R. I. REDS AS EXHIBITION FOWLS 

 cause she is such a heavy layer that she loses her color, for 

 we must consider the egg production side it we intend to 

 keep improving the Reds. 



The old theory that the male bird gives color and the 

 female gives shape and size is not borne out in results, and 

 if we will consider that both male and female have an in- 

 fluence upon all points and make our matings with that idea 

 in view, we will come nearer to producing what we are look- 

 ing for. 



47 



are weak here or there, we must repair the weakness by 

 using a male that is strong in the sections that have here- 

 tofore been weak, being careful to avoid a step backward by 

 introducing unknown blood lines, for by doing so we may 

 open the door to greater defect's than the ones we wish to 

 conquer. 



A. A. Carver, Ohio • 



It is a great work — the proper mating of this bird of out- 

 bred origin. The words of the great Cecil Rhodes at the 

 end of life's work are applicable here — "How little done and 

 how much to do." 



I have given this subject hours of thought and have 

 experimented with many matings and I am very glad to tell 

 your readers the comparatively little I have learned. 



In the mating of R. I. Reds the prime requisite is color, 

 for without color we have nothing. We find that the tend- 

 ency of the breed is to throw offspring of a hghter shade of 

 color, hence we get letters from Red breeders every little 

 while complaining that they are getting too light colored 

 stock from their matings and wanting a male to color them 

 up. They seem confused, unable to understand the reason 

 why, since they have done their utmost to mate as nearly 

 perfect specimejis as possible. To avoid this tendency as 

 much as we can, we mate the very darkest red male we have 

 to medium colored females. We find it is dangerous to breed 

 very dark males to dark females or medium color to medium 

 color as they throw the extremes. The medium, even dark, 

 velvet red color is what we are after. 



The next thing to consider is shape. In selecting our 

 season's breeders this should always be uppermost in the 

 mind and the best advice I can possibly give is to study the 

 shape of Reds in the Standard of Perfection until it is photo- 

 graphed on your mind forever. The great weakness in shape 

 is that we have too many high tails and short backs, there- 

 fore we use as long bodied, low tailed males as we can get. 



Another point that we are all striving for is perfect wing 

 marking, for, as a prominent Red breeder told us at the 

 Cleveland show last winter, "the fellow who wins in the 

 future must breed for wings." 

 We should always strive to 

 use males' having good black 

 or greenish black tails, and 

 those strong in wings. The 

 males that go into our breed- 

 ing pens this coming season 

 must have good wings. We 

 strive also for a good comb 

 that is as near the Standard 

 as it is possible to get and 

 which is thick at the base, 

 for nowhere else does like be- 

 get Kke as in the comb. Use 

 a male with as red eyes as 

 possible and with clear, red 

 ear-lobes since white in the 

 ear-lobes is a Red weakness. 



Above all, to make a suc- 

 cess of mating Reds, one must 

 study the Standard again and 

 again. We must not allow 

 ourselves to become a crank 

 on this or that point and for- 

 get the other points, but we 

 must strive to have all the 

 points good. If we find we 



A non-fading .v— -- - j^. . 

 longing to A. A. Carver, Chardon, Ohio, 



Chas. T. Sweet, Maryland 



It is with much hesitancy that I attempt to comply with 

 the request of the editor to tell how I breed my strain of 

 heavy layers. It is not so much because there is anything 

 peculiar or mysterious about my methods — anything that 

 has not been done with older breeds, but because apparently 

 I am the pioneer in developing a pedigree egg strain of Reds. 

 The other breeders of Rhode Island Reds, either by their 

 advertisements or printed matter, indicate that they pay 

 more attention to exhibition points than to the egg yield, 

 and I am quite sure to be criticized by some breeders. 



While I also possess many birds of beautiful plumage 

 and other desirable Standard points, I frankly admit that 

 however desirable these may be in themselves, to me they 

 are simply incidental and not necessarily a part of an egg 

 strain, neither are these exhibition qualities in my birds any 

 more likely to be transmitted to their progeny than is the 

 ability to lay a good number of eggs that appears occasion- 

 ally in some individual exhibition bird, liable to be trans- 

 mitted to its offspring. Nor will the classing of all such that 

 are not suited for exhibition as "utility stock" improve the 

 chances of such transmission one iota. I have learned through 

 correspondence that comparatively few breeders care much 

 for trap-nest records. While it is unquestionably true that 

 Standard-bred poultry has made the industry what it is, 

 hitherto Standard points have set the price and the price 

 is what most of us live by, if not for, but fashions sometimes 

 change. 



A number of years ago I thought I saw a greater tendency 

 toward the practical in poultry, or putting it another way, 

 many practical business men were going into {Poultry and I 

 felt they certainly would demand strains of fowls that would 

 not only be beautiful specimens of their kind, but that would 

 also give the utmost profit. I felt that the Reds being a 

 new and promising breed offered a fine opening for improve- 

 ment along practical lines. I 

 reasoned that as concentra- 

 tion and specialization had rev- 

 olutionized business and indus- 

 trial enterprises, so must we. 

 concentrate and specialize ia 

 poultry if we expect to de- 

 velop the best in any partic- 

 ular direction. 



The Reds are naturally 

 a dual purpose fowl, but any 

 man who attempts perfection 

 in both meat and eggs in any 

 fowl is doomed to disappoint- 

 ment as surely as if he bred 

 an Angus male to a Jersey 

 cow, expecting to preserve the 

 desirable traits of both in the 

 offspring. 



From the foregoing it will 

 be seen that in the breeding of 

 my Reds I have had a single 

 purpose in view, the produc- 

 tion of a heavy laying strain. 

 To this end I have considered 

 the following points: Egg 

 pedigree first, individual vigor 



"KING EDWARD" , . ■ . u 



Queen Quality".S. C. R. I. Red cock bird be- 



