R. I. REDS AS UTILITY FOWLS 



G5 



females of the flock from breaking down with fat and thus 

 becoming worthless as breeders or layers. 



Stand Conflncment Well 



Althorgh much more active than Orpingtons and Ply- 

 mouth Rocks we do not find them more .difficult to confine. 

 A five foot fence is sufficient to keep them within bounds. 

 They seem to bear confinement in yards well and produce as 

 many eggs as when at liberty. The Red hen never stands 

 humped up in a corner during the winter days waiting for 

 someone to come with the feed pail. If there is any litter 

 on the floor, it is all the inducement necessary to keep her 

 working. She will turn it over and over looking for the last 

 kernel of grain, while the more lazy hen of larger size mopes 

 under the platform waiting for the next meal. 



Some hens consider it necessary to take a three months' 

 vacation during the moulting season. Not so with the Rhode 

 Island Reds. Our hens, now in full moult, are giving us bet- 

 ter than a fifty per cent egg yield and show no disposition to 

 stop for a small matter like change of dress. This is one of 

 the strong points of this variety. The egg habit is so firmly 

 established and the hens possessed of so great an amount of 

 vigor and reserve force that the moult interferes very little 



RHODE ISLAND RED EGGS 



We were a£forded the opportunity, during a recent visit to Pure Strain Farms, Scott.sville, N 

 Y., to make several studies of tlie R. I. Red as market poultry and to note the quality and size of 

 R. I. Red eggs as compared with the ordinary eggs purchased on the market. The accompanying 

 illustration shows on the left a dozen eggs from Pure Strain Farms Reds m comparison with the 

 ordinary market eggs on the right. The R. I. Red eggs were big and brown and of uniform size 

 and showed great miprovement over the ordinary eggs which varied much in size, color and shape. 

 —A. O. Schilling. 



with the business of supplying eggs for the family or market. 

 As I write, the Red chickens are pursuing the grass- 

 hoppers over the oat stubble and through the corn fifty or 

 sixty rods from the house. They are the picture of health, 

 vigor and energy. Someone has said: "Doubtless God 

 could have made a better berry than the strawberry, but 



doubtless He never did." So we may well say of the Rhode 

 Island Red, "Unquestionably the Creator could have made 

 a better utility fowl, but unquestionably He never did." 



R. I. Reds as Standard-bred Fowls 



The writer spent the summer and fall of 1902 in Massa- 

 chusetts and Connecticut, that hot-bed of Rhode Island Red 

 enthusiasts, and had the pleasure of inspecting some larga 

 flocks that were being bred as close as possible to the standard 

 that had been proposed for the breed. I am frank to say 

 that what I saw of the Reds at that time prejudiced me 

 against them to such an extent that it required several years 

 to remove that feeling. One could find nearly as many 

 shades of color in a flock of five hundred chicks as are seen 

 in a rainbow, or on a sample card in a paint store. The 

 number of shades of color were only surpassed by the different 

 shapes or types. In the one flock could be found birds vary- 

 ing from dark brown to light cream. Some had white wings 

 and tails, others black shoulders and hackles. In shape 

 some resembled Langshans, some Minorcas and still others 

 were of the creeper type. 



In one flock of more than five hundred youngsters that 

 I looked over in August or September of that year, it would 

 have been impossible to find four 

 pullets and a male of sufficiently un- 

 iform color or type to put into a show 

 room. 



It appeared at that time that the 

 men who had the hardihood to un- 

 dertake the work of making a breed 

 out of this conglomeration of types 

 and colors had attempted a hercu- 

 lean ttisk. 



What a change has been wrought 

 in a brief eight years. Go into any one 

 of our large shows, north, south, east 

 or west and we find long rows of 

 Red fowls, both rose and single comb, 

 around which center the interest of a 

 large body of representative breeders 

 and visitors. The buying public is 

 well represented in the Red hen aisle 

 at all shows. Walk carefully down past 

 the rows of coops containing either 

 variety of Reds, examine them with 

 critical eye, compare them for uniform- 

 ity of color or type with any other breed 

 in the show, and whether you breed Rocks, Orpingtons, 

 Wyandottes or Polish, if you are fairminded you will be com- 

 pelled to exclaim, "Wonderful! Wonderful!" The breeders of 

 Reds surely possessed the progressive American spirit that 

 overcame apparently unsurmountable obstacles, and accomp- 

 lished what ten years ago seemed to be the work of a century. 



