•?8S8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
664 
prepotency of the colored sire is much strong¬ 
er than that of the white ones. A new breed 
of fowls is first bred m colors, and afterwards 
the whites are selected to make a mere varie¬ 
ty. At all events, color of feathers need not 
be a necessary requirement, if all other 
desirable qualities can be obtained. 
Although most white fleshed and delicate 
table fowls have white legs, there are excep¬ 
tions: some breeds'iave yellow legs, such as the 
Duck-wing Games; the Pile Games; the Gin¬ 
ger Reds and the White Games; while all the 
American Dominiques have yellow legs, (al¬ 
though this is a branch of the Dorking fam¬ 
ily), and from this breed or its sub-varieties 
the yellow legs can be obtained, as the ten 
yellow-legged chicks of the Rural show. 
One peculiarity brought out in the Rural 
chicks is the great variety they display in 
colors, combs, markings, etc. This is easily 
understood by one accustomed to experimen¬ 
tal breeding for points. Had the birds been 
bred from two more distinctly set breeds, 
there would have been much less variety. 
The Wyandotte is a made-up breed whose 
special characteristics are as yet scarcely 
“ fixed ” and it is very hard to insure the re¬ 
production of its best markings. It was dis¬ 
satisfaction with this feature that encouraged 
the selection of pure white birds, so it is easy to 
see that color is not as strong a characteristic 
of this breed as it is of the Dominique. Little 
better can be said of the White Dorkings. To 
keep them pure white, size must be sacrificed, 
as well as strength. When two such selections 
are bred together there is naturally much 
reversion to the breeds that made up the 
originals. 
Barring the white plumage, there is a much 
shorter route to this ideal fowl. The progeny 
of a Silver Gray Dorking cock crossed on 
American Dominique hens, will fill the whole 
bill theoretically. Careful selections for a few 
years would, I have no doubt, set the type of 
just such ideal birds. Many years ago, before 
I knew anything of the market demands, I 
well and bouse them comfortably through the 
winter and sell them again in May. We get 
the winter eggs and sell the hens when prices 
are highest. I bought thirty pullets the other 
day in New York. The commission man 
picked all the pullets from several mixed lots. 
They cost me 15 cents per pound, and aver¬ 
aged a little over two pounds each. I don’t 
know how it is with others, but I can’t raise 
two pounds of chicken for that money. 
Eating Old Hens —Old hens and roosters 
are considered about the toughest meat raised 
on the farm. At our house the past month 
we have learned a point about that. We 
killed an old Dorking rooster. He was so 
tough that the pickers got tired and let him 
get cold when about half picked. I believe 
such old fellows are generally fried or roasted. 
Such cooking seems to act upon the flesh just 
about as tannin acts upon a raw hide. My 
wife boiled this old chap half a day, and then 
cut the meat up and made a salad of it. It 
was so good that we are sorry we haven’t got 
more old hens. 
An Ice-House. There are many neighbor¬ 
hoods where an ice-house would bring money 
to a farmer’s pocket. Many neighbors who 
never spend a cent for ice because they can’t 
get it, would buy several dollars’ worth if they 
had a good chance. An ice-house can be 
built for a reasonable sum, and the work of 
filling it comes at a time when there is not 
much of anything else to do. 
How Much Grain For Horses?—Do we 
know how much grain our work-horses need, 
or do we feed about what others feed and call 
it right? Mr. Terry, I believe, claims to keep 
his horses in good working order on prime 
hay alone. I have never been able to do this, 
but perhaps mj hay is not graded “ prime ” 
It may be with grain for horses about as it is 
with meat for men. Some men would be 
afraid of starving on a ration that keeps 
another man in the best of health. For in¬ 
stance, my German neighbor eats rye bread, 
RED SUMMER CALVILLE APPLE, From Nature—Fig. 334. 
a single cross of White Andalusian pullets 
mated to a White Leghorn cockerel, excellent 
Wbite Minorcas. It shows how easy it is to 
produce an ideal bird, but it also proves the 
folly of claiming that these ideal birds will 
reproduce themselves. Buyers of Andalusians 
and Minorcas will appreciate this fact and 
should be extremely cautious when buying 
specimens of these breeds to be certain that 
they are standard birds, that will produce at 
least 50 per cent, of standard-colored chicks, 
A breed should never be admitted to the 
Standard, that does not produce 60 per cent, 
of standard-colored birds. The result of a 
union of two white breeds should be uniform 
in plumage if the white breeds were pure. 
