THE POULTRY AND EGG INDUSTRY IN EUROPE 9 
The Barred Plymouth Rock is not appreciated in continental 
Europe as it is in America. This is doubtless because most of the 
stock called Phmiouth Rock is of a strain that has been bred in Ger- 
many. It is undersized, seems to have poor vigor, very poor egg 
production, and a much lighter color than the American type of 
Barred Plymouth Rock. Barred Plymouth Rock stock which is 
obtained direct from America shows its usual characteristics of large 
size, sturdiness, and good egg production, and reproduces these char- 
acteristics in its offspring. Although doubtless descendants of im- 
portations from the United States, the German Barred Rocks, due 
to faulty management and possible crossing with other breeds, are 
now usually but a poor imitation of the American variety. 
The Wyandottes are much less known than the other two American 
varieties and are almost all descendants of English Wyandottes. 
The heavier breeds of poultry, such as the Orpingtons. Sussex. 
Malines, La Bresse. and La Fleche, are plentiful in the British Isles 
and northwestern Europe: but the Mediterranean type of chicken 
predominates in the remainder of Europe, with a slight exception 
in the territory which constituted Hungary before the World War 
and which now includes the present-day Hungary and contiguous 
portions of Czechoslovakia, Rumania. Yugoslavia, and Austria. 
Before the war it was the policy of the Hungarian Government 
to purchase males from heavy breeds of chickens, such as Barred 
Plymouth Rocks. Wyandottes, and Orpingtons, and exchange them 
for the mongrel males in various villages. This exchange was 
made, village by village, and the mongrel males were replaced 
entirely in each village. The results of this policy, unfortunately 
discontinued since the war, are still evident, as the flocks of 
country chickens in northern Yugoslavia and Hungary show evi- 
dences both in size and color of the results of these crosses. It 
is probably due to governmental activity that Hungarian poultry is 
now considered to he the best in central Europe. 
The different European breeds are distinct and easily recognized, but 
not so much attention is paid to breeding in accordance with definite 
standards as in the United States. Nearly all of the poultry on 
the farms of Europe show evidences of mongrel blood, and even 
where they are bred in greater or less accordance with definite stand- 
ards uniformity of color and type is often lacking. 
BEST-KNOWN BREEDS 
The breeds of chickens which are generally unknown in the United 
States, but which are the leading or most highly recommended in 
their resi)ective countries, are given as follows : 
Poland: Greenfeet. — Varieties: Partridge. Light, Dark Buffs. Blacks, and 
Grays. 1 
Weight of adult hens. 3 to 4 pounds: a small Leghorn type of fowl with 
white skin, red ear lobes, and green shanks, feet, and toes. Eggs white, 
slightly tinted, small, weighing about 22 ounces per dozen. Production claimed, 
100 to 200 eggs per year. 
Czechoslovakia: "Green Legs." 
Weight, 3 to 4 pounds. Small Leghorn typo of fowl with white skin, red 
ear lobes, and greenish shanks, single comb. Eggs white, slightly tinted, small. 
1 Karczevska, M.. The Polish Greenfeet hens. In Trans, first World's Poultry ('otic, 
1921. Vol. 2, p. 159. 1921. 
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