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AAS ks ENS SOS Ss NN NY ASRS “ SRN NARS Sy Sih ek hy OS SAAN SAAN AN ANA ‘, A WA SS, \ NEN Ais \ LAURA RENN Os SN SNS ae Pea Seat a Ss SA as NN Sees A) SARNY . SY RN \ RAEN WAN SOA SS ws “ AN \\ . \) AS \‘ RAAVVgy SANK ON WAS SSRs WAR MAAK \ SNS Y SOON yy, oy, SAN SON SA AN SSN Sy SY i Ore Se Was \ ‘ WAS oN ‘ AN Os RQ WS NOES ARS, WA SAS - SAN AN SS) SAN RAY \) SS SRN \ NAN SSN NA SAN SAN Sa . AN iN SAN SA SANS \" Sh \* ANN Sas SRR SN BRA Re es Wk _ MENS 7 Pe SAAN ‘ a SL. DT LY LQ SU LCR Y Uy ] i & ry : Y 2 Z Y 4) MY, ames IE Rice MEMORIAL POULTRY LIBRARY CORNELL PRR ee oe UNIVERSITY re FSS RT AROMA NOE friends and admirers Pa Fae nor ff es. set Sie te. f DATE DUE a Smee Re ot ge oe ne CV i Ss ig B = BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS Ct) rior. A FULL AND COMPLETE TREATISE ON RAISING GAME FOWL. _FULL INSTRUCTIONS IN EVERY DETAIL THAT PER- TAIN TO FOWLS. HOW TO PREVENT DISEASE, AND CURES FOR ALL AILMENTS THAT THE FOWL IS HEIR TO, By HENRY FLOCK, KANSAS CITY, MO. KANSAS CITY, MO.: INTER-STATE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 1889. ey, £ Sas & \ ; m A / ‘hes é Mot AA = an 4 " COPYRIGHTED, 1889, BY HENRY FLOCK, KANSAS CITY, MO. E 485 INDEX. PITOCUCUOTY. <3-.2 6 esp onc etwas Saas # OA eae 5 History of the Game Cock ,..::-0.02 56s es q _ Treatment of Fowls in General...............ceceeeees 8 PRA A VOC RIE oi. ate onc es cen Deere ate eee og 12 Setting a Hen and Raising Chicks.................... 15 POOG COCKE io hence ets (ease ie Oren 20 Conditioning and Feeding for the Pit............... 38 My Method of Conditioning... 06.06 esse easiete 48 - Corn Should Never Be Scalded........ iio 58 PEA I os i sic i ped aunt een kc vans 6 kc ee se eae 60 PROT ei ae nae sp oe ccs Be i 68 Onis B AMC COCK. icc seci ia se ccsssnescesscctes cares ee ‘Treatment for Battered Cocks. ...........cccceseoeseees 81 Lousy Cocks off Their Walk ................ cae okies 84 “ermining 2 Cock’ S Feathers. i... i ci. vc. vanessa 84 PIOUS FOWL OD TGCl, ssc on dense cove cc ounobe teres tes 87 Weighing and Taking Description Before the pie Es Sepaeareee REESE A BE ae ee SCONES cage Ee en SS Traveling With Cocks After Conditioning......... 92 Pedal F OW le ics ss hse cps on sdrvcness a ckcdurp inks teens 94 DEORE CORRS 524s es nc Kee oe Re: SON EE. ODM ve oo 2-5 bs wt aye dow enes snd48 Cape inbeaneeass 98 PEE ONES, 55 a; cov oni ys tas Flav eas Secu ae es cance ens 101 POS CY TIUOO sos s yess ceceerines ere er 101 How to Build a Pit ............ eae Fas» ek anae Marv gee hee 102 Dos vay kis gw a8 oad. bade vs a> satis oe 103 Wee vor the. Pils ss sans By cy Sie hee 114 TEL COA cin 5 ccs oss pans Ka bus oe pees eas aaa Pre, Sy! Mowiinak Paws ee en i ee ree a Phinpiiwia Game POwi6<.2) 6 kiki ks es Ssft9 4 : INDEX. High Bred | ge 6 aaRIRED aoe Up crate oer gD R ry fighting qualities, and after one season’s raising, take him off the yard and put back your old one. In the new cock’s pullets you. have infused new blood, and it will do the cross good and be stronger than ever by re- crossing the old cock on the pullets from the new cock, and besides, you have improved their fighting qualities. Now next year you need a new cross. You pick a fine shaped stag out of the old cock and the new pullets, and put him on the original old hens. You want to cross and re-cross and infuse new blood. Infus- ing new blood brings new life, makes strength, improves the fowl in every way, but it must be the proper kind of cross, and not a cross that will injure your fowl. Always aim to keep up the constitution of the fowls, and never cross a sick cock with your fowl, no matter who raised him. Never breed a roupy cock; you will find - 3 his chicks will not thrive. Some will develop, but not strong, but the majority of them will not do well. In-breeding is bad. BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE... 29 It diminishes the fowl year after year, and they lose their vitality, can not stand much, hard to raise, and after they are raised they are no good. A breeder cannot start right in and in the first year have any amount of first-class cocks. It is better that he meet with a few disappointments in the start, and it will make him wiser, and profit by it. A breeder if he once has a good strain should be very careful not to get them ruined, as it is very hard to get good ones, and when you have them, it is pretty hard to keep them straight, for you have to keep infusing new blood, and if you are not posted and a good judge you are | liable to ruin them in a very short while in crossing. In crossing always put on a separate yard, so if you do make a mistake you know just where it is, for no matter who the cocker is, he is liable to