16 COMMERCIAL POULTRY RAISING 



9. Oriental Class: Cornish, Sumatras, Malays and Malay 

 Bantams. 



10. Ornamental Bantam Class: Sebrights, Rose-Comb, Booted, 

 Brahmas, Cochins, Japanese and Polish. 



11. Miscellaneous: Silkies, Sultans and Frizzles. 



For practical purposes the above eleven classes are grouped 

 into four general classes, about as follows: 



1. Egg breeds, commonly called the non-sitting breeds. 



2. Meat or table breeds. 



3. General purpose breeds, sometimes spoken of as dual-pur- 

 pose fowls. 



4. Ornamental breeds, which, as the term implies, includes such 

 ornamental varieties as the Polish, Games, and Bantams, 

 and are raised almost exclusively by fanciers for exhibition 

 purposes. 



General Discussion. — It will appear obvious that the question 

 of selecting a particular variety of poultry is one having consider- 

 able scope and many sides. It is manifestly impossible to take 

 care of the subject in a single chapter. Therefore, in this chapter 

 we will devote our attention to a general discussion of the problem. 



No Iron-Clad Rules. — The writer has always worked on the 

 assumption, if such it be, that there are no iron-clad rules for 

 poultry keeping. It has been said that a man must be half hen 

 with feathers growing on his back to make a success with chickens. 

 We interpret this to mean that a man (or woman, we use the 

 masculine form merely to simplify expression) must be fond of the 

 work, and understand the nature of his charge, otherwise he can 

 not attain that insight and competence, in a sense comradeship, 

 which is the foundation of all success in handling animals. In 

 other words, he must always have the interests of his birds at 

 heart. Such a man can make a success of any breed of poultry-. 



Hens are considered downright stupid by some. However true 

 this may be, there is considerable human nature in a chicken, 

 more character, perhaps, than one would suppose. Failure to 

 appreciate this is probably one of the reasons why many breeders 

 are unsuccessful. There are temperaments in chickens, just as 

 there are temperaments in the human kind. The point is to seek 



