Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1899-07-26
POULTRY STANDARDS.
A Ideals Change Standards OF Excellence
Should C.ange Also.

I
| Should Grange Also.
Quite frequently we meet with al
article the burden of which is the neet
OF permanent standard. The argu
ments in favor of such standard are
usually ON first sight perfectly sound.
They generally include the wrong done
to the breeder by the constant changes
introduced, SO that he no sooner seems
to have got his stock up to the existing
standard than change is introduced
and the work has to be done all over
again. This looks like decided loss to
the breeder and hindrance to the prog.
ress of poultry breeding.
That sudden changes, such as hereto
fore have been made in the standard for
White Hamburgs, describing the shanks
white at one revision, blue at the next
then back to white, only to be changed
again to blue, do work serious injury
to the breed cannot be denied But such
fickleness does not characterize most of
the changes introduced into the stand
ard. They are usually such as indicate
a progressive development of the breed
and are introduced to add to that devel-
opment. Stock bred up to the require
ments OF the old standard are fitted to
advance toward the requirements of the
new. Such changes are perfectly ra-
tional.
The insuperable objection to perma-
nent standard seems to me to lie in the
fact that as the standard sets forth an
ideal fowl and as ideals change from
year to year it can remain true only as
it suffers change to bring it into har-
mony with the new ideal. Whether it
be good or bad for poultry breeding
and l am enough of an optimist to think
it good-ideals will and do change. If
our standard is to set forth an ideal
fowl, it must change with the change
in the ideal.
"A permanent standard presupposes
that ideals are fixed and that the max
ers OF the standard have seen the ut
most progress of which all the varieties
of fowls are capable. Both suppositions
are false. Ideals are not fixed, and no
one has wisdom enough to know where
the limit OF development rests. Suppose,
for example, that in 1880 permanent
standard had been made for the Barred
Plymouth Rock, based, as it must have
been, upon the development Of that
variety at that time, where would have |
been the beautiful bird of today? Or
suppose at a still earlier date, when the |
Brahma had both single and pea combs
mighty poor pea combs), and the Co. |
chin was the long legged Shanghai,
which could eat from the top of flour
barrel, permanent standard had been
made for these two breeds, where
would have been the magnificent Brah-
ma OF today, with its almost perfect pea
comb, and the massive Cochin, with it's
compact build and great feather devel.
opment? No one in those DAYS could
have foreseen the development of these
breeds, and if a permanent standard had
been made, and this great development
been lost, the poultry world would have
an irretrievable injury. 1 know
hat there are those who declare the old
ime fowls equal to the modern ones,
ust as there are those who sigh for the
,ood old times before steam and elec-
richly had transformed the conditions
# life. But / am sufficiently familiar
With the old time fowls to know that
UGH ideas are absolutely false and mis-
eading. The good old times are fic-
ion, and the good old fowls, compared
With the modern, delusion. Progress
$ written all over poultry breeding, as
veil as over everything else. Poets may
ing of golden age in the past, but his
DRY shows that the golden age is in the
uture and that the present is the best
&c the world has ever seen.
1t bur forbears could not have seen I
nd provided for the present develop q
lent of our fowls out of what seemed
ERECTION to them, why should we be
UGH confirmed cyclists as to think that I
70 can dowhat they could not? For one
trust am modest enough to disclaim :
lch foresight. We may be able to an
cipate the development Of few years,
lough even in that we sometimes err,
ut none OF us possesses the prophetic
ye which can detect what will be the l
evelopment at the end of the first dec
de of the next century.
Despite the change introduced at Bos-
III like the idea that our standard
,ould not be revised oftener than once
five years, for we ought to be able to a
,ticipate as much as that, but equal a
: like the idea that if revision is then )
eeded,' if ideals have changed, if fowls
ave developed, a revision can be had.
OF permanent standard, but a pro- a
'essive standard-one that saves all r
lat is good in the old and adds i'm c
'ovement in the nevis what the ii
'ultry industry demands. HI s. Bab-d
ck in Country Gentleman. a
Eggs by Weight.
Much has been said and written about
o desirability of selling eggs by G
eight instead of by the dozen, and L
ere seems some plausibility in the &
atement that the larger egg should ;.
II at higher price than small egg, q
It there are other things to be taken :"
to consideration in deciding the actual ~
lue of the egg to the consumer than r.