make a mis- take, and a serious one at that. If Il started in to breed cocks, I would not breed from anything I did not see fight, and I would have to be satisfied from my own personal .knowledge that he was a game cock. Now, how would I get such a cock? I would go to the cock fights, and if I saw a cock thoroughly tested in the pit, and: if he suited me, I would buy him if I could, and I would use my own judgment and not 30 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. other people’s; and if I did not get a cock to suit me the first winter, I would wait until the next. No use raising cocks that everybody can whip. Better do without them. Now, some cockers say that after getting a cock that has fought he will not be able to do service: to the hens, and that he might not be a game after all. Both are to some extent true. Then how are you going to find out whether your cock is game — after you have seen the cock fight a long drag fight, and. becomes exhausted ? You can tell by a cock’s action at that stage whether he is a game cock or not. A good game cock is persevering at all times. Even if he is so exhausted that he can do no execution, he is willing at all times to go to the front, while the dung-hill will stand still. Exhaustion to a cock is as much punishment to a cock as cutting, and some- times when a cock becomes distressed he will leave the pit, and all the cutting you could inflict upon him would not make him go. The next morning also is the time to tell whether you have a game cock. If he is a dunghill, he will hang back in his coop and won’t look at food nor make any effort to crow, but a thoroughbred game cock will come to the front, and his very action will show that he is right. He will make an BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. 31 effort to eat, although he won’t be able to swallow. Put him on the floor and hold a cock to him. He will come to the front at once and try to fight. A dunghill, when you put him down the next morning, in putting him on the floor and holding a cock to him, he will back away. Make a bluff. He won’t come to the front like a true game cock. Besides, there are other ways too numerous to mention how you can tell whether he is game. The best way is to let him cool off after his fight, and in the morning you can tell by his actions. If the cock should suit, then you want to get him so he can have intercourse with the hens. You keep the cock cooped up, and feed him soft food until the soreness has left him, _ and on a nice warm day put him out and let him exercise himself for a couple of hours. The great trouble is, as soon as some of the feeders buy one of the cut-down cocks, they take him home, and the next morning they throw him out in the cold, paying no more attention to him. He is cut out of feather, and is used to being housed up. Being cut and sore, and after going through the pro- cess of conditioning, he is thin in flesh, and being put out in the sudden cold in that condition, immediately catches cold. His joints stiffen and his wounds won’t heal, 39 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. and he is probably fed on nothing but corn. He becomes a wreck, and if he don’t die he will be so stiff that it will be along time before he gets well, and probably he never will get well. A cock cut out of feather, after being reduced by going through the process of conditioning, and after being cooped up, although he never fought, will stiffen up so he won’t be able to have inter- course with the hens if he is thrown out suddenly in the cold. By letting the wounded bird out in the sun every day a little while and feeding him soft food, he will soon come to himself, and I would sooner take chances on a cock that I saw tried, and raise one, and be right, than to take some man’s word and raise fifty, and be wrong. If I did not raise but three or four the first year it would be a start on the right road. The right road is what you are all looking for, but you don’t pursue the proper course to find it. If you see a cock die game and you know the cocker to be a reputable man that raised him, you could buy a brother to him, ‘and breed from him. He might turn out to be just what you want. If he turned out bad, what redress would you have? None; only this: You could take the cock back and have to accept any excuse he may offer. BREEDERS’ AND Cockers’ GuipE. — 33 The cocker that sold him to you might have meant well, and was honest with you, but he made a mistake, and his mistake was your loss. He is sorry for it and will give you another one. You accept his explanation, take home the cock and put him with your hens and breed from him, and in two years you are’ worse off than you were before. You have a