422 
'V I 4 E 
K UKAL 
NE\V-Y('l' KKR 
March l.j, 
The Henyard. 
The Man Behind the Chickens. 
T HAT the egg-laying contests produce 
good results and are of great value 
to poultrymen, goes without saying. 
This fact has been emphasized so many 
times that it seems almost a waste of 
time and space to reiterate it. lint as 
there is no absolute good in this world, 
will the reader forgive me if I say that 
the egg-laj’ing contests produce some evil 
as well as good? Is it not a fact that 
there is a craze now for eggs from hens 
with a 250 or even 300-egg record, as if 
all that is necessary to do in order to 
become a successful poultryman is to get 
the Harron stock or the Lincoln stock? 
To be sure, in the hands of an intelligent, 
experienced poultryman the Barron stock 
may prove to be a profitable investment, 
but will it be of any use to a man with 
no experience or no ability in the poultry 
line? Tom Barron’s stock is the result 
of the man behind the chickens. The 
same stock in the hands of another man 
will soon degenerate and become scrubs. 
Because Mr. Barron is a wonderful 
chicken man, does it follow that every 
man can become a Torn Barron? I low 
many Tom Barrons are there in the 
world? Perhaps no more than there are 
Shakespeares or Darwins or Emersons. 
It may be said that knowledge is now 
within the reach of every man, and that 
there is no reason why an intelligent 
man should fail in the poultry business; 
but the trouble is that we must deal with 
facts, not with theories, and we know 
that hundreds of intelligent men fail in 
the chicken business, a’though they may 
be successful in some other line of busi¬ 
ness. In my own neighborhood there is 
a man of superior intelligence, who for 
the last eight or 10 years made a strenu¬ 
ous effort to become a poultryman, and 
succeeded in discovering that he was 
wasting time and money. I know an¬ 
other man who took a course in poultry 
husbandry at Cornell Agricultural Col¬ 
lege, and yet it is easier for a camel to 
go through the eye of a needle than for 
him to raise chickens. As Elbert Wake- 
man says on page 212. “A few men can 
get 200 eggs per hen, but 099 in 3000 do 
not get even 100 per hen.” 
The writer of these lines is by no 
means a novice; he has been in the poul¬ 
try business for eight years and, perhaps, 
can be called a successful poultryman, 
but he knows his limitations, and while 
he may succeed with the Barron stock, he 
doubts very much whether he would ever 
become a Tom Barron. I do not want 
to discourage any man. It may be well 
enough to experiment and see what we 
can accomplish. But let us keep our feet 
on solid ground and not expect wonder¬ 
ful results. Mr. Wakeman says: ‘‘Get 
down to facts, not to freaks.” Perhaps 
“freaks” is not the right word, for the 
record presented by Tom Barron and 
other poultrymen cannot be called a 
“freak,” it is the result of their special 
ability, and I, for one, have no desire to 
deprive them of any praise or glory that 
is due to them ; but let the average man 
try to emulate them, and he will find that 
the fool and his money are soon parted. 
CI.KMENS P. BEBYLSON. 
Sullivan County, N. Y. 
Silver-laced Wyandotte*. 
What are the characteristics of the 
Silver Laced Wyandotte for exhibition, 
as regards feather markings, head points 
and the like? Is there a National Silver 
Laced Wyandotte Club, and if so, where 
would I be able to get one of their an¬ 
nual catalogues? h. a. c. 
The old standard gives the following 
description. The new standard, which 
was to have been ready in January, is 
promised now in March. 
Head.—Plumage silvery white, each 
feather having a black stripe tapering to 
a point near the end of the feather. Beak, 
dark corn color shading to _ yellow at 
point. Eyes, red or bay. Face, comb, 
wattles, ear lobes, all bright red. 
Neck.—Silvery white with black stripe 
clear through each feather tapering to 
a point near the extremity of feather, 
under color dark slate. 
Back.—Silvery white, saddle silvery 
white with black stripe through each 
feather, having a tapering diamond 
shaped centre of white; under color dark 
slate. 
