42 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



Some criticism has been directed against the poultry show because 

 of the standards by which birds are rejected and disquahfied. Both 

 sides of the case should be stated. It is argued that Standard dis- 

 qualifications should be for malformations of body, evident lack of 

 vigor, and deficient breed characteristics. It is said to be absurd to 

 disqualify a bird of good substance for what properly should be 

 termed a defect, while an inferior utility specimen wins the premier 

 honor. The classic example of such a case, cited by Felch, was that 

 of a trio of birds that founded the famous old Essex strain of Barred 

 Plymouth Rocks which "was disqualified at Music Hall show, Boston, 

 for dov^'ny feathers between the toes of one of the hens; yet in them 

 we find 'the stone the builders rejected has become the chief stone of 

 the corner'." 



On the other hand, if you could have seen on an express truck at 

 a junction in Iowa a pair of Silver Wyandottes that were being 

 shipped for stock purposes, you probably would have favored the 

 inclusion of numerous technical and arbitrary disqualifications as a 

 protection to the buyer. Such was the motive that actuated Reese V. 

 Hicks, as chairman of the 1915 Standard revision committee, to cham- 

 pion the retention of the disqualifications in the text of the American 

 Standard of Perfection. This is the copyrighted text published by 

 the American Poultry Association, which is the guide of the judge in 

 the showroom. 



Appreciating the quality of a specimen. Knowledge of what con- 

 stitutes a good bird comes from study, observation, experience. It 

 cannot be summed up in a single sentence. The phrases in the 

 Standard are hollow and empty to one who never has caught the 

 vision of a detailed fowl and to whom "all Barred Plymouth Rocks 

 look like mongrels." 



When you look at a specimen you can see only what you know. 

 I see much in a Buff Plymouth Rock cockerel, but in a Duroc-Jersey 

 hog I can see little more than an arched back, and gather an impres- 

 sion of the head and an uncertain idea of the size. When a herdsman 

 steps up to the animal and puts his finger on a wind-puff on the 

 hock, I see that also. It has been pointed out. 



Some learn faster than others what constitutes a fowl. The first 

 section of a bird I ever noticed was the wing. Many people see the 

 comb first and count the points. I was slow to distinguish a bay eye 

 frorn a gray eye, always seeing the pupil instead of the iris which 

 carries the color, and likewise slow to distinguish between pure white 

 and the brassy or straw color effect common to some white males. 

 It was a source of secret discouragement to me not to be able to 

 look at the back of a male and see the straw color that was quite 

 prevalent in the White Wyandottes of twenty years ago. These points 

 now seem simple enough. 



No time is ever lost by the beginner in training his eye to appre- 

 ciate conformations and other qualities that go to make up high 