whole lot of cocks and hens, but they are a whole lot of dunghills; and then you will see your mistake, after fooling away two or three years, raising, or trying to raise, game cocks from a dunghill on another man’s say. There are exceptions, though. A real practical cocker and breeder who fights his cocks for his money generally has the best cocks, for he understands his busi- ness and he can’t afford to meddle with any- thing else but first-class fowls. Experience teaches him this and he generally pays for his learning. He knows the fighting quali- ties of his cocks; he comes in contact with different cockers as experienced as himself. He sees something in his opponent's cock that is lacking in his fowl. The experi- enced eye sees this very quickly and he im- proves his fowl accordingly. Therefore if you buy fowls it is safest to buy from the ‘breeder that fights his cocks, for he has the 3 34 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. real fighting cocks. Don’t buy fowls be- cause they are cheap, unless you know they are straight. It is much safer to buy a hen from a cocker and pay him five dollars for it than to buy five hens for five dollars from some inexperienced party, also with a cock. If you see a cocker have a cock that suits you and you know he is what you want, don’t let a few dollars stand in your way, for you must remember he is worth as much to the cocker as he is to you, and besides he has had to pay dearly for his experience with money and labor and the chances are, if you don’t buy him, you won’t find another to suit you as well. If you have a good brood cock, then take good care of him, for if you part with what you know is good you have to receive some- thing that you perhaps know nothing about, and in putting a new cock on your yard, - be positive you are right before you put him down. Should there be any doubt in your mind, don’t put him down, for you may have worked a long while to get a fine lot of chickens, and should you put down a cock that was not right you would make a sorry mess of it. Breeders should always have three or four brood cocks, on good walks, where they can go at any time and pick one up. If a breeder sees a fine cock that would _ BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. 35 make a fine cross, he should buy him, even if he had no hens to put him with for the time being. He could put him out and have him in reserve, for no telling how soon he would have use for him. A great many breeders, needing a cross, go to a cock fight and seeing a cock that suits them, they want him badly, and ask the cocker: How much do you want for him? The cocker will probably ask $10, $15 or $20 for him. They will come to the conclusion that it is too much, and they think they can get along another year without a cross, and go home and breed-in once more, probably hav- ing already been bred-in once or twice. There is where they make the mistake. He will do more damage in that one year to his fowls | than he can undo in five. Why? Because his fowls have already been crossed-in once or twice, the blood has already been weakened, - and it won’t stand any more adulterating. Every time you breed-in you weaken the fowl in strength, diminish it in size and reduce his courage; every time you cross you strengthen the fowl, it increases in size, you bring new life, it infuses new blood. If a breeder knows what he wants and has the opportunity to get it, he should not let the chance slip by, for he probably won't get another chance when he most 36° BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. needs it. That breeder had better have paid the cocker $15 or $20 for that cock. If he had bought him and bred from him, in two years he would have had a different stock of chickens, his cocks might have been the talk everywhere and he not able to raise enough to supply the demand; but the cocks he raised from his in-breeding nobody would have, and it would only be a short time before he would be forgotten entirely in the chicken world, and it would take him a long time to regain his reputation as a breeder of fighting. cocks. A good brood cock is worth all the way from $5 to $25, and those who want to buy fowl must bear this in mind. If they want to buy cocks from a practical cocker, or a breeder that fights his cocks, they must expect to pay a first-class price, and a fine cock is worth more to them than he is to you, for they have to have fighting cocks to win with; besides it takes lots of time, study, labor and money to produce such cocks, and if you haven’t got the money to pay them their price, then stay out of the business until you get the money. ‘It won’t pay you to fool with anything but the very best and if you want the very best you must go to those that have them and know how to produce them. If you can’t buy two hens, buy one; you will soon have BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. 