THE BREEDER— HIS PLACE AND HIS WORK 41 



response to every thoughtful selection and wise mating. There is 

 infinite scope for study and experimentation, and fact on fact, correc- 

 tion on correction, the breeder builds up a rich knowledge of breeding. 

 He does not learn suddenly or swiftly — Nature docs not teach that 

 way; but "slowly, gradually, with infinite reserve, with delicate con- 

 fidences, as if to prolong our instructions, that we may not forsake 

 her companionship," she yields up her secrets to the student who is 

 devoted to his work. 



This should be understood: all men alike have the same sort of 

 feed to use, their birds breathe the same air and range on the same 

 Mother Earth, and the success achieved depends very largely on the 

 intelligence with which the breeder's efforts are directed. 



The poultry show. At the close of the growing season and during 

 the winter months the poultry exhibitions are held. The birds are 

 then in full bloom, both the old birds that have come through the 

 molt and the young birds which are then mature. With the advent 

 of the poultry show season the time is at hand for breeders to put 

 down the product of their thought and labor to compete with that 

 of one another, and the breeder-artists vie with one another in exhibit- 

 ing the birds in which they have sought to give an expression of 

 reality to the Standard ideals. 



Force of circumstances, unfortunately, has tended to alienate the 

 best breeders of purebred poultry from the breeders of purebred 

 livestock. When the stockmen are showing their animals at the fairs, 

 the poultry breeder finds that the majority of his old birds are in the 

 molt and his young stock is still immature. The show is the purebred 

 breeder's best means of securing an audience and giving expression 

 to his work, and the poultrymen have to leave the fairs largely to 

 professional showmen who carry a railroad car full of various sorts 

 of fowls. In order to exhibit his best specimens in the pink of con- 

 dition, the poultryman patronizes the exclusive winter shows, with 

 the consequence that he often loses contact with the breeders of 

 other kinds of livestock, and especially with the rural population, 

 who without reflection may think of poultry breeding as a thing apart 

 from the purebred livestock business. 



As an encouragement to poultry breeders, several of the leading 

 states, including Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa, together with the 

 province of Ontario, Canada, have provided means of subsidiary sup- 

 port to poultry shows from public funds. For instance, up to $250 

 may be appropriated by the boards of supervisors in each of the 

 102 counties of Illinois, and up to $400 may be appropriated in Iowa. 

 The money is made available to encourage the exhibition of the seed 

 stock of a great animal industry. 



The merit of the purebred show has been well summed up by 

 Professor Herbert W. Mumford in the following words: "With all 

 its imperfections, the livestock show is, for a series of years, the best 

 available measure of merit for pedigreed breeding animals." 



