HISTORY OF ANCONAS 
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we are going to do a big business with 
them providing we don’t stub our toe 
some way as they will take each day 
from the 15th of June until the 15th of 
September six dozen springers and a 
dozen hens, or as many, under that 
amount, as we can supply. Just figure 
that up and see how many springers 
it will take, and if you don’t think 
that is much of a market, they will 
contract for 7,500 two pound springers 
for their Cody eating house at the Yel¬ 
lowstone Park entrance. 
“Well we are going into this winter 
with our 187 Ancona pullets, and 60 
yearling Ancona hens and I am build¬ 
ing a new house now 16x34, in which 
we expect to put 500 baby chicks in 
March and use it for what pullets we 
raise from them, next winter. We al¬ 
so expect to buy another 500 in May 
and are going to hatch what we can 
from our 60 yearling hens mated with 
three cockerels we raised out of the 
setting of eggs we got from you last 
spring. So you see we are going in a 
little stronger all the time, but our 
hens have made us money this year 
and I am going to build the new houses 
off by themselves so that there will 
just be about 200 hens in a place and 
I don’t see why, if one flock will make 
money, two flocks won’t. 
“The State Poultryman was here 
and held a culling demonstration at 
our house the 17th of August and cull¬ 
ed our whole flock. We had 81 White 
Leghorns and 62 Anconas and he cull¬ 
er 19 cf the Leghorns and only 2 of 
the Anconas.” 
“Very truly yours, 
“C. C. RAWLINGS.” 
“If all this is true,” you ask, “why 
is it, that more of the commerical 
plants do not handle the Anconas?” 
The fact is that the commerical men 
are laboring under a false impression. 
They have been told, and repeatedly 
told, that the White Leghorn is the 
standard by which the prolificness of 
all other breeds is measured, until they 
have really come to believe it, and 
furthermore the popularity of white 
plumage has been confused with heavy 
egg production. When we sift the 
matter to the bottom by consulting 
the official records of the contests, we 
learn that the Leghorn must divide 
honors with the Rocks, Reds, Wyan- 
dottes, the Anconas and every other 
breed, in face of the fact that most of 
our egg laying contests are practically 
filled with the White Leghorn class. 
Give the Anconas an equal chance, 
and they will prove their superiority 
every time. Although a very old breed, 
they are comparatively new in Amer¬ 
ica and have not been exploited as 
long and widely as the Leghorn. Fur¬ 
thermore, the demand for them as 
breeding stock has been so heavy that 
they have never been put on the mar¬ 
ket at such low prices as the Leghorn. 
The commercial man can buy Leghorn 
chicks at about half what he has to 
pay for Ancona chicks, which is an 
added attraction to him. This, how¬ 
ever, is to the advantage cf the Ancona 
breeder, as his field has never become 
so overrun that he is forced to sell 
his product so low that there is no 
profit for him. 
Commercial plants are taking up the 
Ancona, and the time is not far oft 
when the balance will swing in their 
favor. The Ancona is a superior table 
fowl, and when the public once tries 
them there will be a steady demand 
for them as broilers, as has been 
shown in the foregoing experience of 
Mr. Rawlings. The Ancona hen never 
seems to get so old that she is not a 
sweet, tender morsel for the table. 
The very best way to bring our won¬ 
derful birds to the attention of the 
commercial poultryman is to flood the 
contests with Anconas. Let’s simply 
take them by storm and show them 
that the Ancona is really all we claim. 
One pen in a contest amongst 30 or 50 
pens of Leghorns stands a mighty poor 
show, but if we enter them in equal 
numbers the commercial folks will get 
their eyes open. They are too intelli¬ 
gent to pay attention to home made 
records, so let’s give them something 
worth while. 
