Langshans. 
155 
of the value of the Langshan for this purpose is fully warranted. The Indian Game-Langshan cross has 
already found great favour with that most rigorous of Table Fowl Judges, Mr. Tegetmeier. If one could 
obtain Minorcas of the original good square-bodied type, the cross between the Minorca cock and Langshan hen 
produces a fine table bird, which matures very rapidly. A cross between the White varieties of each breed 
would, no doubt, find great favour with that section of the community who object to Black Fowls and dark 
legs. In fact, the White Langshan crossed with White Game, or Dorkings, should be handsome as well as 
profitable. As a Table Fowl the Langshan has, and always will occupy a front rank, unless the breed is 
destroyed. Both at the Dairy and Smithfield Shows (England) they won honours.' 
" In a letter to Poultry, Miss Croad says : ' You are probably aware that during the late Crystal Palace 
Show in November, 1 893, so much dissatisfaction was expressed at the type of bird representing the Langshan 
that many breeders talked of setting up a rival Club, in order to put down this objectionable type. Now, as far as 
I can judge, the Club has a very good President and a very good Secretary, and it seems to me that its minor 
differences (which, after all, are not minor) should be settled without any such flagrant breach. It would be 
merely a few alterations in the recent Langshan Standard, and I believe if it were acted up to, to the letter, 
we must all be satisfied. A few years ago a Cochin cross fought hard for pre-eminence, and in the Show-pen it 
certamly won. About four years ago it was brought to my notice that great efforts were being made to bring 
in the Game cross. The correspondent who told me of this, in his first letter, wrote to complain ; but a few 
months later I received another letter from him, of which I give the gist. He wrote to ask me to sell him a 
cockerel, with short tight feathers, and with no fluff. He added that he had been successful in selling off 
his cockerels that season, '• although he could not say they were pure." He told me he had purchased a 
cockerel that had thrown a good many Game chickens, but those that had come true were very nice birds ; 
that he had sold them all through a Langshan Fancier, and that they had already been very successful in the 
Show-pen — these tight-feathered birds, with no fluff ! Shortly after this, appeared a letter in a contemporary 
from one of the patrons of this cross. He declared that the long-legged, tight-feathered bird had 
a much better breast of full, solid meat than the short-legged fluffy bird. He added, " the flesh of 
the latter is far more spongy in character, and the tight-feathered birds I always find are much more hardy 
than the soft-feathered ones." The following year appeared another letter from this gentleman, complaining 
that exhibitors were making this Game mixture too strong. I have always kept the long and short legged 
birds in my yard, for I admire both. I consider the shorter-legged bird the Farmer's type, for it comes in 
earlier. But as for there being any difference in the flesh of either long or short-legged Langshans, this is 
mere fable. True, a young Langshan has not come to its full flavour, but even then it will compare well 
with other birds of the same age ; from six to nine months is the age to test the full quality of the flesh. As 
for this Game Langshan being hardier than the true, I simply do not believe it. I rarely lose a chicken by 
disease, my casualties are mostly young birds run down by the older ones ; but I find keeping the ages and 
sexes separate minimises these greatly. As for the old birds, they brave all weathers. I have some roosting in 
a tree this winter, and a slightly frost-bitten comb to the cock is the only evil result ; they are all the picture 
of health. When M. Boille, the French author, wrote, "That the Langshan was a delicate bird, that the 
chickens died off by the dozen, that they were bad foragers and voracious eaters," I wondered that no single 
exhibitor wrote to lift off this scandal from the breed. Within the last few years I have been in friendly 
correspondence with a gentleman who seems to be " in the swim," as far as the Show-pen Langshan is 
concerned. He strongly advises me to purchase a few birds of the winning type, in order to get into "the 
swim " also ; and adds, with my good name, such birds would carry everything before them. I am thankful 
to know my name is considered an honest one, and I/ervently hope to keep it so. My friend gives a rough 
sketch of the winning type of hen ; but, taken with the written description, yet, no doubt, gives a pretty true 
portrait of the present fasliion of Langshan. Here is his written description of the bird verbatim : Head 
gamey, eye dark, body set upon long legs, as little offal as possible ; being tight-feathered like a Game, not 
fluffy like a Cochin ; back long, and tail carried well out, not high. Now, there is probably a good deal of 
Langshan in the bird thus described, but the Game cross has done its work too. The Gamey head, tail 