37 enough from one, and you will find by start- ing this way it will pay you much better than to buy from some one not experienced. A game cock and a game fighting cock are two different fowls, and if you want a game — fighting cock you must go to the man that has them. In buying a cock that has been fought for breeding purposes, buy one that has had no bones broken; if only flesh wounds, he will get well, if not allowed to catch cold, in a short time. It is always best: when you want a cock of this character to buy hima year before you want to use him, and let him run with a few hens, and when you want to use him, pick him up and put him with your hens. If he had no bones broken, no matter how hard a battle he fought, and not thrown out in the cold before he was well, he will be in condition to have intercourse with a reasonable number of hens. Should he prove a failure and not get well, you can see it a long time before you want to use him and can replace him in time. Breeders should always have brood cocks on _walks where they can go at any time and pick up one and use, as then they would rarely be disappointed. Unless you do follow this rule you are liable to meet with disappoint- ments. peg: | Pedigree in a fighting cock don’t amount as. 38 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. to anything. It may look well on paper to some, but that is all it amounts to. Color or plumage cut no figure in their fighting qualities, as different colored plumage is pro- duced by crossing, at the fancy of the breeder. A white cock will bring as much as a black or a red, if he has the fighting qualities. Be sure your brood fowls are not faulty, for little faults in the old birds de- velop great faults in their progeny. CONDITIONING AND FEEDING FOR THe P27, Conditioning cocks for the pit requires experience, and no man that has not had experience can take a lot of cocks and condi- tion them properly. It also takes lots of time and labor, Every cocker has a differ- ent way of feeding and conditioning, and they keep their method a secret if they can. In fighting cocks you have to have your cocks in condition to stand cutting. Their flesh must be hard, must have good lung power, and all this can only be gained by going through the process of conditioning. Some breeders say that their cocks fight bet- ter right off the walk, and don’t need condi- tioning. That is tosome extent true, Take | BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. 39 a cock right off his walk and fight him. He will fight faster and harder right then than he will any other time, but he won’t last long. In two or three buckles, he is so used up he can hardly stand. He will not recover his wind or strength for the time being. Besides, he can’t stand cutting, and if he cannot win in the first or second buckle, he is pretty sure to get whipped. If you take a cock right off his walk and fight him, and he is badly cut, it affects him three times as much as a cock that has gone through the process of conditioning. The cock just his off walk is liable to die from the cutting, and the conditioned cock will get well in a few days. A cock in good con- dition, good lung power, (a good game cock, ) can stand a wonderful lot of cutting. He will, at times, to all appearances, be dead, and when the experienced handler picks him up and nurses him properly, he will bring him back. to life in a few moments, and probably win the fight. That shows conditioning, strength, constitution, vitality. That is all brought out of a cock through the pro- cess of conditioning. Take a cock in condi- tion and fight him, and, when he is almost exhausted, you handle him and nurse him a little, you will see how quickly he will re- cover and regain his wind and his fighting 40 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. ~ _ qualities, when the unconditioned cock in that exhausted state would not recover. There fore,it is proper to have cocks in condition if you want to fight them. Now the question is: What process do we have to go through to get cocks in proper condition? In condi- tioning cocks a man can put them in proper order in different ways. There are no spec- ified rules that he must follow. He can feed on any kind of grain. He can use corn, oats, barley, hominy, oat meal, whole barley or pearl barley, meat, boiled eggs. He can take his choice and follow his own ideas, and never ask any one. If a cock gets tired of one kind of food, feed him some- thing else; but if you watch your cocks they won't get tired of their food. Here are nine different kinds of food to pick from, and when I condition I most always have all these kinds of food on hand, besides apples and cabbage, onions, corn meal. Change their feed according to their condition. Never starve a cock; if he won’t eat one thing he will eat another, and work on that princi- ple. A great many cockers are under the impression that working ths cocks, alone, makes them hard. That is a mistake. You can harden a bird by feeding and cooping. And some cockers are under the impres- sion that if the flesh on the bird is hard, BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. 