LIGHT BRAHMAS.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1783, 7 November 1879, Page 4

LIGHT BRAHMAS.

1 It would be difficult (says a correspondent •of the " Prairie Farmer") to find handsomer, showier fowls than the light brahmas when kept where they belong, or clean grass runs in the country ; but when kept in small yards in villages or cities, especially where coal is used for fuel, their glossy white plumage soon gets soiled with dust and coal smoke, giving them a dirty dingy look that renders them anything but attractive objects. The plumage of the light Brahmas is white, except a narrow black stripe down the centre of the neck fathers ; primaries, or flight feathers of the wings black ; secondaries, or feathers that are visible when the wings are closed black on the inner web; black tail, and tail-coverts, or the soft, carved feathers at the sides of the tail, of a g'ossy greenish black. Both sexes have small pea-combs, which resembles _ three combs in one, the middle being the highest; legs bright yellow, stout, and feathered to the extremity of the outer and middle toes. The carriage of thi cocks is upright, and spirited, and tbe hens have a quiet, contented, matronly appearance. _ They are hardy, good winter layers, and if judiciously fed will lay reasonably well in summer. The Brahmas are good sitters, if you nive them a fair chance they will sit all the summer, but "break them up " when the broody fever first seizes them, and they will return to laying duties again. They are very tame, quiet, and of a peaceable disposi'ion generally ; will bear confinement well, but if allowed liberty will not scratch enoughunless starved ito it, to do any damage in a garden. They do not feather up soon enough, and run too much to leg in their younger days, to make them presentable as "spring chickens," but for early and late fall market, and for capons they are unsurpassed by any of the feathered tribe. When dressed they are plump, yellow skinned, and look well, consequently they sell well in the market. One season just before Christmas when the markets were full of poultry of all kinds, we dressed a lot of light Brahma pullets and sent them in. They were between six and seven months old, been well fed from the shell, then had ten days of extra feeding before they were slaughtered, and averaged five pounds a piece dressed. For that lot of poultry we found quick sale at three cents a pound above the highest quoted market price, and an invitation to "send on some more of the same kind."