34 



THE ORPINGTONS 



produced. The skin is white, thin and tender, not yellow, 

 thick and tough, and so greasy that children will not eat it. 



Like the markets across the ocean, the best American 

 markets are already demanding a white skin fowl, and 

 the day is not far distant when its greater desirability will 

 be generally understood. 



The Orpingtons are especially noted for their deep 

 bodies and broad, full breasts, the long breast bone carry- 

 ing almost as much white meat as is found upon a turkey. 



Eggs 



They are wonderful layers of large, smooth, brown 

 eggs. Pullets hatched in April and May commence laying 

 in early winter, when eggs are most desired, and will keep 

 up laying until spring, if warmly housed and fed green cut 

 bone and green food, after winter sets in. In the cele- 

 brated Australian contest in egg laying, where all breeds 

 competed, a Black Orpington pen headed the list, the 

 second being a pen of Silver Wyandottes and the third a 

 pen of White Leghorns. 



Out of forty-one pens, the Orpingtons held seven of 

 the highest thirteen places. 



Plumage 

 The plumage is most attractive, excelling the Lang- 

 shan in that beautiful green sheen, for which it is so 

 greatly admired. Makers of hat trimmings and ladies' 

 boas, are today offering 20 cents an ounce, ($3.20 per 

 pound) for the neck, saddle and tail feathers, and from 14 

 cents to 18 cents an ounce for the best of the feathers from 

 some other parts of the body. Dust, smoke and coal dust 

 does not show upon their plumage, making them a par- 

 ticularly pretty fowl for town life. 



Disposition 



They are quiet and peaceful, do not fly, and bear con- 

 finement well. They are easily kept from sitting, but 

 when desired make good sitters and mothers. 



Easily Bred 



They breed truer to color and type than any other va- 

 riety, and frequently from high-class fowls or eggs, hardly 

 a single cull bird will be found. They are, therefore, 

 especially adapted to the beginner. 



Shape and Size 



Blnek Orpin^tous Immense in Size, with Gharaoteristio Shape Posseased by No Other Breed 



M. F. Dela 



TO MOST PEOPLE there is no handsomer sight than 

 a flock of big black fowl running around on 

 a nice green lawn, with their bright, bril- 

 liant green sheen, red combs and wattles, and 

 their beady black eyes. As long as the writer 

 remembers the leading black varieties have been 

 rightly termed a gentleman's fowl. As I understand this 

 term it means a grand, all-around fowl that is a fine table 

 fowl, a splendid layer and of unsurpassed beauty, but 

 which for some reason is handicapped from a utility 

 standpoint. For many years the Black Langshan enjoyed 

 great popularity. In fact in the early nineties it enjoyed a 

 remarkable boom, the writer being among the breeders to 

 take it up at that time, and a more satisfactory fowl for 

 home use was never produced than was the Langshan of 

 the early nineties. 



The Black Orpington is made up largely from Lang- 

 shan ancestors. With the Langshan was combined the 

 blood of the Cochin, the Minorca and other varieties, all 

 yielding together the desirable points of each, and the 

 Black Orpington today is far and away the finest black 

 fowl that has even been produced. The old expression, 

 "As lordly as a Langshan,'' can be applied with even 

 greater force to the Black Orpington of today. Their 

 immense size, profuse feathering and attractive type com- 

 bine to make them "The fowl of beauty and a joy for- 

 ever." The Black Orpington was the first Orpington 

 produced and they were the product of skillful scientific 

 breeding in an effort to produce an all-around utility fowl 

 of greater value than any then in existeiice and the orig- 

 inators were certainly successful in getting what they 

 were after. 



In England, where the Orpington was originated, a 

 white or pink skin commands the highest market price in 

 both poultry and ducks. They prefer it there to a yel- 

 low skin. In this country we have always been partial to 

 yellow skinned fowls, but today the tremendous merit of 



the Orpington as a table fowl has broken down the bar- 

 rier of prejudice and they are commanding the top prices 

 in the best markets where a really fine table fowl is most 

 highly appreciated. 



The Blacks are the cobbiest and lowest down of all 

 the Orpington family. This effect is brought about to a 

 very great extent by the abundance and looseness of the 

 feathering which they inherit frorn their Cochin ancest- 

 ors. They have a type that ,is very distinctively their 

 own and I do not believe that the other varieties of Or- 

 pingtons will be brought to this type without seriously 

 impairing them as utility fowls. They are of tremendous 

 size and average very large, fully developed cock birds, 

 often weighing fourteen and fifteen pounds, and hens ten 

 and eleven pounds. They are very long, extremely deep 

 from the back to the hock, and have great breadth. Not 

 only do they show this effect while living, but the carcass 

 has the same characteristic and they have an abundance 

 of delicious breast meat on their well-rounded breast that 

 is of quality that will delight the epicure. 



As I said above, the beauty of outline of the Black 

 Orpington is helped greatly by the profusion and length 

 of the feathers. This is true of every part of the bird. 

 The male has an abundance of saddle hangers and tail 

 coverts which cover a fairly long main tail. There is not 

 an angle of any kind in a really good shaped Black and 

 their lines are drawn with the length and breadth of the 

 Plymouth Rock and Brahma and the curves of the Wyan- 

 dotte. A truly attractive bird that is rapidly gaining a 

 high place in the public favor, that stands today as the 

 most popular black fowl that has even been produced and 

 that has the intrinsic merit to hold the place which it has 

 won and to gain new friends and admirers every year. 

 Every lover of a black fowl should take up the Orpington 

 and I have never known a case yet where they have not 

 given absolute satisfaction. As a table fowl, as layers of 

 large brown eggs, and as an adornment to any place, they 

 are without a peer. 



