10 



THE CAMPINES 



April— 4 times 200,000 equals 800,000, at 6i^ centimes, 



equals 52,000 francs. 

 May — 4 times 150,000 equals 600,000, at 6^/^ centimes, 



equals 39,000 francs. 

 June — 4 times 150,000 equals 600,000, at 7 centimes, equals 



42,000 francs. 

 July— 5 times 150,000 equals 750,000, at 7j^ centimes, 



equals 56,250 francs. 

 Augu^t — 4 times 100,000 equals 400,000, at 8 centimes, 



equals 32,000 francs. 

 September — 4 times 100,000 equals 400,000, at 9 centimes, 



equals 36,000 francs. 

 October— 5 times 75,000 equals 375,000, at lOj^ centimes, 



equals 39,350 francs. 

 Xovember — 4 times 50,000 equals 200,000, at 13i^ centimes, 



equals 27,000 francs. 

 December — S times 50,000 equals 250,000, at 16 centimes, 



equals 40,000 francs. 



Total 52 weeks equal 5,725,000 eggs, price 492,025 

 francs. ($98,405.00.) The markets of Nederbraekel. Aud- 

 enarde, Renai.x, Grammont, Ninove, Alost, Gand, have 

 the same importance as Sottegem. The Nederbraekel 

 eggs weigh almost three grams more than the others 

 and are sold at a higher price; moreover the Braekel 

 eggs of Alost and Audenarde are the cleanest, for the 

 reason that ground being more solid, sticks less to the 

 claws of the bird. 



Quantities of smaller markets for eggs have been es- 

 tablished, such as Seenhuyen, Osterzele, Lierd de St. 

 Marie, Esschen, St. Lieven, and others. It can be calcu- 

 lated that to one great market there are four small ones, 

 and that in the four small markets they sell as much as in 

 one large one. Thus there must be sixteen markets as 

 important as Sottegem in the Braekel country. On this 

 small territory there are annually brought to market 

 91,600,000 eggs, say nearly 8,000,000 francs go directly 

 to the pocket of the small producer. ($1,600,000.) 



The egg market of Wavre is twice as important (if 

 numbers alone are considered) as any of those just 

 spoken of. The eggs taken to this Braboncon market 

 are sold for less money, because they weigh 7 grams 

 less than those of Nederbraekel. However, if the Bel- 

 gian fanciers had taken the trouble to busy themselves 

 with the excellent Braboncon hen, as has been done for 

 the last fifty years for the Braekel, the production of 

 eggs in the Walloon Brabant would have been the envy 

 of Oriental Flanders. This increase of 5 grams per egg 

 would have been paid for extra in the market of Wavre 

 alone. 



When in 1900, the Belgians were invited to assist 

 at the Avicultural Congress in St. Petersburg, his Im- 

 perial Highness, Great Duke Nicolawitch, said: "Gentle- 

 men Aviculturists of different countries producing eggs, 

 we have invited you to come to give us your advice; if 

 thanks to your science we can increase by two grams, 

 each egg laid in Russia, the resultant effect will be to 

 augment by several millions of roubles, the income of 

 the empire." We were proud to have been able to say, 

 'Try our Braekel hen, and if this one cannot become 

 acclimated after having left its orchards and the damp 

 meadows of Flanders, try the Braboncon." 



Braekel eggs which are quoted as first quality weigh 

 60 kilos the thousand, those of the Nederbraekel mar- 

 ket weigh 3 kilos more, and those of the market of 

 Wavre in Brabant, the largest market in Belgum, 7 kilos 

 less. This difference of three grams between the Ned- 

 erbraekel and the Sottegem produce in favor of the 



market of Nederbraekel makes a difference in the^ re- 

 ceipts of 28,625 frs. for the same number of eggs. This 

 does not mean that Braekel eggs weigh an average of 

 60 grams. Pullet's eggs which are also carried to mar- 

 ket are not so big as the eggs of hens two and three 

 years old. One day Mr. de Mulder selected among 

 10,000 eggs 100 eggs of 80 grams with one yolk (these 

 were not double yolked eggs.) These eggs were hatched 

 at Mr. Gustave ^Boel's at the castle of Chenois at Mont 

 St. Guibert. Flappily being invited to select and to form 

 a lot destined to populate the old farm at the mill of 

 Ryperot at La Roche, we choose all the silver Brackets. 



About that time, we had not yet succeeded in get- 

 ting free from the influence of exposition fanciers, who 

 had derived their inspiration from England instead of 

 studying and following what takes place in Belgium and 

 had been taking place a long time before the institution 

 in England of exhibition fancy poultry. The judges of 

 these shows will tell you without hesitation that the 

 prize-winners must have on their plumage certain 

 shades, and a certain number of regulation marks, but 

 they carefully guard the source from which these reg- 

 ulations have sprung, and what is their influence on the 

 production of eggs. The truth is that these gentlemen 

 of the "fancy" care as little about an egg as a fish 

 does about an apple. They rear chickens after a settled 

 standard agreed upon with no other object than gaining 

 prizes in expositions and selling at high figures the prize 

 winners or those that merit a prize award. After hav- 

 ing, during a few years, obtained as much money as 

 possible with a few birds as near the standard as pos- 

 sible, and before having given the time to breeders to 

 produce quantities of birds capable of gaining prizes, the 

 standard is revised; the old type is out of style. We 

 invite our friends, members of the Braekel Club to keep 

 away from that sort of trade of a doubtful nature. That 

 is why, instead of beginning by inducing them to give 

 an undue importance to the marking of the plumage, 

 we begin by calling attention to the value of the egg of 

 the Braekel hen whatever may be the color of her plum- 

 age. The majority of Silver Braekels selected to start 

 breeding in Ryperot were rose comb, exactly like those 

 that characterize a breed created in view of taking part 

 in expositions, known in England under the name of 

 Red Cap. (Rood kap. Chaperon rouge). 



This race exhibited in England is not a sub variety 

 of the Braekel, it seems rather to be a variety of the 

 Bergilsche kraher (Bergsche krooter, chanteur du berg, 

 also of Elberfeld). Amongst the Braekel cocks, red- 

 caps, of the Ryperot, there were some whose comb was 

 separated like a needle had taken a development which 

 had become as unseemly as the colossal simple comb 

 of the Minorcas, which was the rage two or three years 

 ago. After having committed the fault of putting aside 

 all the Braekels, black, yellow and others, as well as the 

 crosses produced from eggs weighing 80 grams, we still 

 persevered in giving our preference to single combs. But 

 in spite of this severe sifting, most of the progeny of 

 the next generation reverted to rose combs. This proves 

 conclusively that in certain farms in the neighborhood 

 of Sottegem there exists a variety of Braekel with red 

 caps which are inferior to no others for the production 

 of the finest eggs. 



The reputation acquired by the Braekel hen in St. 

 Petersburg at the first Congress of Aviculture and at 

 the great International Exposition, has not passed un- 

 noticed in England. Great Britain was represented in 



