ILLUSTRATIONS OF PURE BRED POULTRY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 287, 4 August 1888, Page 3

ILLUSTRATIONS OF PURE BRED POULTRY.

Ow isu to fcho decision arrived at in America that in the issue of their New Stnndaid ot Excellence cutline cubs of the various breeds shall be given, a great controversy has arisen amongst poultry exhibitors and fanciers on the question of whether these outline cuts should be made according to an ideal standard, or strictly follow the form of the best actual living specimen. We are entirely with T. K. Felch who writes as follows in the Poultry Monthly :—: — " A Correct Outlims will Hurt tiik BIiEED." The above exclamation comes to us in a letter in support of pure ideal cuts. In another they say ' • the reason W'yandottos had such a boom was because the breeders got out such booming and overdrawn cuts of them." In another, "These cuts should be 25 per cent, better than anything you evei &a» in nature." I am led to exclaim what a sermon in a text, or what a text for a sermon, " As You Like It." The aigument is all on the side of correct outlines. For ot all the breeds that have suffered a leactiou from any false reputation, the Wyandottes have from that which has come to them from these .overdrawn cuts. The novice never got what he expected, for the birds did not resemble the cuts of them. Pictures true to life would have been as attractive — the birds would have resembled them, and satisfaction been the result. Ido not care how much a man may desire to see birds produced in certain form, but for him to say we shall make our outlines conform to his desire, and thereby set it up as a cutting power in the scale ot points to be used in measuring our live specimens, that are marvels of beauty, as a production of nature, thus causing them to be cut, every one ot them, for a defect in such breeder's imagination — not a defect in nature — then I for one must "kick straight out of the traces." The remark quoted is a square acknowledgment that tnese cuts in the past misled. Look them all over, the Plymouth Rocks, Brahmas, Wyandottes, etc., not one but the back from the neck runs up hill to the tail, when nature it* flat at the neck, slopes down round toward tail before taking its concave sweep of saddle to tail. Not one but the saddle from wing-tips to tail is represented much longer than it is ; this carries the tail high, so that we see even Light Brahma cuts with tails as high as backs of head when nature presents the top of tail on a level line considerably below wattles ; and not content with this sickle-like tail in breeds where nature makes a curve between a sickle and a cimeter, breasts are cut much fuller than are seen in nature, and fluff made fuller to balance ihe faUe made breasts. Every one of these assertions are proven by examining these illustration-, and comparing them with the best specimens in nature. Yet you hear these advocates of pure ideal pictures saying, " You, cannot make a profile true to iiaturt that will not be a crude thiny and injure tlu: breed." Think of it, gentlemen, you must support a lie to save your breed of fowls. 1, for one, am ready to come down to truth in illustrations. From what source comes three fourths of the criticism of judges at exhibitions? 1 have seen them stand with poultry papers opened to a fancy sketch, heard them exclaim, " There is a beautiful cut ; if bird* lucre perfect, they would look like that.'* Then away they go for the class of birds ! these cuts are claimed to represent, for underneath the cut they say, " Made from photograph oj first prize birds at, etc. ' (And then Mr Feich goe» on to desedbe how some men employed as judges score exhibits by these fancy pictures, and proceeds : — Specimens scored by these false illustrations make this difference between judges. The one works from anatomy and Nature's handiwork, and the other takes false ideal pictures as a guide. Do we wonder that breeders many times come home horn the exhibition sick and heartbroken, and ready to give up in despair ? Then on the other hand, is it any wonder that these breeders, quick to see that fancy pictures reach the trade quicker than merit in specimens in their yards, resort to the same. They get a cut made ; they invariably say to the artist, "Make me a cut like Mr So and So, only alter in this respect," giving some indications how to change, having no thought or care as to its being a representation of the birds in his yards, to which he has not taken the pains to compare it. Beautiful cuts, true to- life, would attract as well ; then the birds sold would have a resemblance that would save so much ot acrimony expressed in letters you have been obliged to read. This question was never before us as it is now. This outline movement brings this question square home. Are we to belie the birds with false outlines and illustrations, or are we to have these outlines true to life. This is the question of the most vital importance regarding our New Standard. The breeders have a right to protect their interests and their breeds ; have a right to demand that these committees shall adhere to the motion, and that they accept none unless they "be typical of the breeds" they represent. These committees can carry their ideal work no further than to make the arch of neck the best they have ever seen in nature. The profile of breast can be no fuller and carried no further forward than the best nature has presented, up to this time. The back must slope downward before taking its saddle in a concave sweep to the tail, for nature has never given you a single specimen otherwise : the breeder has a right to demand that these outlines in tail do not present them as being as high as the skull for nature has never done this.

Political Stump Speaker (coming home in a great rage)— My dear, look at me ! I have j been egged again. Wife (weeping)— Oh, John, I—lI — I wouldn't care so much, To — but, you know yellow isn't a fashionable colour this year. Miss Saratoga -"Is 0. Shaw any relative of yours ?" Miss Wauka Shaw — *' Oh, yes ; he's a distant relative." " How distant?" " He's my brot.ier, but he is the youngest of nine children, and I'm the eldest." The oldest cricketers now playing in firstclass matches are E. M. Grace— brother ot the famous W. G.— and Tom Emmett, the veteran Yorkshire professional. Both are 1 1 n their 47th year.