686 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 16 
BUSINESS vs. FANCY FOWLS. 
AN EXAMPLE OF THE MINORCA. 
The R. N.-Y.’s poultry department 
bids fair to make for the paper a reputa¬ 
tion for helpfulness to the average 
keeper of poultry far in excess of any of 
the special poultry papers, for the rea¬ 
son that it aims to place true utility 
foremost. It appears, in Hope Farm 
Notes, September 25, that H. W. C. has a 
strain of Black Minorcas which answer 
all useful requirements as to egg produc¬ 
tion, viz.: number and size of eggs. One 
thing is quite manifest to my mind—he 
has not got his stock up to the enormous 
size now required by the fancy standard 
of that breed. In my own experience 
with Rose Comb Minorcas, I have found 
that the true egg-type does not accom¬ 
pany the specimens having the largest 
build, and these, moreover, do not com¬ 
pare either in number or size of eggs 
with the medium-sized ones. Give me a 
hen of the Mediterranean breeds not far 
in excess of four pounds, for best returns 
in eggs. The largest and most perfect 
specimen I have yet produced, from the 
fancy point of view, weighed as a pullet 
before laying, six pounds, one ounce ; 
but she has proved the poorest layer in 
the flock, and her eggs size up with 
those laid by Leghorns, not Minorcas. 
X X t 
The Minorca fowl came out with a 
great stir, occasioned by its claim of a 
Leghorn’s prolificacy joined with largest 
size of eggs. There is no doubt that this 
claim may be substantiated and perpet¬ 
uated in a breed of fowls ; but it will be 
necessary for the breeders to curb some¬ 
what their extravagant whims. A few 
years ago, Mr. Felch wrote an article 
upon Langshans, urging that their re¬ 
quired weight be advanced to meet the 
demand of purchasers, and at the same 
time admitting that such a course of 
breeding as would be necessitated would, 
in a measure, sacrifice their usefulness 
as egg-producers. What is true of Lang¬ 
shans is true of Minorcas. To perpet¬ 
uate any useful trait, it is just as essen¬ 
tial to make a selection of breeding stock 
according to capacity as judged by actual 
performance, as for fancy purposes it is 
to select by shape of body and color of 
feather. The Minorca fanciers have not 
rested content to leave the egg question 
out of consideration altogether, which, 
as we have seen, would be fatal to the 
greatest degree of usefulness in the 
breed. But, in cultivating this excessive 
size of body, they deliberately set to 
work and practice a selection directly 
antagonistic to true utility. 
X X X 
The Leghorn came very near being 
the true model for greatest usefulness 
in the egg line. But there were breeds 
which, by reason of larger ovarian 
capacity, produced eggs of larger size. 
It mattered not that these produced 
fewer dozens per year; the Leghorns’ 
inferior eggs were ever in the mouth of 
those who advocated their own favor¬ 
ites among the beef-producers. It may 
be that certain noted judges who were 
thus partial to the larger breeds have 
been answerable for the fact that Leg¬ 
horns whose bodies were too Bantam¬ 
like to lay good-sized eggs have stood in 
the highest favor in the show-room. One 
of these noted judges once dismissed a 
remarkably fine Leghorn with the re¬ 
mark that she was too large for her 
breed ; albeit she was the apple of her 
owner’s eye, and remarkable as to size 
of eggs. We have often since that time 
listened to the assertion that the in¬ 
cubator is responsible for the small size 
of the Leghorns. The fact is, I believe, 
that breeders have been too pliable in 
the hands of the judges. The judging 
of our exhibitions has been and is yet a 
great monopoly—a case of a fancy for 
the judges, instead of for the breeders. 
If the Leghorn has fallen short of high¬ 
est degree of utility, being too small to 
lay*the largest egg, it is no less true 
that the over-sized Minorca is no less 
deficient, being too large to compete 
with the Leghorn in prolific laying, to 
say nothing of diminished size of eggs 
due to the same cause. 
