The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1919-03-20
SHOW RING VIRTUES COMBIN-
ED WITH PRODUCING ABILITY
A Plentitude of Eggs is as Essential
in the Measure of All-Round Eff
ficiency as Are Shapely, At
tractive Bodies


ficiency as Are Shapely, At
tractive Bodies
Beauty and utility in happy combi-
nation as depicted by the most profit
able farm fowls, are attributes which
merit wider imitation among poultry
keepers. Symmetry of form, uniform
ity of characteristic and trueness of
type, rather than superficial, skin-deep
beauty, are desired in producing pro-
fitable poultry, together with the abil-
ity to maintain liberal and persist
ent production of eggs.
Hen husbandry has suffered because
of fractional fracases between special
lied fanciers and the utility producers
who aspire chiefly for eggs, according
to a specialist of the u. S. department
of Agriculture Fanciers have bred
for showing attributes with COM
parative disregard for proficiency in
egg making, while utility breeders have
gone after the egg-flow. However
just as the Holstein cow which wins
the blue ribbon at the fair is judged
not only on her form, conformation,
quality and type, but also on the
quantity and quality of her milk yield,
so are poultry judged on. their pro-
duction and sightliness in correspond
ence with breeding characters. Birds
of superior vigor and vitality are nee
essary, as these qualities are the ba-
sis of both successful egg yield and
premier exhibition attributes.
Utility and show-ring poultrymen
often are at outs over nothing. There
is nothing in the standard require
ments directly opposed to utility, and
vice versa. Ambition of certain breed
ers to intesify and develop special
qualities in their fowls have resulted,
however, in a loss of constitutional
vigor, and consequently, egg produce
ing ability. Breeders who handle the
fancy fowls whose standard require
ments demand extreme superficial
characters, such as excessive develop
ment Of comb, face or crest, satisfy
such condition usually at the expense
of utility qualities.
Unfortunately the opinion prevails
among many breeders of utility poul-
try, who never have attempted TO
breed for exhibition quality, that be-
cause fowls satisfy the standard re-
quirement they must necessarily be
poor producers. This is an erroneous
idea. The ambition of the leading
show men is not only to exhibit fowl
of the best breeding type, but also
birds which emphasize profitable egg
production. More and more each year
poultry fanciers appreciate that the
birds which are to be consistent win
ners must not only possess a shapely
form but also profitable and persistent
egg-producing ability.
The number of record breaking fowl
in any flock as rule is small, both
from an exhibition standpoint as well
as from that of production. It is al
ways more difficult to breed for high
development of combination of char
acters that it is to obtain intensified
ton of a single character. Any ex-
perienced breeder appreciates that if
he concentrates for the production of
meat combs, and disregards other
points, he will progress in the produc-
tion Of fine heads. But in so doing he
will have neglected the other qualities
which go to make up exhibition birds,
and in the long run he will not accom-
plish as much as if he improved the
heads simultaneously with other poul-
try characters.
It is a difficult task to breed for a
combination of standard quality and
utility values, but this can and is
being done at profit. In fact, the