THE ORPINGTONS 



latter, in the former they glare out conspicuously in con- 

 trast to the rest of the white plumage. 



"Before concluding this subject we would take the 

 opportunity of saying that neither maize nor Indian meal 

 should be given to white poultry. Birds fed for any length 

 of time on such food will, in all probability, become 

 creamy in plumage and lose that spotless whiteness which 

 is so greatly desirable. We are aware that some of the 

 samples of Indian corn are much whiter in husk and sub- 

 stance than are others, but with good wheat, buckwheat 

 and dari, maize of no description need form any part of 

 the daily food of white exhibition fowls." 



The statement in the last paragraph above relating to 

 the feeding or rather to the not feeding of yellow corn, 

 will be received by many breeders with doubt as to its 

 correctness, no experiments having been made to determ- 

 ine what effect, if any, the feeding of yellow corn to fowl 

 has on the shade of white plumage from which correct 

 conclusions can be formed. It is true that a number of 

 prominent American breeders of White Leghorns and 

 White Plymouth Rocks believe that yellow corn causes 

 creaminess and brassiness of white plumage when fed 

 daily to young and old fowls, even when fed only as a 

 part of the grain ration. These breeders feed white corn 

 in place of the yellow, being convinced that it will at 

 least prevent the appearance of the yellow tinge in the 

 feathers of naturally white birds, even if it will not whiten 

 the plumage of specimens that have a yellow streak in 

 their make-up. 



Size and Character 



In order to increase the size and weight of White 

 Orpingtons some English breeders have resorted to 

 crossing the latter with the Blacks. The veteran fancier 

 and Judge J. W. Ludlow in the "Feathered World," Eng- 

 land, of September 2, 1910, comments on such crosses 

 as follows: 



"Bye-the-bye, blacks being the safest occasional cross 

 for the produce of bulky whites, it will become necessary 

 to carefully examine and guard against grizzly under fluff 

 in all and any of the black progeny thus produced. An 

 occasional dip is good, over much leads to spoil the glossy 

 splendor and produce a dull black plumage. In fact, the 

 advantage is to the whites only to the detriment of the 

 blacks so crossed. I name this because I know that, in 

 the effort to get size, bulk and character in whites, some 

 of the biggest blacks have been and are used for the 

 purpose." 



We are of the opinion that the infusion of Black Or- 

 pington blood into the Whites has also had a beneficial 

 efifect on the white plumage, eliminating the tendency to 

 brassiness in the males and creaminess in the females. 

 Recent importations of White Orpingtons possessed this 

 desirable silvery white plumage in a more marked de- 

 gree than in the earlier Whites received from England, 

 the Black no doubt being responsible for both size and 

 color improvement. 



The Story of The White Orpington 



Ho-w and Why, After Many Years of Experimenting \irith Various Breeds, the White Orpington vrae 



Selected as the Best Fowl for All Purposes. 



Ernest Kellerstrass 



AN IDEAL WHITE ORPINGTON 



YOU ask me why I selected the 

 White Orpington. Well, no 

 doubt you are aware of the fact 

 that I have bred chickens for many years 

 and I bred something like sixteen 

 or seventeen different varieties, and the 

 great trouble was some of the birds that 

 I had did not produce the eggs. Then I 

 bred some other varieties that produced 

 the eggs, but they were too small and 

 would not produce the meat. I looked 

 around and experimented for a number 

 of years, and after I had tried out some 

 Orpingtons for about three years under 

 lock and key here, I finally came to the 

 conclusion that they were the birds. I 

 got rid of everything on the farm and 

 went to breeding White Orpingtons ex- 

 clusively. 



With due respect to all other breed- 

 ers and other breeds of birds, I think 

 there is nothing like the White Orping- 

 tons. History shows that they mature 

 quicker than any other breed of fowl. It 

 i^ no trouble to find White Orpingtons 

 laying at four or four and a half months 

 old, but those are common occurrences. 

 Then again, for the meat end of it, the 

 birds have to weigh a pound more than 

 any other breed, according to the Amer- 

 ican Standard, that is in the clean-legged 

 variety and as to producing the eggs, 