I t X 
Breeders of exhibition Minorcas have 
much to say in denunciation of the 
smaller strains, which they aver have 
been corrupted by Leghorn crosses, 
which they assert have been very com¬ 
mon practices owing to a former scarcity 
of reliable stock. They do not waste 
any breath in attempting to establish 
that such strains are any less prolific 
as layers. It may be, and I deem it 
highly probable, that the great reputa¬ 
tion of Minorcas as to prolificacy rests 
upon this very fact that Leghorn crosses 
have been so common as they assert, and 
that their own larger stock is in a meas¬ 
ure sailing under false colors. 
X X X 
In regard to the crossing of Brown 
and White Leghorns, and the assertion 
that such a mixture could not produce 
a black fowl, I would state that, while 
the pile color is generally reached in 
such a way, there is no absolute rule in 
the matter. This season I crossed a 
white Game Bantam female with a male 
of the deepest buff, expecting chicks of 
a pile or buff color. To my disgust, 
every resulting chick was a brown-red, 
nearly black. Neither is it a safe as¬ 
sumption that the changing of the male, 
in the flock referred to by the Florida 
correspondent, was responsible for the 
improved hatching of the eggs which 
followed, for the same experience hap¬ 
pens in the flocks of thousands of breed¬ 
ers, where the male is not replaced by 
another. It is a comparatively rare 
thing for the eggs to hatch uniformly 
well throughout the season. Domestica¬ 
tion has not called for any unwonted 
exercise of the male’s sexual powers, 
except where mated in too large flocks, 
which rarely is allowed by careful 
breeders. But we demand from the 
hens an egg product amounting to sev¬ 
eral times the normal yield ; and this 
alone, especially where the hatching is 
made to close instead of open the laying 
season, is sufficient cause why eggs in 
early spring do not receive enough vital¬ 
ity from the dam to hatch and cause the 
chicks to thrive. The coming poultry 
breeders will systematically prevent 
winter laying by the selected breeders. 
Massachusetts. F. w. proctor. 
“KEEPING ONE COW.” 
WHAT is done with the milk. 
Many fruit growers or fertilizer farm¬ 
ers keep only one or two cows—just 
enough to eat up the roughage of their 
crops. There is not milk enough to sell 
usually, and hardly enough to make 
churning desirable. What is the best 
thing to do with it ? In the following 
notes three fruit growers give their 
methods : 
Divide the Two Cows. 
This is a question I have never been 
able to solve to my own satisfaction. 
My plan has been as follows : I keep 
two cows, and try to have them come in 
as near the first of September and Decem¬ 
ber as possible. You will understand 
we do not always succeed in this. By 
having them come in at this time of 
year we are able to make some butter in 
the winter, when we have the most time 
to work with it, and g et the best price 
for our surplus. Then during the rush 
of berries and fruits, and at a time when 
we are so excessively busy we do not 
know what to do first, we use most of 
our milk and do not try to churn. 
W. A. FREED. 
Use Milk as Food. 
What do you keep the cow for ? I will 
answer the question by saying that I 
always kept a cow for the purpose of 
having all the good milk that we wanted 
to use*in the family at any^and all times 
for any purpose whatever, also cream 
for table use or cookery, and lastly to 
make the surplus cream into butter for 
family use. We always set the milk in 
shallow pans, and in warm weather it 
was kept in a wire screen safe in a 
cemented cellar. The sour milk and 
buttermilk not used otherwise are fed to 
the pigs. Where a market could be 
found for cottage cheese the sour milk 
could be used profitably. But I insist 
that the best and most economical re¬ 
sults come from using all the milk you 
can as food, the most complete of all 
foods when obtained from a properly 
bred and properly fed cow. 
WALTER F. TABER 
Value of a Good Cellar. 
No specific directions or definite rules 
can be laid down that will apply to all 
cases. There are so many circumstances 
that affect each individual case that a 
wide range must be taken in the con¬ 
sideration of the economic management 
of a small quantity of milk. In many 
cases, during the heated term, caring 
for the milk of one or two cows will 
entail real hardship on the good wife, 
by adding the necessity for greater care, 
to a responsibility already too great. To 
others, a poor cellar makes butter-mak¬ 
ing at this season a burden, and far from 
a satisfactory operation. To avoid as 
far as possible this work in hot weather, 
an effort should be made to find a mar¬ 
ket for the surplus milk. Frequently a 
(Continued on next pave.) 
