Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-08-17

When the parrot said Hello, boy,
to the little lad that stood looking at
1T, the youngster, with wonder in his
eyes, returned the salutation, saying:
Hello, chicken" And he was very
much surprised at finding what he
thought was chicken that could talk.
And the average person, with the
average knowledge of chickens. is very
much surprised at what a very, very
little he knows about chickens, once
he gets talking with William s. Rus
sell. Ottumwa's poultry Judge.
Russell is one Of less than ten pro-
fessional judges in the United States,
men who are licensed to pass on all
varieties of fowls, and of these he Is
the youngest, the fastest and the only
one who bears the distinction Of never
having had a decision protested.
Russell has been a professional judge
of poultry for the past twelve years,
and each year his popularity has
grown. AS he modestly said himself:
IF I had been divided up into six
parts for the past seven years could
not have served myself all around"
The Judges of poultry is by no
means a simple matter and some COM
prehension of the knowledge necessary
TO pass on fowls may be cleaned when
one takes into consideration that Of
chickens alone, there are Ito varieties.
Each variety is based on 100 per cent
perfect The judging points consist
of every part of the body-the comb,
the neck, the back, the tall. the breast,
the legs and even the toes And IN
each variety every point carries diff
ferent rating in making up the whole
100 per cent of the perfect bird Of any
variety. Where defect on any point
is found the rating is 1essened there
by.
Mr.. Russell explained it thus:
Nov, for instance, here is one bird
on which the comb is rated at 8 per
cent, while on, say an Indian game
per cent. And while defect found
In the comb Of the first bird would
warrant deduction of two points of
the eight, the same defect in the Indian
game would only result in knocking
off I per cent"
Thus one begins to realize there Is
something to the chicken after all and
then when it comes to dividing these
varieties of chickens up into classes
as they are shown in the exhibitions
another feature presents itself. For
aside from their varieties chickens are
shown in classes, such as COCKS, COCK
erells, hens and pens of Ave. And ex.
hibits vary from an average of 1000
to 5000 chickens each. And, then too,
there are the exhibits of geese, ducks
and turkeys.
The Judges Work.
Upon the poultry judge falls the
burden of handling every fowl, of as
certaining it's true value, of explaining
to dissatisfied exhibitors why their
birds did not win and countless other
little details And when 1t all begins
to dawn upon<the average person he
says, Mr. Judge, you're welcome to
your job. Why, just the cackling and
the clucking and the Growing would
in itself set me Wild
But it's different with Russell He's
the man who knows the chicken and
he enjoys it. With him the raising
of chickens is an art, for aside from
his work as a professional judge he
himself Is busily engaged in raising
chickens for breeding purposes.
n was very fond of chickens as .
boy" said Mr. Russell. I'm 1881
showed an exhibit Of Barred plymouth
Rock chickens at the district fair II
Agency, and won the first prize.