CHAPTER XLVIII 



EXHIBITING POULTRY 



The breeding of standard varieties of poultry for 

 exhibition purposes requires considerable study and 

 careful mating of the breeding pens. Beauty alone 

 is no assurance of standard quality. A specimen to 

 be eligible for the show room must conform as 

 nearly as possible to the standard. Many ama- 

 teurs think because they have fine looking birds they 

 can show and win in competition, but when these 

 birds are handled by an expert and carefully in- 

 spected they are found to be deficient. 



There are a multitude of points to take into con- 

 sideration. Even poultry fanciers who have studied 

 the American standard of perfection carefully are 

 ofttimes unable to make proper selections. The rea- 

 son for this is their eyes are not trained for this 

 work. 



The amateur, no matter how fine a stock he has, 

 should not attempt to do his own selecting for the 

 show room. 



There are many poultry fanciers who know the 

 general outline of the breeds which they keep — 

 their eyes are trained to detect a standard shaped 

 specimen — but when it comes to the many minor 

 points they are entirely at sea. I have known of 



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