POULTRY COLUMN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 67, 2 November 1911, Page 2

POULTRY COLUMN.

SUNDRY PROP LEMS

(American Poultry Journal.) Practical Influences.

It has been said that the Standard consists of rules regarding external adornment depending as much on fashion as the trimming on a lady’s hat, and having no more connection with food production for a nation than with the politics of the inhabitants of Mars or Jupiter. That a farmer no more needs a copy of the Standard than ho needs a copy of the Koran, and so on. Yet notwithstanding such criticisms as the above, its indirect consequence in the food market has been momentous.

It gave increased attention to the new imported races of fowls, and all countries were ransacked for the sake of fresh importations, which were studied with as much zeal as botanists study new plants. Their distinctive characters were deter,mined, so that their proper average could be made into a uniform type; in other words, the foreign dung-hill fowls were moulded into true breeds just as New England dung-hill fowls have been moulded into Rhode Island Reds. Without the Standard there would not have been a pure breed of poultry in the United States for any length of time. A particular kind anywhere in a neighbourhood would get all mixed up after awhile, and it would be said-: “the breed all ran out.” Standard Indispensible. It is not commonly realised that without a, Standard there could be no great shows of poultry exclusively, for there could be no judging of any uniformity and therefore nothing tv bring out specimens for exhibition, and without the incentives of competition and rivalry and prize trophies, no breed could be kept free from crosses for long, and even if there was no comingling of alien blood endless variations would finally lead to endless types or rather no type at all. I remember when there was no real breed of fowls,' in the United States except the Rhode Island Reds, although they, after all, were not fully formed into a breed, and Bantams and the Bolton Grays or “Creoles,” and at the country fairs (then called “cattle shows”) there would be pens entered under the name of “common fowls,” and the judge awarded the prize to the biggest, fattest, and slickest, or to those lie took a notion to. That’s about all. If there were pans labelled “Bolton Grays,” they varied, and bystanders would be saying, “1 don’t call them hens pure Bolton Grays.” Nobody knew what a “pure” Bolton Gray was. There were Bantams or “banties” abroad in the land in those days, but of no uniform sort, and Polish or “Topknots” generally black with white crests; but the varying size and shape of these appendages showed the tendency everywhere as I have said, to admixture and “running out.” The Standard has worked a revolution in that it has not only given us a hundred clearly defined breeds, but also given us the means of keeping them pure. Slogan of Vigor. Over and over we are told that without keeping our stocks strong there will be neither enjoyment nor profit in possessing them, for diseases will make, ravages sooner or dafti. That good constitutions will ward off epidemics or at least mitigate their severity. That is all right, but there are exceptions. • There are n a ladies that’will fasten on to the strongest,' most vigorous person or bird as quickly as upon, those less robust, just exactly as exposure to poison ivy will kick up as big a row with- a strong man as with a weak one, and in fact the richer the pasture the ranker the growth of some ailments it would seem. Health and Vigor. In loyalty to the principle of breeding for health and vigor, the Standard, and some, methods practised by those who are aiming at its requirements, like too close breeding, for instance, have been assailed, and a contention, too sweeping altogether, has been made that the book has done nothing to promote health and strength but rather the reverse. A broad view should lie taken. The fanciers have built better than they knew. This immense institution of which the big shows, the Standard, the poultry press, the great zeal in poultry culture and the millions of dollars involved are component parts, has resulted in keeping breeds pure, as we have just seen, but in something vastly more than that. It has resulted in producing an aggregate of great numbers of birds, of particular breeds, which are in the hands of great numbers of fanciers. This is particularly true of such popular breeds as Leghorns, Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes and others. Now, a breed becomes strong in proportion to the extent in which it is cultivated. You can paste it in your hat that when a breed is rare, like Andalusians or White Holland Turkeys, for instance, or any other breed that is kept by only a few persons, it is sure to lack stamina more or less, because selection has not had room to work in. Influences cf the Standard.

Behold the benificient influences of the Standard. Though many of the practices of its followers undeniably tend towards deterioration of their stock, yet all the time there is one way in'which they are promoting the survival of the strongest. Other tilings lining equal, they pilch into the healthiest, most vigorous male for breeding. The ordinary fowl keeper does not care much about it one way or the other. He may be influenced by the valiant pose and alert action and he may not. On the other hand the ■fancier is ; keenly observant and deeply mterstod. The greater the number of members of a given breed in the United States the greater the results of selection ; for the practice of brooding from the best produces cumulative cfleets in proportion to the number ol its repetitions. The Leghorns.

Take the Leghorns for example and see what forty or fifty generations of these in this country have resulted in. Look at the first pure bred dock you come across and consider them as a result, forty or fifty times in their ancestral course has an owner, always with an interest more or less intense, selected a pen out of many for breeding; health, strength, activity and spngntliness always appealing to him, and not shape and colour alone. When birds of unusual vigor have appeared their descendants nave been disseminated far and wide and used as ureeders, displacing those that otherwise would have been considered the top of the heap. -Often when a 'fancier has no male bird to suit him ho goes in search of one belonging to some eminent breeder, lint if ne is unfortunate in having a breed that is rare, very likely ho knows not where to go for one and docs the best he can with that which he has. Even if lie searches outside, it is evident that the fewer there are to choose from, the Jess likelihood of finding one that is desirable.

Sn The Hands of Farmers. If anyone of our valuable breeds had been left in the hands of farmers or any persons other than | fanciers, they would have all run out | into a liodge podge bet ore they had i been disseminated and multiplied ; enough to give selection full play, even if there wore in existence, breeders competent to select; and there would have been neither the requisite birds nor the breeders. N.Z. UTILITY POULTRY CLUB’S LAYING COMPR'IITfON. Pullsts. T. Kennedy, S.W. (32) ... ... HIS Misses Bradley (35) ... ... Hit G. rl. Robinson, IS.O. (31) ... 823 A. R. Browne (AS) .... ... SOS Heretaunga Poultry Co. (35) ... 783 Heretaunga Poultry Co. (33) ... 773 A. R. Browne (32) ... ... 770 W. Nixon (30) ... ... ... 705 A. Tisch (37) 700 T. Frcthev (32) 713 \V. Hal pill (32) 735 A. G. Wilson (25) ... ... 72 1 W. Nixon (30) ... ... ... 72! T. Kennedy, WAV. (31) ... 700 J. W. Green (31) 70S Rangiuru Egg Ranch (34) ... 707 E. Hall (17) 707 R. Willis and Son (28) ... ... 099 G. Wilson (31) 699 Verra}) Bros. (33) ... ... 091 Ducks. 1 Heretaunga Poultry Co. (29) ... 858 W. Knight (21) ... ... ... <Bl2 A. R. Brownie (29) ... ... 801 P. J. Keller (21) 721