SUCCESS WITH POULTRY 



of Judge Emry, this specimen came within 5,% points of per- 

 fection, which is represented by 100 points. The cut shows 

 where tie bird was defective, in his opinion, and to what 

 extent. We thus give the average reader who is not posted 

 on standard-bred poultry matters a general idea of how the 

 score card is used, but we cannot go into detail within the 

 scope of this book. Let us say, however, that these poultry 

 exhibitions are of incalculable help in developing the poul- 

 try industry in all its branches, in that they create great 

 interest and win an ever increasing number of new friends 

 for fowls that are both useful and beautiful. Many people 

 who have not given the subject careful and logical thought 

 feel free to ridicule the beautiful in standard-bred poultry. 

 They simply under-estimate the great value that beauty in 

 fowls has been in atracting attention, creating interest and 

 winning thereby new and lasting friends for poultry bred to 

 a combined ideal — ^the acme of utility and beauty. Our poul- 

 try shows, together with the superior work now being done 

 by poultry artists and the more recent use of photographic 

 reproductions, showing choice specimens of different varie- 

 ties axactly as they are in life, have done and are doing a 

 great work in developing the poultry industry, and whoever 

 depreciates any one of them simply either is not well posted 

 or is not mentally qualified to deliver a sound opinion. 



A CHIRF SEiCKBT OF SUCCESS. 



It will be readily understood by the intelligent reader 

 that whoever among the breeders of standard poultry is able 

 to prodtfce specimens that come nearest to perfection, that 

 is, to stand-ard requirements, will be able to obtain for these 

 best specimens high prices. The fact is that in England, 

 where the standard-bred poultry business is older than in 

 this country, and where the interest is even greater, poultry 

 shows being held every week in the year, as high as $1,000 

 has been refused in a number of cases for extra choice and 

 extra valuable specimens as breeders, while in this country 

 as high as $100 is paid every season for extra choice speci- 

 mens, and from $200 to as high as $300 has been refused 

 from time to time for some particular bird with a proud 

 record at a leading poultry show. These birds are valuable, 

 not alone for their individual excellence and the record they 

 have made, but also because they are the result, as a rUle, 

 of years of careful and systematic breeding and carry in 

 their veins blood that is able to reproduce the ■excellent qual- 

 ities or characteristics for which this individual bird is so 

 highly prized. 



Here, then, is one of the chief secrets of success in 

 breeding standard poultry satisfactorily. In the beginning, 

 so we are told by men who are posted in chicken lore, there 

 existed only one kind of chicken, a black and red jungle fowl 

 of uncertain origin. It is claimed that from this one kind or 

 variety man has produced through selection and persistent 

 matings, the one hundred or more distinct varieties of poul- 

 try now in existence. No doubt this is substantially true, 

 for more than half the varieties of fowls now described in 

 the Amenoan Standard of Perfection and bred in large num- 

 bers at the present time have been "created" within the 

 lifetime of poultrymen now living, and even within the past 

 twenty -five years a dozen or more of our popular varieties 

 have come into existence. For example, twenty-five years 

 ago there were no BufiE Cochins, Silver Laced Wyandottes, 

 White Wyandottes, White Plymouth Rocks, Buff Ply-mouth 

 Bocks, Buff Wyandottes or Buff Leghorns in this country. 

 The majority of these varieties did not exist in the world. 

 New varieties are being created from time to time, some 

 claim too numerously, others think not. Begardless of whicl) 



is right, the constant aim may be said to be improvement 

 either in utility or beauty, or both, and the goal sought at all 

 times in the breeding of every variety is greater exoellenee, 

 and the man or woman who is able to ' ' mix the paints ' ' and 

 use "an eye for outline" to tie best advantage is certain to 

 win a golden reward, for the competition is keen and there 

 is a widespread and constantly growijig desire to "own the 

 best. ' ' Frankly, more than average intelligence and enter- 

 prise are required in order to produce extra choice standard 

 specimens. It has been said that ' ' any fool can set a hen, 

 but it takes brains to produce thoroughbre'd poultry." This 

 remark is more true than elegant, but in all walks of life it 

 is the same. The riclier the reward the greater the effort re- 

 quired to obtain it. 



Inasmuch as it has taken years to create the different 

 varieties of standard-bred poultry, building them up to such 



THE POULTBYMAN'S CHART. 



The above Chart shows the sectional parta of a fowl: 1, Comb- 

 2, Face; 3, Wa.ttles; 4, Earlobes; 5. Hackle; 6, Breast; 7, Back- g' 

 Saddle; 9, Saddle Feathers; 10, Sickles; 11, Tall Coverts: 12 Main 

 Tall Feathers; 13, Wing-bow; 14, Wtng Coverts, forming Wing Bar- 

 16, Secondaries, Wing Bay; 16, Primaries or Flight Feathers Wins 

 Butts; 17, Point of Breast Bone; 18, Thighs; 19, Hocks: 20 Shanka 

 or Legs; 21, Spurs; 22, Toes or Claws. 



an extent that they will reproduce the desirable qualities and 

 charteristics, it follows that the one way to preserve and 

 augment these qualities and characteristics is to buy into a 

 strain and stick to that strain for better or for worse. A 

 common mistake made by persons who go, into the standard- 

 bred poultry business is to buy a few hens or pullets here a 

 cockerel there, some eggs from -still another place, crossing 

 and mixing the blood of difperent strains, regardless of the 

 loss of the breeding lines on which these different strains 

 have been developed. It is equivalent to throwing just that 

 much money away, provided your aim is to make progress in 

 breeding to standard requirements. The better way to do 

 the only sensible way to do, is to buy into some established 



