The Campine Braekel— A Noted Belgian Race 



Belgium the Home of the Campine-Braekel, The Bird With a Future as Well as a Past— The Two Hundred 

 aud Fifty Egg Hen Found Among the Campinea— Bemarkable Development of Egg Pro- 

 duction in Belgian Fowls Due to Years of Careful Selection 

 and Systematic Feeding and Handling 



By Madame A. F. Van Sohelle, Pnpenvoort-par Hooils(rae(en. Belgium 



and consequent 



THE world is looking for the 250 egg hen! 

 Have we found her? 



If we are to believe no less an authority tnan 

 the late Lewis Wright, the Braekel-Campine is that 

 gold mine. "Campines of really good stock are cer- 

 tainly amongst the very best layers known, many in- 

 dividual yields of 250 eggs being reported and these of 

 wonderful size,'' (New Book of Poultry, Page 467.) 



In these days we hear on every side such eulogies 

 as, "the best layer on earth," and similar superlatives, 

 so that we are forced to the logical conclusion that all 

 breeds are best! Plowever superficial such a statement 

 may seem at first glance, there is more than a germ 

 of truth underlying it, as by selection, and wise care, 

 egg-laying qualities may be enhanced and transmitted 

 up to an uncertain (?) degree, which the poultry world 

 is trying to ascertain. (D. F. Laurie, Scientific Breed- 

 ing and Heredity, page 5, "Is there a Limit?") 



Now in America, when a thing is undertaken, it is 

 not done by halves; perhaps in no other line of work 

 has this been more marked than in poultry breeding. 

 See what the State Agricultural Colleges have already 

 accomplished in a short time. True, this is a branch 

 where quicker returns may be made 

 strides marked than in most lines of 

 breeding, but America is destined to 

 give an unequalled expansion to the 

 poultry industry, provided she is not 

 led away from sound principles by 

 false prophets — who "boom" a breed 

 solely for personal ends. Now just 

 here let me make an application. If 

 you had stood at shows, a silent 

 listener to comments made by the 

 masses on breeds unfamiliar to 

 them, you would have had much food 

 for reflection. You will agree that 

 there is a class of men who, not un- 

 derstanding a man of another cal- 

 ibre, find the simplest way to dis- 

 pose of him — is with the crushing 

 word "crank." A like class in the 

 poultry world not understandin,:,'- 

 utility breeding say, "mongrels," and 

 feel their superior intelligence vindi- 

 cated. 



If you happened to examine the 

 exhibit of Malines, you would prob- 

 ably have seen specimens that may 

 be called scientifically "sports;" by 

 the application of Mendelism these 

 sports are fixed in varieties. What 

 you have bred is in Mendel terms, a 

 "Heterozygote," and the average 

 breeder kills him as a mongrel — his 

 goose that laid the golden egg. Mr. 

 Laurie in his paper on "Scientific 

 Breeding and Heredity; Research in 



Mendelism," says, "The enlightened breeder will cher- 

 ish everyone of these colored '"sports" (Heterozygotes), 

 and, with all his breeding and feeding arts, mate them 

 for the production of strains of pure dominants and 

 pure recessives; and he can keep his impure dominants 

 as a reserve strain. When he arrives at this point, he 

 will at any rate have for the first time pure White Leg- 

 horns. "Here we see nature inviting us to give the fin- 

 ishing touches ux perfecting our strains." I should ad- 

 vise every serious reader to study this pamphlet and 

 to use it as his vade n-.ecum. The day of "the chance 

 success" in poultry breeding comes to most of us one 

 day. But how many breeders are able to keep up to 

 that standard once success has knocked at his door? 

 Simply because they breed blindly they must fail, and 

 then having a reputation, they try to keep it up by un- 

 justified advertising, with a result of throwing oppro- 

 brium on serious patient breeders. It was Barnum, I be- 

 lieve, who said that the American public liked to be 

 duped. It would seem that this is not altogether for- 

 eign to the poultry public. How much better it would 

 be that we should work together shoulder to shoulder, 

 trying to find out the truth of things, the reason why, 

 and when we fail, ask ourselves Why? 



POULTRY HOUSE ON BELGIAN FARM OP MME. VAN SCHELLB 

 ^ A close-up view of growing- chlck.s on the sand of the Campine country, 

 ±!elgium The pine trees and scrub brush are also seen to advantage In this 

 view. The pdultry building Is on the farm of Madam 'A. F. Van Schelle Papen- 

 voort-par-Hoogstraeten, Belgium. American Camplnlsts owe a debt that has 

 never been paid to Madam Van Schelle. At an expense of nearly $3 000 she 

 brought teams of Belgian fowls to America in 1910, and exhibited the birds 

 at Chicago and as far west as Kansas City. She did much to educate Amer- 

 icans in "Campineology," and while one of the best of the continental breeders, 

 her tremendous expenditures in 1910 and again In 1912 have never brought 

 even fair returns, for England alone has enjoyed the Influx of American dollars. 

 We are glad to be able to pay this little, tardy tribute In a public work of 

 this kind. Breeders who are today reaping the whirlwind of Campine dod- 

 ularity, little know the tremendous efforts that were put forth by the pioneers 



