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Show I 1 POULTRY H UTILITY STOCK. m When applied to poultry, the word H utility should have a technical sig- M nificancc. It should stand for the H bst in egg production and in table H qualities. It should mean that the H birds termed "utility stock" have been 1 bred as carefully and systematically H (scientifically) as the best exhibition M specimens. It is some times the prac- M ticc of breeders to cull their flocks m and retain the culls which arc offered H as "choice utility stock" and as cvi- H dence of their choice qualities, quot- H ing at length the number of prizes H won at certain .poultry shows by their H ancestors. Culls from exhibition Hj stock offered as choice utility stock. Is this right? Is it fair to the public who want utility stock? Stop and think. More than likely the ancestry of that exhibition stock has been ibrcd for generations for exhibition only, without regard' to increasing the egg output. We have often been informe'd by breeders that if they could breed' birds that would win at the shows, they were wholly indifferent as to the number of eggs annually produced by their birds, and as for table qualities, quali-ties, why one bird was just as good as another if properly served. Possibly Pos-sibly that was true, in their opinion, but we don't believe it and we can not believe that the public believes it. It is just as far from the truth to assert as-sert that one bird is as good as nnoth- cr when served on the table as it is to assert that one kind of an apple is just as good as any other kind. Every one at all familiar with the facts is aware that certain varieties of apple arc fine cooking apples and that others oth-ers arc not. It would be just as near the truth to assert that the ancient "hazle rooter" is just as good a hog as the O. I. C, the Poland China or the Jersey, or that a scrub cow is just as good as a Holstcin or a Durham. The public should be educated to discriminate dis-criminate between tire so-called utility stock culls from exhibition birds and the real utility stock bred by breeders whose chief aim is to produce pro-duce bird's of great egg producing qualities or fowls of great excellence for the table. There can be no objection ob-jection to a ttrccder whose specialty is exhibition stock, breeding them up to a high state of utility; indeed, that H is just what ought to be done, and H what is being done by some of our H ablest breeders today. A bird of high H standard excellence that combines the H priceless attribute of high utility with H the fancier's ideal of beauty should H have double the value of one that has H but the single attribute. The possi- H bilitics in this field for the ambitious H breeder arc unlimited1, for where one has succeeded in a marked degree in H combining utility and a high degree of B standard excellence, thousands have H failed, for which there is a very good fl reason, summed up in one word in- heritancc. A prize winning strain has W been bred so by careful selection. There has been no guess-work about it; it has all come about gradually and 1 naturally by critically careful selection, selec-tion, culling the individuals with objectionable ob-jectionable characteristics and retaining retain-ing those with the qualities desired and these qualities have been transmitted trans-mitted generation after generation to the descendants, and by this method J- alone may excellence be attained. 1 Now, therein lies the great difficulty of combining exhibition and utility qualities. A male bird may develop high excellence, and as such may be desirable as a breeder, but his dam may have been a very poor or possib- 1 ly just as indifferent layer, and if wo use that male, how can we expect the I female of his progeny to be any better bet-ter layers than his dam. We know that the laying quality is transmitted through the sire to daughter and from the dam to son. Or, we may have a male whose dam was a most excellent layer, while the son may be defective in some point or points that make him undesirable as a breeder for exhibition purposes. Now, which of these two types of males will you choose for your breeding .pens. Nine chances out of ten, you or any one else would chposc the first, and there you arc. It is almost impossible for any breeder with an eye to beauty to discard the handsome male or female from his pens in favor of one less perfect per-fect but with better laying characteristic character-istic and then go resolutely on generation gener-ation after generation, culling out the better specimens in favor of the best layers and then patiently and persistently persist-ently year after year picking out 'by careful and systematic selection the most perfect specimens from the best layers until such time a9 the best layers lay-ers will have attained high standard m excellence. And, yet that is just what m must be done to combine the two at- H tributes. H Now, the same law applies to brccd- H ing birds for table use, but in a dif- B fcrcnt way. For a fine roaster, we H want a fowl with a. well developed breast, long keel and short legs. None H fill the ideal better than the Orping-B Orping-B tons or Wyandottcs, for they possess H these characteristics in a marked' dc-V dc-V grcc and both breeds mature quickly; B they arc also exceptionally good fry-H fry-H crs and the mature hens make cxccl-I cxccl-I lent stews. Who is there with a taste I so uneducated that he can not apprc-M apprc-M ciatc savory stewed chicken and dumplings. Can you convince the I public that one of these full plump breasted birds is no better for the 1 table than one with long, narrow I breast, short body and long big thighs? In breeding for table use, the birds should be selected as carefully and systematically as for exhibition or laying qualities, but in this instance we would select females with long I keels, full breast and short shanks and strive to develop these characteristics character-istics year after year. Such traits will be transmitted just as faithfully and accurately to the progeny as any other oth-er traits and a strain developed just as distinct in type and as superior to the ordinary type as the O. T. C. or Poland China is to tlve ordinary hog. Tf there is any one class of people who ought to be more interested in breeding utility stock than others, it is the great farming element. With unlimited range and facilities for producing pro-ducing feed-stuff cheaply and in abundance, abun-dance, there is every incentive to produce pro-duce utility stock of high exccHcncc. The brcd-to-lay strains arc rapidly taking the place of the barnyard mongrel mon-grel and choice market fowls arc making mak-ing their appearance in greater num-Ibors num-Ibors each year. Under ordinary farm conditions, such utility stock can "be made highly profitable and with but little expense attached. Its a. mighty nice thing to be able to take in a few dozen plump farm fattened fryers or roasters to market on the weekly trips to town pays for a lot of nice things that the human heart has a fashion or longing for, and its just as nice, if not a Wttle more so, to be able to talje in a big tub of nice fresh eggs on those weekly trips. Butter is a nice factor to bring in the wished for joys, but gathering nice .clean rresh eggs isn't as hard work as mak ing butter, and' its a mighty poor kind of man, woman, boy or girl that doesn't feel a joy and constant delight de-light in the musical cackle that heralds the approach of clanking silver in exchange ex-change for those eggs. In breeding utility stock, it should be the aim of the breeder to specialize special-ize keep one kind or the other the kind that lays or the kind for table use. Ail purpose fowls are well enough in their way for those who desire them, but if profit is sought, specialize iby all means keep only the kind that lays, or a strictly high class market fowl. |