Breast.—Web of feathers black, with 
large oval-shaped white centres free from 
black or brown, lacing lustrous black, 
sharply defined and free from white edg¬ 
ing; under color, dark slate. Body and 
Huff—Body, web of feathers black, with 
oval white centres. Fluff, dark slate 
powdered with gray. 
Wings.—Primaries black, lower edge 
white; secondaries black, lower half of 
outer web white, with a narrow black 
edging, wider at tip; wing coverts upper 
web black, lower web white, with a nar¬ 
row black strip along the edge that 
widens as it approaches the tip, forming 
a double bar of laced feathers across 
wing. Wing bows silvery white; under 
color, dark slate. 
Tail.—Glossy black, great coverts 
glossy black; lesser coverts black, with 
edging of white. 
Legs and Toes.—Thighs black or dark 
slate, powdered with gray; laced feathers 
desirable. Shanks and toes yellow. 
The above is the description of the 
male. The female does not differ enough 
to waste time and space for description. 
A full description of every breed can be 
found in “The Standard of Perfection,” 
for sale by all poultry magazines. Price, 
$2. Henry Steinmesh, Market Street, 
St. Louis, Mo., is secretary of the Silver 
Laced Wyandotte Club. 
GEORGE A. COSGROVE. 
Origin of White Wyandottes; Trap-nests. 
1. What was the foundation of the 
White Wyandotte breed? I was told by a 
poultryman they were crossed with the 
Black Langshan. 2. Can you give me de¬ 
scription of the trap-nest? Is there a 
patent on them? c. G. 
Elba, N. Y. 
1. The Wyandottes originated in Amer¬ 
ica ; the original variety was the Silver 
Laced Wyandotte. One authority says 
this breed resulted from a mixture of 
Buff Cochin, Sebright Hamburg and Dark 
Brahma blood. There are eight varieties 
of Wyandottes now. Some of these are 
“sports” from the Silvers, others were 
made by various crosses. 
2 . There are patented trap-nests, but 
one <-f the simplest and best was invented 
by Prof. Stoneburn when he had charge 
of the poultry department at Storrs, and 
given to the public by him. It is the 
kind now used at the contest. This trap- 
nest consists of a box open at the front 
end with a swinging door held up partly 
by .a catch. The catch hangs loosely on a 
screw which holds it to the inside of the 
box. When the door —made of thin light 
wood—is pushed inward, the catch is 
raised until the bottom edge of the door 
rests on the square jog of the catch. The 
bottom of the door is not so high but 
that the hen lifts it a little with her 
back when she steps into the nest, and 
the inside end of the catch being the 
heaviest half of it. the catch immedi¬ 
ately drops and lets tin* door swing to 
the fro t, against a button on the edge 
of the box. This button prevents the door 
from being pushed out in front by the 
hen. The catch, when it falls, rests on 
a stop, a nail, screw or small block of 
wood, so placed that the front end of 
the catch will be a little higher than the 
bottom of the door. This prevents the 
door from being pushed inward by an¬ 
other hen. The nest should be 3.6 to 18 
inches deep from front to rear, 14 inches 
high and about 12 inches wide. The door 
must swing easily on wires at top. This 
nest does not require any “castings,” it 
can be made at home by any boy with 
a mechanical turn of mind. 
GEORGE A. COSGROVE. 
Bleached Oats for Hens. 
Every Winter before my pullets have 
laid well, but this Winter they have laid 
very poorly, and lately I have found 
out that I have been feeding sulphured 
oats since September. Would that cause 
them not to lay ? They laid a few eggs 
and stopped. Will it hurt the hens per¬ 
manently? They have had good condi¬ 
tions to lay under. I’, n. 
New York. 
While 1 have never fed them, 1 can 
see no reason why bleached oats should 
affect fowls deloteriouslv. I believe that 
bleaching oats with the fumes of sulphur 
does injure their germinating properties 
and renders them unlit for seed, but if 
there is any evidence that it injures them 
for feeding, I do not know of it. 
M. B. 1>. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
I t. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and a 
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Jim 
" Rohan, 
Pres.^ 
Champion 
Belle City 
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Osceola. Mo. 
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130 Egg 
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