Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-01-23
breeders have in their fiocks than the
average beginner realizes.
Quality Commands Price

breeders have in their f1ocks than the
average beginner realizes.
Quality Commands Price
But when these characteristics,
shape, uniform color of plumage and
production are stamped in a strain,
the price of eggs, day-old chicks and
stock is double the price of the So
called utility strain because added
characteristics are harder to obtain
than one or two of the utility quail
ties, and here is the point on which
so many beginners are at loss as TO
what to do. In the first place. the
average beginner wishes first of all
eggs. and plenty of them TO supply
the home table and to pay the feed
bill and upkeep of the poultry plant
be it large or small. This quality can
be found in any utility strain of al
most any breed. But most people are
also lovers of the beautiful and like
the flock 10 look fairly uniform. In
such a case, they must look further
than to just the plain utility breeder
who does not care if Leghorn's tail
goes straight up in the air. or If its
comb is as large as a MinOrca's, or II
its legs are yellow or white, or the
eyes fiSh-colored. and plumage, as so
often seen. yellow or whether the Ply
mouth Rock has barring all over its
body any color but the proper one. or
neck. red back and saddle feathers
another color In this case, they will
eventually wind up in getting stock
from the so-called and much-a bused
fancier. who, it has been claimed,
breeds only for feather and not for
utility. and rho some times advocates
that fine feathers and egg production
cannot be combined. In this they
are wrong, for the best feathered
fowl, a Madison Square Garden win
ner. can be a high producing layer,
and at the same time have shape, (the
characteristic of the breed) and this
hasbeen proven not only bv breeders
of long years of experience but by the
different experiment stations and lay
ing contests as well.
Proper Breeding the Thing
1t only means proper breeding. To
the utility poultry raiser, who cares
nothing for the showroom, or does
not aim to sell Matching eggs. day-old
chicks or stock, but aims only to sup
ply New York and the surrounding
zone with shelled eggs, it matters little
what the flock looks like so long as
the best layers are picked to keep up
the uniform egg supply, and Il is vast
ly easier to breed for one characteris-
tic, egg production, than to watch for
shape, plumage, etc, and such 4 COM
mercial breeder will make money.
Put this does not mean that the two
utility and fancy-cannot be com
bined. For all over the country are
to. day progressive breeders (fanciers
so-called) who are working abou, the
lires of fancy and utility-it means
closer culling. for all specimens re-
tanned must not. only possess a good
egg record. but they must also have
the characteristic of the breed and
plumage. This means q closer culling.
for whereas the utility breeder retains
all good egg producers, the so-called
fancier must reject many which do
not come up TO the standard in shape
and plumage, and the higher art of
breeding is well worth the money paid
by any beginner, who seeks thc best
possible start in poultry.
IL has been said that one cannot
serve two masters and serve them
well and that for the best possible re-
suits. one must either go in for the
fancy or the utility. This is not so,
for the two can be combined and ii is
serving but one master, only the com
bination is harder TO accomplish, util-
ity only or fancys sonly.
But as in every line of business en-
deavor. the profits are greater in the
combination of both than would be
in following one line. II is true that
in the past, and perhaps will be in
the future to some extent, that a few
fancy breeders in their ambition for
showroom honors have to some ex-
tent neglected the utility qualities of
their fiocks and have retained fowls
only because of their shape and plum
age. neglecting egg production. But
in most cases, the leading progressive
breeders of the country are working
along the lines of utility. are using
trap nests and breeding only from
good egg producers. for they appre-
ciate the call is for the producing hen,
and will continue to work along util-
fancy and utility BREEDERS are being
brought closer together each year is
shown in the experiment tests and lay
ing contests and the trap nest, and
practical breeding is proving to all
poultry raisers that the heavy produc-
ing flock is not a matter wholly of
shape. color of feathers or eye, or the
size of the comb. but is due to breed
ing from good layers and from the