Certain Poultry

Most of the poultry of the U. S. spent last week as usual--New Jersey hens rising by electric light to lay early eggs, Cleveland pigeons waddling around Tom L. Johnson's statue in the Public Square, Pennsylvania guinea hens craking in buckwheat stubble, Long Island ducks smiling fatuously down their plump breasts as they propelled themselves around their pools.

But certain U. S. poultry spent the week in special quarters and an almost continuous state of excitement at the 41st Consecutive Madison Square Garden Poultry Show, Inc. Plymouth Rocks, Minorcas, Wyandottes, Pouters, Muscovy ducks, Bourbon Reds--8,000 birds of fine feather, they heard the remarks of fanciers who pointed fingers at them saying, "Look at that back. . . . Ain't she got style, though!" They were fed from little bowls containing mash. No lights disturbed them in the early morning; their coops were curtained to keep out draughts.

Biggest creature in the show was a 19-month-old Meyersdale, Pa., turkey that weighed 62 pounds. Most curious was a Wyandotte hermaphrodite whose only noise was a low food call. There were Toulouse geese; a white leghorn rooster worth $5,000 (owner's valuation); an Australorp hen that laid 346 eggs last year; a flock of Japanese Silkies with down instead of feathers; a snouted, ring-eyed Buff-Laced Polish rooster, crested like an Indian chief in a medicine show.

In a corner of the show were the animals. Some one with an eye to the dramatic exhibited two of Poultry's historic enemies--a pair of fretful, sleepy black foxes. Also present, apparently discouraged at being included in a poultry show, were rabbits. Most remarkable were 58 Castor Rex rabbits from France, worth approximately $40,000.

Celebrated people as well as celebrated birds are concerned with poultry shows. Among the 800 exhibitors were Mr. & Mrs. John D. Hertz of Chicago who showed a pen of Buff Orpingtons valued at $100,000. Three Havemeyer brothers, of whom one, T. A. Havemeyer, was president of the Show, took prizes hither and yon. William Fairfield Whiting, paper manufacturer of Holyoke, Mass., who came to fame by succeeding Herbert Hoover for a while as Secretary of Commerce (September 1928 to March 1929), dropped in. Harry F. Allen, brother to Governor Frank Allen of Massachusetts, took prizes with his Silver King pigeons.

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