The fact that the Rural’s White Dorkings had 
some yellow legs showed an impurity in the 
strain. White Wyandottes are unfortunately 
not fixed in type. Many strains are the re¬ 
sult of crosses with Rose-comb Leghorn®, 
Light Brahmas, etc., and these are easily 
recognized by the appearance of the comb, 
early tail feathers, feathered legs and white 
ear-lobes. 
True White Wyandotte sports are rare and 
consequently to increase the supply of White 
Wyandottes to meet a large demand, crossing 
was resorted to. Consequently the blending 
of Dorkings of doubtful purity, with a White 
Wyandotte sire of mixed blood, is bound to 
prove ^a serious problem. If a thoroughbred 
White Dorking hen is bred to a White Wy¬ 
andotte cock of unquestionable breeding quali¬ 
ties, the result should be uniformity in color 
and plumage and nearly so in comb. Legs will 
vary, of course, in color and number of toes; 
but color comes principally from the sire. The 
White Dorking and White Wyandotte cross 
was a pet idea of mine. I thought an infusion 
of White Dorking blood in the White Wyan¬ 
dotte would increase the weight and influence 
the color of the eggs. The combs of the two 
breeds are nearly alike. My idea was to breed 
the first cross back to as fine a White Wyan¬ 
dotte cock as I could procure, and select 
always the most symmetrical and heaviest 
birds, likewise save the pullets that laid the 
fiaest white eggs. Hens of this kind would 
prove to be the best general-purpose fowls 
for the N. Y. market, for the following rea¬ 
sons : 1st. the eggs being white, five to ten 
cents per dozen more would be realized; 2ud. 
the carcass would weigh about six pounds 
dressed and carry a large amount of meat on 
the back and breast; it would be free from the 
black pin-feathers and would have a fine yel¬ 
low skin. What more can one ask for ? 
I trust the Rural will continue the selec¬ 
tions, and report results, favorable or un r avor- 
able. Such experiments lead to others exper¬ 
imenting and, sooner or later, a new breed can 
be established, that would prove of positive 
benefit to poultry men who supply the mar¬ 
kets of New York and other cities. Quality is 
wanted, not quantity. The former at present 
is scarce, and brings high prices ; the latter is 
altogether too plentiful, and brings ruinous 
prices. Each should keep his poor stock at 
home and eat it. Chicken meat is far prefer¬ 
able to pork and very much cheaper. 
FROM HENRY HALES. 
1 see the Rural has been experimenting 
with cross-breeding fowls, with the object of 
raising a breed of poultry that would com¬ 
bine most advantages for the , farmer—“rose 
comb, short, yellow legs, a chunky, blocky 
body with a short neck and small head, and 
pure white color, the form of the Dorking, the 
hardiness of the Wyandotte, the tameness of 
both breeds, the winter-laying qualities of the 
Wyandotte and the large, white eggs of the 
Dorking.” Of course, the breed must also be 
good layers and fair sitters. We all know 
that no breed of fowls exists, that combines all 
those qualities; but it is not an impossibility, 
and this is the first instance I have heard of in 
which its production has been attempted. In 
all the improvements worked out by our fan¬ 
ciers (and they are many) none seems to have 
studied the best-purpose fowl suited to Ameri¬ 
can farmers—square, deep-bodied fowls, etc., 
laying large, white eggs. The Rural is the 
first to call attention to this, and it is highly 
commendable. The idea is of much greater 
importance than would at first appear. 
