National Agricultural Library

The White Leghorns: From the Shell to the Exhibition Room

H.H. Stoddard. Hartford, CT

Never, in all our experience at poultry exhibitions, have we seen a finer display of one breed of fowls than on an occasion lately. We visited a friend of our youth. Entering the well-kept grounds, we were enchanted with the display of flowers, shrubs, beautiful trees, sparkling fountains, fine statuary, — all the creations of wealth and taste. Passing through the garden we entered an enclosure, closely shaven, a velvety lawn, having a small fountain, with here and there a shrub; on the green grass, one cock with six White Leghorn hens — the cleanest, whitest and fairest of the breed. We turned to our host and said, " How do you manage to keep the fowls so white and their yard so neatly?" "Oh," said he, "they come out here one hour a day to take their constitutional; the gardener keeps them clean, and gives them insects. By the way, are you not going to give us a book on White Leghorns?" "Certainly," was the reply. And here we dedicate to our friend of the green lawn the result of our effort.