Poultry Culture Monthly du lieu suivant : Topeka, Kansas • 6

12 POULTRY CULTURE APRIL, 1907. WHAT IS THE BEST VARIETY nor shirks a duty, I believe the Barred Rock fills the bill more nearly than any other variety. They are always ready for business, rain or shine. As a practical fowl, suited to the wants and conditions of those who desire eggs, meats and beauty combined in one variety, they acknowledge no competition. Bern, Kansas.

A. H. Milleb. ROSE COMB RHODE ISLAND REDS. In choosing a vocation in life we naturally desire that which combines both pleasure and profit.

So in selecting a variety of poultry we must be governed by individual taste, environment and financial ability. Since the fruitful hen has proved to be one of the most valuable assets on this farm, chickens are my hobby and I am very partial to the R. C. R. I.

Reds, which I breed exclusively. In the first place, the Reds appealed to me through their unequaled beauty, especially the male bird, whose plumage is a brilliant red on back and wing with harmonious blending to a lighter shade on neck and breast, and black or greenish black tail feathers. Then too they have such gentle dispositions. The hens are good sitters, excellent mothers, great rustlers, very hardy and the fowls are easily confined. The Reds are less liable to disease, such as colds and roup.

I account for this by their thick, close coat of feathers which enables them to withstand the cold. Now as to the practical, money-making side the Reds will make good also. They are prolific layers, the pullets beginning early in the fall and continue laying all winter, when eggs are the best price. They lay large, brown eggs, which in some city markets command a fancy price for table use. The eggs show a high degree of fertility when used for hatching, which proves the Reds to be vigorous birds.

I once mated one cock with seventeen pullets with excellent results at hatching time. The Reds are also desirable as a market fowl, as they mature early and make good broilers. The standard weights are cock eight and one-half pounds, cockerel seven and one-half, hen six and one-half, and pullet five pounds. The Reds will not disappoint you. Mks.

T. J. Ruehlen. Plains, Kansas. This is an old, old question.

Every poultry paper is asked this question many times during the course of a year. The almost invariable answer, and certainly the correct answer, is that there is no best variety. This doesn't mean, of course, that all varieties are equally good. From a practical point of view some varieties are better than others. But taking some of our most popular varieties, such as Barred and White Rocks, White and Silver Wyandottes, S.

C. W. Leghorns, and Rhode Island Reds, it cannot be claimed with reason that one of these varieties is superior to the others. At the same time each one of these popular varieties, and others, has certain specific points of excellence that the others do not possess to the same degree. It is fortunate that there are so many varieties that all of us can be suited, no matter what our' tastes may be.

It is perhaps fortunate also that many of us are so devoted to our favorite variety that we are convinced beyond question that it is the best of all varieties. This is the kind of devotion and enthusiasm which have placed many of our varieties where they now stand in popular favor. Poultry Culture has a large number of letters from admirers of different varieties, each letter defending the cause of some favorite variety. Some of these letters are presented here, not with the hope of settling the question as to the best variety we shouldn't want that question settled, even if a solution were possible but because the letters are interesting and because they bring out strongly and convincingly the merits of some of our Standard varieties. BUFF ORPINGTONS.

Buff Orpingtons are my favorite fowls. I consider them the best for all purposes. They have at least seven good qualities: First, they are beautiful. They are of a soft, rich, golden buff, with a thick plumage of which they seem very proud. Second.

They are large, but not clumsy. They sell well on the market. Third. They are good layers. When broody, they are easily broken up, arid resume laying in a few days, while as sitters and mothers they are unsurpassed.

Being winter layers and early layers they are early sitters. Prize winning Buff Orpington Cockerel at Kansas State Show, bred and owned by Frank Hill, Sabetha, Kansas. WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS. When I decided to go into the fancy poultry business, I investigated the claims of the various breeds and decided that the White Plymouth Rock was the best. In this variety I find one of the grandest combinations of beauty and utility, and in my opinion, the White Plymouth Rock stands, without the shadow of a doubt, at the head of the poultry world.

The White Plymouth Rock stands to the poultry world as the Berkshire hog does to the swine world. As I write this piece, I look out in the yard and see my flock, and in each one I can see depicted the following unsurpassable qualities: beauty of plumage, without a rival, and hardiness. have never lost any from disease. As a market fowl they are the best, they are easy to clean and mature early, making broilers two to four weeks earlier than other breeds. As layers, the have no equal, as my hens have been laying all winter.

As sitters and mothers, they are just the best yet, being easy to handle and move. There is a sweet juicy flavor to the meat of the White Plymouth Rock that I have never found in any other breed. In the show room, as you pass along the rows of coops, you will always find a crowd of admirers standing at their section and admiring their beautiful pure white plumage, their well proportioned heads ornamented with bright red combs BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS. The Barred Plymouth Rock has been termed America's idol. There is no variety, the product of American skill and breeding, that we can put on the market of the world with so much pride, and none other is received from our shores by foreign fanciers with so much favor.

They need no booming. They stand acknowledged without an equal as the best general-purpose fowl bred. They thrive anywhere, are rapid growers and make plump, juicy broilers at eight to twelve weeks old. As a market fowl they have no successful rivals among the pure varieties. They are a great favorite with farmers and market poultrymen, who breed this variety more extensively than all others combined.

As a fancier's fowl the Plymouth Rock has reached a popularity in this country never before known. Utility and actual worth are the basis of this popularity, and make the Barred Plymouth Rocks the bird of destiny a breed come to stay. Being of purely American origin, we justly claim the Barred Rocks our very own. Its origin is not traditional. The Barred Plymouth Rocks are excellent all-the-year-around layers, and will lay as many eggs as any variety that incubates and rears its young.

They are the farmer's 5 For a person who wants a business fowl, one that never deserts its post Fourth. They are good rustlers. It is never too cold for them to get out and scratch for something to eat. Fifth. The young chickens grow very fast, so I can get them on market early.

It is not uncommon to have pullets laying at five months. Sixth. They are a very healthy fowl. They have clean looking feet that are featherless, and are of a white or flesh color. Seventh.

They are much nicer to clean for the table than a dark fowl. The skin is white and clean, with no black oily The flesh is of fine quality. Mss. B. Ed.

Gabsis'on. Edgerton, Kansas..