and toe feather- 

 ing. A nearly perfect male, but lacking some in size can 

 safely be used if the females are a little over rather than 

 under the weiight limit. Light weight females are not desir- 

 able, and when used should be mated with a heavy weight 

 male. 



Color and the part it plays in the mating of Black Lang- 

 shans has been a much discussed subject. Some of the most 

 eminent authorities have asserted that the objectionable 

 purple barring is likely to result from mating the best col- 

 ored males and females, that is, those having the metallic 

 green lustre in an accentuated degree. Those who hold to 

 that belief say that a dead black female, one possessing 

 little of the green sheen, mated with a perfect colored male 

 will produce the best colored chicks. In this respect I am 

 unable to agree with the authorities referred to. By mat- 

 ing females possessing the green sheen so much desired in 

 a show bird with a male similiarly characterized year after 

 year, I have had so small a proportion of chicks marked 

 with the purple barring as to lead me to believe that, with 

 other things being equal, the proper mating is male and 

 female colored as one wants the chicks to be colored. 



In trying to get the proper type outlined to follow, the 

 beginner should remember that the Langshan is not in- 

 tended to have the massive blockiness of the Cochin or the 

 majestic angularity of the Brahma. Neither should one go 

 to the extreme which has made the Langshan a laughing 

 stock in England and attempt to get a type which is stilty 

 and lacking in style. The Langshan, as recognized by the 

 standard, is, first of all, an upstanding, stately fowl of 

 remarkable beauty. To allow it to take on the chunky 

 characteristics of the Cochin or the stiltiness of the exhibi- 

 tion Game robs it of those attributes which the breeder 

 should most carefully cherish and which when properly 

 conceived in the breeder's mind and embodied in the prod- 

 uct of his breeding yards, make the Black Langshan an 

 example of the breeder's art that will draw the admiration 

 of every genuine fancier. • HENRY L. ALLEN. 



