596 FANCIERS’ 
JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE 


by the presence of a few choice birds; they pay as a recrea- 
tion and interest for the children, aside from fresh eggs and 
early broilers, make home delightful to the wee boys, before 
they acquire more expensive pets, and to them yield as ex- 
quisite pleasure as the fine horse and fast trotter to the full- 
grown boys, who wear jockey caps and sporting wardrobes. 
But what I started to say was this: I see almost all the 
advertised poultry are the Asiatic or Chinese varieties— 
Cochins, Brahmas, light and dark, Partridge, buff, white 
and black, &c. Now,I have no doubt that our average 
poultry production has been vastly improved by their intro- 
duction, as our cattle and horses have by the introduction of 
the English thoroughbred, the Durham, and other fine 
strains of cattle. The true breeder is one who keeps a par- 
ticular strain pure; a fountain from which the general 
breeders can renew their blood. Hence a certain strain of 
short horns will command $30,000 per head; while, perhaps, 
there are half-breeds and crosses, which, in point of weight 
and form, are equally as fine, and yet are only pork their 
market beef value. 
It is with cattle and poultry as with men, ‘blood will 
tell,’ and a pure strain of poultry will always command 
remunerative prices; and the taste and fancy are increasing 
in the country quite as fast as the production. 
My observation and experience satisfy me that ninety out 
of every hundred breeders will in three years, unless they 
are devoting attention as a specialty to one particular strain, 
run out of their pure-blood stock, and become vendors of a 
mongrel fowl, which may bea prize exhibition bird, but, 
after all, of mixed and impure pedigree. Especially is this 
liable to be the case where, either on large or small places, 
the breeder attempts to breed all the varieties. They will 
become crossed; an unruly cock, breaking his inclosure, 
may in a few hours destroy and taint the broods of a flock 
for an entire season. 
The true and successful breeder will in the end find his 
success and reward in keeping but one variety, and estab- 
lishing his reputation on the purity of his strain, rather 
than on a greater variety. My friend A, keeps Plymouth 
Rocks—let him do so; 8, Buff Cochins; C, Partridge Co- 
chins; D, Brahmas, &c. Let each stick to his favorite 
breed, ‘and ere long he will have established a strain that 
will command confidence, and be sought after at very liberal 
prices. To do this requires care, patience, and fidelity. I 
would not order eggs from any advertiser who offers eggs 
from yards with high-sounding names, where the breeder 
proposes to supply pure-bred fowls of four, or perhaps ten 
varieties ; for, with my observation, with the utmost care, 
I should distrust their purity. 
Mr. Campbell, of Oneida, found the advantage in breeding 
for years a pure strain of short horns. Others have done 
the same. So with poultry; the breeder who confines him- 
self to only one variety will in the end succeed much better 
than he who attempts more and ultimately is pretty sure to 
fail in all. 
But I will close, and may hereafter offer further thoughts 
on the same subject. 
IrHaca, N. Y., Sept. 8, 1874. Amos G. Day. 
> 
AN EGG CURIOSITY. 
Mr. Eprror: ‘The Toledo Historical Society has been 
presented with a little completely formed egg, which was 
found inside the yolk of a hen’s egg. It is nearly an inch 


long, of the usual shape, and the shell, which is hard, is 
formed.” 
I clip the above from the Ledger, and send you to present 
to our Historical Society, or anybody else, an egg within an 
egg. 
Inside the large egg is one of good size, hard shell, and 
in all respects perfect. This is froma hen belonging to 
Charles Robbins, of Port Norris, N. J., and is the fifth of 
the kind laid by her this season. F.-B; R; 
[The exterior egg is as large as a goose egg, being three 
and three-quarter inches long, and two and a-half inches 
through, the circumference being nine inches one way, and 
seven and a-half inches the other. The exterior egg has 
not been opened, but there is evidently another egg inside of 
it. Our correspondent probably bases his statement of its 
contents on examinations of other and similar eggs. gen 
TOR PuBLic LEDGER. | 

~~ 2.om + 

(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
FIVE POINTS. 
In the August number of the Poultry World is given an 
engraving of what is known as a comb of five points. This 
comb is attributed to the Leghorn variety of fowls alone, 
and, so far as I am able to learn, is strictly an American- 
ism, or rather the Americanism of a few. 
Doesn’t it seem a little strange that this variety of fowls 
alone is required to have a definite number of points in its 
comb? To me it seems not only strange, but a great mis- 
take that any fancy point should be made to take precedence 
of the valuable qualities of a breed of fowls. 
On this five-point matter, I want to say that the percentage 
of fowls having the requisite number of points is so small, 
that if all are discarded for exhibition or breeding purposes 
which do not come up to the requirements, we shall have to 
give over at once to the cook at least nine-tenths of all Leg- 
horns bred in this country. 
It has been my good fortune to breed Leghorns of all 
three varieties, white, brown and black; and in every case 
I have been careful to secure every cles of eggs from that 
stock which has been taking the highest premiums at our 
best shows, and yet, with all this care, I have not been able 
to secure more than one-tenth with five points as pictured in 
the Poultry World, as referred to. Over one-half of my 
flock presents great regularity of comb, but it is not five 
points, but rather five notches or serratures that characterize 
them, 
Now, if it is only the odd fowl now and then which pre- 
sents the five-point peculiarity, is not this rather an irregu- 
larity of the breed than a point to be counted? Why not, 
for the same reason, pick out the lop-comb in cocks, and 
require this as one of the points? Why not, again, adopt 
as one of the points of Plymouth Rocks, the feathered leg (for 
now and then-you get a fowl of that kind); or, again, the 
pea-combed Cochin; or, the single-combed Brahma? It 
does seem to me that the points which characterize the ma- 
jority of the breed should be those which should be made 
the standard to which to breed, and, on this ground I object 
to anything being established as a point which is not a char- 
acteristic. I confess I do not know what the language of 
the new standard is on this matter, as I have not a copy at 
hand. 
I have been led to this criticism, because in the article 
accompanyingthe engraving referred to, it is suggested that 
this is one of the features which, more than others, will de- 
cide in favor of the premium in the show-room. This I 
