vnr T YYVTTT Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co., 
> 333 w 3Qth gt New Tork Prjce 0ne Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 20, 1024. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, June 2. 1879, at tho Post 
Office at New York. N. Y.. under the Act of March 3. 1879. 
NO. 4820 
The Utility of Crossing, Poultry Breeds 
PRACTICAL QUESTION.—Mr. Stillman’s 
practical article on the subject of crossing 
the various breeds of poultry, page 1371, 
meets with a hearty response in my mind, 
as I am confident it will with many other 
readers. His assertion that, in effect, 
breeders of fowls for exhibition, as well as poultry 
papers and organizations, openly oppose crossing, 
being influenced thereto for commercial reasons, is 
quite correct, and finds a much-needed airing in The 
II. N.-Y.’s columns. As a devoted student of poultry 
breeding for upwards of 40 years, having been a 
constant reader and occasional writer upon this 
subject throughout this period, I am in a position 
to realize the change of policy that the poultry press 
has undergone in recent years as regards this mat¬ 
ter. For an unbiased presentation of poultry facts 
one must now look to the farm papers. 
ADVANTAGES OF CROSS BREEDING—Out of 
a long experience of crossing breeds of fowls, I as¬ 
sert that on general principles the cross-bred hen 
possesses distinct advantages over those long bred 
lo a specific type. And this holds true not alone in 
the matter of egg production, but other useful traits 
as well. Speaking first of eggs, the laying trait is 
dependent upon the hen’s physical and vital strength 
no less than inherest tendencies to productive lay¬ 
ing, and whatever cpnduces to vigor becomes an es¬ 
sential factor in egg production. This point is so 
axiomatic as to need no argument. The crossing of 
distinct types always gives new impetus to vigor. 
This also needs no proof. These facts are good, both 
in theory and practice. 
OLD-TIME BREEDS.—Before the day of our 
modern Rocks, Wyandottes, Reds and Leghorns, we 
already had fowls noted for egg production which, 
if subjected to modern improved methods of man¬ 
agement and care, would have compared favorably 
in output with our present-day stocks. Among these 
were the Brahmas and Cochins, which were valued 
as prolific layers, being especially adapted to with¬ 
stand Winter temperatures. Before the Leghorn 
had come to be known extensively, a cross of the 
Pit Game upon these Asiatic types produced a race 
of hens which were eminently adapted to the farm¬ 
er’s needs, ranging far in the open, afraid of no liv¬ 
ing enemy, winged or quadruped, great stealers of 
nests, and noted for “bringing home the bacon.” 
whether in the shape of abundant eggs at all sea¬ 
sons, the finest of roasting qualities of flesh, and 
often an unexpected brood of chicks half grown, 
which the adventurous mothers had nourished for a 
time on insect life. In the words of the cartoonist, 
“Them was the happy days.” And it is not a mere 
tlieoiy, but the fruit of extensive experience with 
many of our modern breeds, that I assert we have 
no living purebred fowls today to equal in utilitarian 
character those old-time crosses. And there’s a rea¬ 
son, or rather several reasons, which I will outline. 
RESTORING WANING VIGOR.—First, our mod¬ 
ern breeds are become too artificialized—too far 
away from the wild types, of which the fighting 
Game, through selection on the basis of combative- 
WwwM 
wmmk 
© P. & A. Photos 
At the Santa Cruz, Cal., egg contest, this White Leghorn hen, owned by Rev. Mr. Lyman, laid 530 eggs in the two-year competition 
