558 POULTRY CULTURE 



to have them in their best natural condition when shown. It is un- 

 questionably proper for a poultry keeper to remove dead or broken 

 feathers so that new ones may grow before the bird is shown, to 

 feed to promote growth or to increase weight, to wash a bird to 

 remove dirt, and to clean scaly legs. 



Illegitimate methods (practices commonly considered plainly 

 wrong) are performing surgical operations to remedy defects of 

 head parts, removing feathers from shanks and plugging holes 

 left by the removal of feathers, splicing and trimming feathers, 

 dyeing or staining the plumage and legs, and bleaching white 

 plumage with chemicals, — things which materially alter conspic- 

 uous characters. 



Debatable methods of most importance are removing defective 

 feathers in the soft plumage, removing small stubs and down from 

 smooth-legged fowls, and washing white birds with weak chemical 

 solutions. In the same categor}', though little discussed, is the 

 practice, very general among expert exhibitors, of removing feathers 

 not conspicuously defective (when their removal will improve the 

 general color pattern) and of plucking main tail feathers (when the 

 new feathers will make the tail of the desired length and shape 

 at the time the bird is shown), and the removal of fine stubs and 

 down from the legs and feet of birds of clean-legged varieties. 



For all of these practices there is a larger measure of justifica- 

 tion than can be found for plain faking, yet the difference is 

 generally one of degree, not of kind ; and in the final analysis the 

 difference between legitimate and illegitimate methods of fitting 

 fowls for exhibition is tersely expressed in the cynical maxim 

 " Faking is faking only when it is found out." Though not morally 

 beautiful, that sentiment is materially correct. A rigid observance 

 of the rule that fowls must be shown in '" natural condition " would 

 require a higher code of ethics in the poultry show than is found 

 anywhere. Among experienced exhibitors the use of the debatable 

 forms of conditioning is general. 



Those whose scruples will not allow them to follow custom 

 refrain from exhibiting, because under a strict application of the 

 rule the number of specimens which can be shown with any chance 

 of winning is so small that it is not worth while to make an ex- 

 hibit exclusively of such specimens at any place where competition 