It is of little use to discuss why an egg 
should be white or colored, or why the skin 
and legs should be white or yellow. We have 
our prejudices or likes and dislikes individ¬ 
ually, but the farmer has to cater for his 
customers and markets, some of which de¬ 
mand yellow-legged fowls and white eggs 
To make the most of his labor, he wants the 
fowls that will best answer his purpose, and 
such are the ideal fowls of the Rural. But 
before saying any more, why, I ask, seek pure 
whit9 plumage? If white is not a weakness of 
domestication in all domesticated animals, as 
many contend, it surely is not a sign of 
strength, and with many races white is 
accompanied with a reduction in size. This 
is the case in Dorkings. I have never seen the 
Whites approach the colored in size, and the 
kept Dominiques, with a number of other 
breeds. I procured a cross from Dominique 
hens and a Silver Gray Dorking, merely 
through curiosity, and the progeny were very 
large, beautiful chickens, which matured more 
rapidly than any other breeds I had. One 
cockerel was a perfect Dorking in type, with 
a long, deep breast, short, golden-colored 
legs, and a grand sweeping arched tail—an 
immense noble bird, marked in regular bars, 
and having the color of a fine Dominique 
(or Plymouth Rock) from the head to the tail 
inclusive. Others were not quite so well bar¬ 
red, but the cuckoo color (as this shade is call¬ 
ed) was very predominating (as it usually is, 
obliterating other colors), leaving no trace of 
Dorking colors in some. I was very sorry 
at the time to kill these birds; but I had no 
yards to spare to go on with them, and was 
at the time occupied in testing pure breeds. 
The article in the Rural revived the whole 
subject in my mind and likewise in the memo¬ 
ries of my family. I have no doubt there 
is a favorable future for such poultry for 
the farmer. 
I hope the attention called to the subject 
by the Rural will have good results in de¬ 
veloping a “ farmer's ideal fowl." 
--■ 
SOME FARM NOTES. 
BY JACOB. 
Buying Pullets— I notice the Rural tells 
about buying pullets for laying stock in the live 
poultry markets of New York. This is a prof, 
itable business for any farmer who lives 
within fifty miles of a large city, yet commis¬ 
sion men tell me that a fair share of these pul. 
lets come from points quite near the cities. 
The scheme as practiced near me is to buy 
pullets about this time of the year, feed them 
green com and Lima bean®, and can put in 
more hours of hard work than I can. I know 
of negro families at the South that, for weeks 
at a time, eat nothing but roasting ears of 
corn, and salt. They keep in the best of 
health and do hard work. Thinking of this 
has led me to experiment with a horse. For 
weeks it has had no grain but green corn in 
the ear. I cannot see but that it looks as well 
and feels as well as the horses that eat large 
rations of dry grain. 
Small Whole Potatoes.—I shall plant 
no more of this kind of seed. I tried half an 
acre of such seed this year. I ran out of fair¬ 
sized tubers and had nothing left but a lot 
of little potatoes about the size of a nut. An 
old farmer told me he once raised his largest 
crop from just such seed, so I decided to try 
it. I put them about nine inches apart in the 
drills and cultivated them as I did the other 
potatoes. There was a 'fine growth of vines, 
but the tubers are all small. When I want to 
raise my prize yield I shall use the best and 
fairest seed I can find, if I go by my past ex¬ 
perience. 
A JERSEYMAN’S JOTTINGS. 
THE NEW JERSEY STATE FAIR. 
I went down to Waverley last week and 
spent a day at our State Fair. I made up my 
mind I would go this year and see how Jersey 
proceeds to dignify agriculture. I told our 
folks I would tell them just exactly what I 
saw and heard. I had a lot of potatoes to dig 
and some corn to cut, but I concluded I would 
leave them and devote a day to the “great 
object-lesson.” It was a muddy day, yet 
thousands of people went tramping up from 
the railroad and into the grounds. On the 
way to the grounds I passed eight places 
where lager-beer was sold and three gamblers’ 
stands. It was a short walk, too. Do they 
take us Jersey farmers for walking beer 
barrels? Apparently they do. It cost me 50 
cents to get inside the gate. A sharper tried 
to get me to give him 35 cents so he could get 
my ticket cheaper, but I was not so anxious 
to make 15 cents. I came out to see the whole 
show and I stood ready to pay the bill. Be¬ 
fore I got into the grounds three boys nearly 
got into a fight in their eagerness to sell me a 
“programme of the races.” 