INSURES 
MORE EGGS 
QUICKER GROWTH 
SHORTER MOULTING 
“Your Money's Worth 
or Your Money Back” 
Address 
THE H=0 COMPANY 
7 3 PARK PLACE. - NEW YORK 
I m proved__— 
U. S. Separators 
For the Dairy and Creamery. 
To run by Hand, by Belt, or by Steam 
Turbine. Sizes to suit all. 
We have everything for Dairy and 
Creamery Circulars Free. 
Vermont Farm Machine Co. 
Bellows Falls, Vermont 
A dilapidated hen-house, full of 
cracks, with sheathing away, shin¬ 
gles half off of the roof, broken 
window-panes, etc. 
How often this is seen, and yet 
the owner wonders why his hens 
do not lay more eggs. 
Keep your hen-house warm and 
dry. We wish to suggest a cheap 
and serviceable way. 
Covering it with Neponset Water¬ 
proof Red Rope Fabric , which is 
water, wind, frost, and vermin 
proof, is very inexpensive and dur¬ 
able. It only costs one cent a 
square foot at the factory, with 
nails and tin caps to put it on. 
Line the inside with Neponset 
Black Building Paper, which is 
water, air, and vermin proof, odor¬ 
less, clean, and exceedingly inex¬ 
pensive; you have a snug, com¬ 
fortable hen-house with a very 
small outlay. 
Full particulars and 
samples free. Write 
F. W. Bird & Soil, 
East Walpole, Mass. 
For sale by Dealers 
in Hardware, Lum¬ 
ber, and Building 
Supplies. 
it,” 
KNEEL AND CRYSTAL CREAMERY CO. 
35 E Street, Lansing, Mich. 
CREAM SEPARATORS, 
CREAMERIES. 
Treatise.“Good Butter & How to Make 
SIMPLEST ! 
CHEAPEST ! 
BEST! 
PU AUDI nil AUTOMATIC MILK 
unAniriUli cooleksaeratok 
Our free book, “ Milk,” for the asking. 
CHAMPION MILK COOLER CO. 
No. 89 Railroad Street, Cortland, N. Y. 
Ovid, Mich., May 23, 1896. 
The Thatcher Manufacturing Go., Potsdam, N. 7.: 
Gentlemen— This is our thirteenth season in 
the creamery business. For six years we used 
different brands of Butter Color with various re¬ 
sults, until, about 1889, we bought a lot of your 
THATCHER’S ORANGE BUTTER COLOR, since 
which time have used no other. We find it a uni¬ 
form natural Color, strong in shade, a good 
keeper, and altogether the peer of any we have 
ever had in our factory. We consider it the best 
on earth, and cheerfully recommend it to all con¬ 
cerned. Yours truly, 
H. A. Potter, of Potter & Harris. 
Can be applied by 
any one on steep or 
fiat roofs. 
Low Price! 
Durable! 
Fireproof! 
If you are going to 
build, or have 
leaky shingle or 
tin roofs send fob 
SAMPLE AND CIR¬ 
CULAR. 
A. F. SWAN, 102 Fulton Street, New York. 
PROSPERITY AND SEPARATORS. 
Don’t forget that you have been promising yourself and family that 
Cream Separator just as soon as you had a little money in sight and 
things looked brighter. They look brighter for the farmer now than 
for 10 years past. Don’t put off so wise and safe a purchase a day 
longer—you can make it now, and there could be no better time. Put 
it in to-day, and it begins saving money for you to-morrow. It will 
save and make money faster in proportion to its cost than any other 
investment yon ever made. Now that the time has come, don t make the 
mistake of trying to save a little by buying an Imitating second or 
third-class machine which is “ cheap ” on paper, and in first cost 
only. Get the best and hence the cheapest in that it will save you most 
and serve you longest. If you are in doubt in any way try and see 
for yourself. Send for new “Baby” or Dairy Catalogue No. 257 and 
any desired particulars. ___ 
THE DE LAVAL SEPARATOR COMPARY, 
Randolph and Canal Streeta, i JNo- 74 Cortlandt Street 
CHICAGO. I NBW YORK. 