41 that is all that is necessary to fit him for the pit. That is another mistake. A bird hardened by being cooped and fed without any exercise, when fought, has no recuperating powers, no matter how game he is. After two or three severe buckles, and after being cut, he gets soft, and when he gets soft his strength leaves him, he becomes exhausted and in that condition he is easily whipped. Take the same bird and put him through the process of conditioning and when in proper fix fight him. After two or three buckles, when exhausted, you handle him, he recovers quickly and when you put him down he is almost as - fresh as ever. That shows conditioning and reserve power. If he is a good game cock, he will seem to swell in your hands. As long as your bird feels like that, you can rest assured he has plenty of fight left in him; but every game .cock you condition doesn’t act like that by any means. Some cocks after being conditioned and in fine fix when you fight them, after they have had two or three pretty severe buckles and get a pretty good cutting. When you put them down they stand still, waiting for the opposite cock to come over, and then he-don’t fight with the same vim and speed and strength he did before, although he is in fine shape 4? BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. — to fight. Then is the time the dunghill be gins to show itself. He will make a feeble attempt to fight, but his heart is not in it and he will finally sit down and act as if he was cut to pieces, not hit a lick and then be counted out. Such cocks are sulkers (dung- hills) and all the conditioning you can give them won’t make them fight. He has the recuperating power but he won’t use it, be- cause he is a dunghill. In conditioning cocks there is such a thing as going too far. You want to know when your birds are in condition and when to stop working them. A great many cockers overdo the thing and often have themselves to blame for getting their cocks whipped. They think if they are not in their cock-house from morning until night, flipping or tossing their birds, they won't get in condition. If you give them too much, it is worse than not enough. I have seen cockers bring cocks into the pit- with the gloss of the feathers all gone, wing and tail feathers in bad shape, no life in the bird, although he had been a fine, active cock when the cocker first got hold of him. When he put him in the pit he could not fight, acting as if he was afraid to strike; could not fly six inches from the ground and when he got cut he went all to pieces, could not recover. He had no recuperating power, BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE; 43 and if he had he could not use it. Why? Because the cocker had worked the bird un- til he was sore—worked all the life out of him. He did not know why the cock acted so, and finally came to the conclu- sion that the bird had been drugged, when in fact he had him half whipped before he brought him to the pit. There are two ways to exercise or work cocks. Great care should be taken not to work too much. Flipping or tossing birds is not the best way to work them, they get stiff and sore, lose their speed, get their feathers pulled out, get tired, lose their vim and get indifferent. Cockers, as a rule, when conditioning, toss their fowls up from ten to two hundred times a day for two or three weeks. Let an inexperienced handler toss his birds up for ten days, two hundred times a day, every time he comes down, he lights on his feet, he comes in contact with a sack of straw, either on a table or the head ofa barrel, with no spring what ever to it. It stoves him up more or less, and if the handler is not a good hand the chances are, when he comes down, he will fall through his hands and land on his breast bone; and about six times out of ten the cock will get _ away, and in trying to check him the handler will have him by the wing or tail feathers. 