Toe first thing I did was to make my way 
up a little hill, where I could get a view of 
the whole place. I wanted to take my bear¬ 
ings. The park is a beautiful place for a fair. 
It lies like a vast amphitheatre, with a little 
valley in the center and short hills rising 
around it. The race track was placed in the 
center, and on the hills were ranged rows of 
tents and booths occupied by gamblers, beer- 
sellers and sausage men. I never in my life 
saw so many beer saloons in a place of equal 
size, and the gamblers had full swing. Off to 
the left was a small space reserved for agri¬ 
cultural implements, three sheds for cattle, a 
building for the poultry exhibit and two 
buildings in which city merchants could dis¬ 
play their goods. In a good-sized tent at the 
top of the highest hill was a good display of 
fruits and vegetables. I have seen a much 
better display of implements at a county fair. 
The poultry exhibit was good and, as I said, 
the horticultural display was first rate. But 
all these were as nothing compared with the 
chief attractions—horse-trotting, beer-drink¬ 
ing and gambling. I name them in what 
seemed to be the order of their importance, 
though after all there was mighty little to 
choose. In writing up such a fair it would be 
the hight of absurdity to give space to agri¬ 
cultural matters. Such things were only side- 
issues and were evidently considered of very 
small importance by the majority of those 
present. From where I stood I counted 
twenty-six places where liquor was sold, and 
eighteen different devices for gambling. I 
mean downright and absolute gambling de¬ 
vices. Just at my side was a minor form of 
gambling that I did not count. A darky 
held his head through a hole in a canvas cur¬ 
tain. For five cents you could throw three 
balls at him, and every time you hit him you 
got a cigar. 
There was an immense crowd present. Ac¬ 
cording to my figuring, not five per cent of 
the thousands of people on the grounds, paid 
anything like critical attention to the tools or 
the stock. The race track was crowded all the 
time I was there, an unending stream of beer 
appeared to flow from the kegs in the beer 
stands, and the gamblers were only limited by 
time in their raids upon pocket-books that 
represented the proceeds from the hardest 
kind of work. In short, my opinion is that 
the New Jersey State Fair is a disgrace to the 
State; an arrant humbug when it lays any 
claim to agricultural consideration, and one 
of the worst influences for evil that our 
farmers’ boys have before them. I consider that 
in keeping up this big fraud, the New Jersey 
State Agricultural Society is doing a direct 
and positive injury to the State. One thing I 
can praise the management for, and that is the 
fact that they didn’t undertake to add insult 
to injury by hiring some orator to expatiate 
upon the “Dignity of Agriculture. ” They had 
enough Jersey honesty to know that there 
was no dignity about the samples of agricul¬ 
ture they had to offer. 
One cau make a heap of money at this fair 
if he can bring about a complete ossification 
of the conscience. The main object of the 
enterprise seems to be money-making. If I 
ever go there again, you may be sure that I 
will hold my end up with any of them. I’ll 
come back with more money than the potatoes 
will bring! 1 shall buy a sulky and hitch up 
old Doll every night for a month or so and 
put her over the road. I’ll enter her for a race 
and get all the folks I can to bet on her. I’ll 
bet against her. I’ll pay the hired man a dol¬ 
lar a day extra to black up and stick his 
head through a hole for the boys to throw 
balls at. My wife will dress up as the Goddess 
of Liberty and sell beer, while Jennie can fry 
sausages and yell for customers. I shall 
practice up a few gamblers’ tricks and take 
along a plug hat and a white neck-tie. We’ll be 
well received then and put right up in a front 
place. What fools we have been to work so 
hard raising potatoes. Here is a scheme 
worth a whole season’s farm work. Who says 
we can’t learn something at an agricultural 
fair? 
But, seriously, do managers of fairs realize 
what they are doing in presenting such an 
entertainment as that presented at Waverley? 
There are hundreds of such fairs held in this 
