THE LEGHORN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4432, 27 March 1930, Page 3

THE LEGHORN.

INTERESTIN G_ ADDRE SS,

BY MR. R. D. WHYTE, OF PAL-

MERSTON NORTH.

On Monday evening Mr. R. D. Whyte, of Palmerston North, gave an interesting address on the Leghorn to one of the largest and most representative gatherings of poultry farmers ever held in this district. Mr. Whyte, who is a wellknown poultry judge and fancier, was introduced to the meeting by Mr. E. 0. Raikes (President of the

Mauawatu Egg Producers’ Association) .

There was no delinite information regarding the origin of the Leghorn, said Mr. Whyte, in his opening remarks, but it was now believed that the Leghorn or Italian fowl was the common fowl of Central Italy. Its characteristics have been largely fixed in Amex'ica and England for show purposes but the utility side has cfiiefiy been hxed in Australia and New Zealand as far as egg tests are concerned. Its classification was as follows: —1 i.on sitter, egg production; 2, colour of flesh and skin, yellow; eggs and feet, yellow; colour of egg shells, white. Following the introduction

of tiie Leghorn into Britain differw nut crosses were made by breeders from time to tune in an endeavour to improve the bird in size of body and egg’ while the fancier probably introduced a little of t'he White Bock to improve the size for exhibition purposes and to improve the stamina. This particular cross could be traced in the strain to-day by the colour of the eggs and the type of some of the birds one met in culling while the language of some of the females was decidedly Rock. The utility breeder, kow-

ever, crossed the Leghorn with the Minorcha to improve the size of the egg and this cross could also be traced to this day in the colour of the shanks of the birds which show up white and pinky. Confining himself to the true laying type, constitution and stamina relative to good breeding stock, Mr. Wlhyte said that he was a staunch believer that there was only one type of Leghorn and that was the utility type which characterised the early Leghorn until it was spoilt by the fancier. This bird was possessed of a strong, deep beak, the point standing clear of the comb and denoting strong constitution, a comb of fine texture, not overgrown, single, perfectly straight and erect, deeply and evenly serrated with spikes broadening at the base and extending beyond the back of the head and following 1 the line

of hackle without touching- the neck and free from thum and side sprigs. The face was free from folds or wrinkles and line of texture. The wattles were of medium length, ih in, and fine in texture and round at the bottom. The lobes were well developed, but rather pendant and evenly matched in size and shape, smooth, open and free from folds. The neck was well arched and full in hackle while the’body was wedge shaped, wide at the shoulders, which width had to be maintained in full .utility. The breast was round and prominent, the breast bone being straight, and not finishing between the legs, but continuing lo give support to the abdomen,

while the back was slightly roun-

ded and sloped to the tail. The wings were large and clipped well up while the tail „was moderately mng with sickle feathers carried in ime with the main tail feathers, it was wide and long and the whale bone in same strong- and not sappy

and carried at an angle of from 40 to 45 degrees. The leg shanks were long and' free from feathers and the feet wide spread with long and straight toes, while the bird carried itself uprightly.

■Touching on its constitution, Mr. Wlhyte said that prizes for health, vigor, and stamina were won by the must compact, best balanced and most mobile specimen, which also possessed a good width across the

shoulders, full front giving good placings for heart and lungs, and, m the case of the female, for the

overies. A broad back with a deep wide front was essential to give Hie vital organs the room they required for production and reproduction.

A good tip to poultry farmers in

picking; their birds was given by Mr. Whyte, who said that the best way to ; pick the fowls out was to drop a handful of grain while standing on an elevated position and picking out the birds with the wide backs which were not difficult to identify, while the weedy specimens and the c ulls could also be seen at a glance. Then, when the birds stood erect again the observer could easily pick out the wide ones which width, along with the stance of the bird, denojted reproduction powers and strong constitution. Constitution in the show pen could be picked in just the same manner. Old breeding hens carrying these qualifications, said Mr. Whyte, should be the most valued asset the commercial poultry man has, and also the show man for that matter, and if judges gave more, consideration to these old birds when judging a great improvement in show specimens would undoubtedly result.', Like breeding, or breeding in could play a most important part in securing constitution and stamina Mr. Whyte informed his audience, but in the hands of the novice this was a short cut to disaster. The Golden Rule was; Get and maintain constitution and vigour and get sound stock; The best way was to start off by keeping the stock on free range and as near to natural conditions as possible and also to keep small units for the special breeding stock.

Body ' size and weights were closely associated with vigor, said the speaker, and any excess naturally upset the coinpactness and mobility. ’The very large hen was undesirable as a breeder as these were usually heavy feeders, went to fat and took a long time to get through to laying condition which should also be breeding condition, which resulted in infertile eggs, chicks dead in the shell aiid chicks hard of rearing. Any super fineness on the other hand, represented weediness. A farmer should be careful to secure breeding stock from medium to large in size as in these he would find it true business nr commercial layer.

Touching on egg size, Mr. Whyte said that this was usually controlled by selection of stock in which the trap nest played an important part as well as feed and again line breeding and last but not least the incubator. His own method of eontrolling the size of the egg was in the pullet stage of the hen. All eggs were weighted for the first three months and the pullets not laying a two-ounce egg in that period were culled. Then breeding hens that laid a two and a half ounce egg only were used for breeding and these had been line bred for six or seven generations from hens that had been proved breeders of large white eggs. To drop an imported cockerel into a lloek of proved large size egg laying hens might quite easily mean a drop from a two and a half ounce egg strain flock to one and a half ounce so that too much care could not be taken in this connection. When mating up for sound utility commercial stock the farmer should have his ideal .clearly fixed in the male or female and not side step from 'the type, keeping in mind constitution vigor, size of body combined with size of the leg. View with suspicion the test record hen that jean only show you eggs at the expense of the aforementioned qualifications,, said Air. Whyte, for it will probably eventually breed you eggs minus constitution, vigor, size of body and eggs' and in return give you eggs productive only of weedy and weak chickens, resulting in buckets full of dead ones in the brooders which is commonly known as the poultry man’s nightmare. This does not mean that I reject altogether the test hen, said the speaker. Ido not <bi that,provided she has the qualifications of 'tile breeding 'hen but she should not be used immediately after the test. Put her on free range for a year and give her a chance to get hack to the free and open life in green grass and allow her tb roam in the meadow. Then when normal and full of vigor again use her to produce your stud cockerels, her stock being marked and recorded in both male and female, male for constitution, stamina and size and the female for constitution, type, size of body and egg. These, said All-. Whyte in conclu-’ si on, must ever be the outstanding features of all commercial stock. At the conclusion of his address Mr. Whyte was accorded a hearty vote of thanks on the motion of the President.