* *♦*> l^*»»♦%JMM^♦♦♦*'l^■>** * ♦»l^ * »MM^*♦*■l^'l^*♦^^■^^*»♦■)^'l^■ll^r'l^ ' ^^^>^^^^^*♦♦»l 



I PURITY OF ANCONAS 



THERE never yet was anything under the sun that everybody acknowl- 

 * edged was all right. Everything must endure the sneers of the 

 skeptic, the license (?) of the critic, the errors of the ignorant, the vicious- 

 ness of the jealous, — and Anconas are no exception. 



Some poultrymen, and even a few writers, (you may put them in 

 whichever of the above class that suits your fancy) maintain that Anconas 

 are a "made breed." But these people do not agree as to how they were 

 made. Now if Anconas are a manufactured breed, the result of crossing 

 other breeds, they were probably produced some certain way. But the 

 very fact of the methods employed being in dispute is good evidence to me 

 that the argument is weak. Another reason why I say the claim that An- 

 conas are a made-up breed is false, is that it cannot be substantiated. 

 We have the Black Spanish, the Houdans, the Black Leghorns, the White 

 Leghorns, the Minorcas, the Hamburgs, all of which varieties various peo- 

 ple claim were used to produce the Ancona (in whatever way it most 

 pleases the several writers to set forth,) and breeders today are certainly 

 more advanced than they were generations ago. Now, go at it and breed 

 a made-up Ancona! The fact that it cannot be done is some proof that it 

 never has been done. 



Some Leghorn breeders see a menace to their breed in the growing pop- 

 ularity of the Ancona, and therefore speak of them slightingly as Mottled 

 Leghorns. They perhaps would not make such a blunder if they were 

 aware of the fact that Anconas were pure bred a great many years before 

 Leghorns were brought to Ught. 



Anconas began to come into the general knowledge of the poultry world 

 at a time when Leghorns were very popular. A new variety of Leghorns 

 would have been very much easier to introduce than a breed bearing a 

 name little known and of no significance. "Mottled Leghorns" would 

 have been taken up at once, and been as great a success as White Leg- 

 horns, Brown Leghorns, Buff Leghorns and Black Leghorns. Then why, 

 by any line of reasoning, should an Ancona, if it is a Leghorn, be given a 

 name that would retard its popularity and success? 



Again, a breeder who had the ability to create a new breed as stable and 

 worthy as the Ancona has proven to be, would surely have the ability to 

 bring the new creation to the knowledge of the public. Yet we find that 

 Anconas were bred for scores and scores of years before any attempt was 

 made to widely introduce them. 



