226 



THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



feathers may be plucked and the mature penciled throat and breast 

 plumage will then grow in. 



The Future. As we look into the past, we see a variety whose 

 roots adhere deep and vital into three of the grand old breeds, a 

 variety whose inheritance none can question, a variety that was 

 built by master breeders, and one whose beauty is of such fine con- 

 trasts in black and white that its admirers have been numerous, 

 although its breeders have been few. What of the future? That 

 depends on the beginners of today — on whether they are ready to 

 say "So hard to breed!" or will say "Breeding males and females is 

 a compound problem, the practical solution of which lies in breaking 

 the problem into its two component parts; and the females from my 

 fine males I shall learn to admire and value for their ancestry, their 

 pedigree, the blood that courses through their veins; and I shall 

 produce the wonderful steel-gray pullets, sharply penciled, by breed- 

 ing males whose mothers were of that sort." The problem, thus 

 solved, would bespeak a future for the variety that would be dis- 

 tinguished by splendid classes of one of the most strikingly beautiful 

 fowls that ever graced the show rooms of America. 



"Elmwood Queen," a Silver Penciled Wyan- 

 dotte pullet bred about 1901 by T. F. McGrew. 



