12 



SUCCESS WITH POULTRY 



something wrong with the mating of Barred Plymouth Eoeks 

 or there would .be more of them to be had when purchasers 

 are willing to pay any price to get them that the breeder 

 carea to name." Nor are the authorities agreed as to 

 whether there shall be two matings or one. And then when 

 you have a specimen that will score righteously ninety-three 

 to ninety-four points you have attained the limit of perfec- 

 tion. We indeed see cockerels advertised as scoring ninety- 

 six points; but are there any such scores certified to by Theo. 

 Hewes, B. N. Emery, F. W. Hitchcock, F. H. Shellabarger, 

 or any of our leading judges? The same care and skill will 

 produce White Plymouth Eock eofckerels at ninety-five and 

 ninety-six honest. points, and very few specimens at less than 

 ninety points. 



• Eight here I make the claim that intelligent breeders of 

 the White variety can produce a much larger per cent of 

 stndard birds than many of the more popular 

 varieties and, of course, with much less waste in 

 culls. There is in the handicap of solid color 

 varieties,, when in competition with the parti- 

 colored, a confession of this point. 



I would not be understood as inveighing 

 against the Barred Eock. "I love not Caeser 

 less, but Eome more." I have b^ed them and 

 can sympathize with the enthusiasm of the fan- 

 cier who has produced a really fine specimen. It 

 is indeed an attainment, and well may his pulse 

 quicken at his anticipated triumph in the show 

 room. But why should the amateur fpol away 

 his time and get badly left in the cold, when he 

 can with a reasonable outlay of time, care and 

 expense, with due exercise of brain, be successiul 

 and have more dollars in his pocket? 



If the Barred Plymouth Eock is the farmers ' 

 fowl par excellence, so is the White as well, for 

 the one has not one good quality not possessed 

 by the other, and in some points the White ex- 

 cel. The Whites are just as good rangers and 

 -hustle equally well for a living, and when neg- 

 lected will not run into a smutty unsightly plum- 

 age, nor if crossed throw a lot of black poster- 

 ity. (But they do run, if neglected, to an un- 

 sightly yellow plumage, which is as undesirable 

 as the smutty appearance in the Barred variety.) 



BKBEDING THE WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 



In breeding the White Plymouth Eoeks use 

 the best specimens only — those which show bes1» , 



in all required points. Eemember that in breeding for pure 

 white feathers only, you are in danger of losing the bay eye 

 and yellow skin and legs; or in breeding for the deep yellow 

 in required section^ you are indanger of running to creamy 

 colored feathers, and the despised "brassy color" on the 

 surface. There seems to be a connection between the deep 

 yllow in skin and th straw color on back and wings. My ex- 

 perience is that is neither feed nor sunshine that produces 

 that unsightly surface color, for 1 have known specimens to 

 maintain the purest white in surface for years and be fed 

 constantly on corn and continually exposed to the sun. Corn 

 produces fat, and fat fowls molt yellowish feathers, but they 

 come vrhite with age. The brassy color will not fade out for 

 me. Weed it out by breeding from cockerels that show 

 none of it. 



It should also be remembered that good care has very 

 much to do in producing fine fowls. Do not over-feed, for 

 thJB is the cause of one-half of the diseases, with lice per- 



haps the cause of the other half. An active, stirring bird 

 is a healthy one, and should not be oyer fat. They should 

 have feed enough to be in good flesh, otherwise they will 

 deteriorate. The farmers say they like a hog crossed with 

 the corncrib; and the finest stock in the world will become 

 scrubs when exposed to all weather and half starved. Es- 

 pecially should young stock be kept thrifty and growing 

 and in no other way can fine birds be produced. And the 

 purchaser should bear in mind if he starts with fine fowls 

 or with eggs, that they are stock that have been used to 

 high living and neglect will bring a penalty for which he 

 only will be to blame. Many purchasers of eggs have been 

 disappointed because the young White Plymouth Eock chicks 

 were not hatched pure white, and they have thought they 

 were imposed upon by that mottled group of yellow- white, 

 blue and brown chicks. The writer has been roundly abused 



(^opYRI&HTtO 



Standard-bred White Plymouth Bocks. 



for that same group. But that is the way they all come, 

 and the darkest chick will likely make the whitest fowl. 

 The dark color is only a reminiscense of color in the Barred 

 progenitors— and a little patient waiting will prove that ail 

 fanciers are not rascals, and that perhaps you have been a 

 little hasty in your judgment. 



1 would urge that breeders of this variety direct their 

 efforts to attain the highest excellence in it, so that bur 

 favorites, which we are so confident are second to none as 

 an all-purpose fowl, shall come to the front and occupy the 

 place they justly deserve. 