44 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. At the end of that time they will be a pretty sore lot of fowls. : In working fowls, to my notion, I find it is not good policy to toss or flip them. I believe in making a fowl exert himself, make him bring every muscle into play, and any exercise (natural) you can make a cock perform is better than tossing. You make a horse run or trot to fit him for a race; then, why nota fowl? You train them both for speed, strength and lung power. Do you assist a horse? He performs the work himself. Then, why should you assist a fowl ? Get a lot of straw in your working room, make two or three pretty large hills of straw — and take the bird you are going to work and throw him on the straw. Then take a cock that is not of much use and hold him in your hand and let the cock strike at him until he seems to get tired. It is not neces- sary to let the fowl on the ground hit the one you have in your hand, and you want toavoid it. After you think he has enough of that, make him run over these hills of straw after the bird you have in your hand. After you have warmed him up he will work very hard and completely tire himself out. Don’t work him too much at one time. You can stand perfectly still. Stand by the mid- ? BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. 45 dle pile of straw and change the bird from one hand to the other and have the cock run- ning back and forth accordingly’ After you have given him enough of that, walk him around on the straw for about five minutes. It is best to have two rooms, and while you are working with one, your assist- ant can walk the other. Keep him on the move for five minutes at a pretty good gait and then at the close let him take his time, so you will not distress or overheat him. About four days before the fight put the muffs on. Do not keep them on too long. After that do not work them any more, but throw them out every morning in the straw and let them scratch a little while and walk them around for about five minutes. Do not let them hit at a cock after you have muffed them. In working cocks they lose their speed and at times get indifferent and will not hit at the cock you hold at him. Such cocks you must give more walking exercise. By not working the cocks any for three days before the fight, they recover their speed, and by letting them scratch and flap their wings they receive a moderate exercise. In working cocks you want to start grad- ually and work more every day, until they are fit, and then decrease the work gradually; about twelve days is all you want. From 46 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. the fourth to the eighth days, work pretty hard, then work less every day. If you have your cocks well off the floor, leave a hen and an old battered cock in the cock- house until about three days before the fight. It keeps the cocks working and it works the food through them. You want to keep your cocks in the light; you want ventilation but no draft; if extremely cold put just enough fire in the stove to take the chill off, but don’t warm the room unless it is very cold. This same work will do for short and long heel fighting. In long heel fighting cocks don’t have to be reduced so much as cocks for short heel fighting; they can carry a fair share of flesh, if it is hard- ened. For short heel fighting work the same, but alittle longer. A fighting cock don’t want to be starved into condition; he must be worked and fed so that he won't lose any of his speed and strength, and if you work your fowl according to the above instructions, you will find a great improve- ment, besides no broken feathers and no sore fowls from handling, or loss of speed. They retain their vim, and besides a great deal of unnecessary work is saved. In feeding almost every cocker feeds different. If you use corn get sound old corn, have it cracked, not fine; if you use hominy get old hominy; BREEDERS’ AND CocKERS’ GUIDE. 47 in using barley there are different ways of feeding it; raw barley is hard to digest; some feed it raw, some scald it and feed it wet, some scald and then sun-dry it, some roast it (not too much), and some use the pearl barley; some use scalded oats, some scalded oats and hard-boiled eggs; some parch hominy and feed it. A man con- ditioning can soon see how the feed is act- ing, and can feed what he thinks best; he can condition on any of the food I have mentioned, but that is not all; he must feed his fowls so that they won’t take sick and refuse to eat. That is the most particular part: not ruining the cock’s appetite; and when a fowl gets into such shape stop feed ing him grain and give him a raw egg, shell and all, and when he is regaining his appetite don’t force the grain on him, but give him fine chopped meat, or fine chopped apple, or hard-boiled egg, chopped fine, until he is himself again. 48 | BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. ~ MY METHOD OF CONDITIONING. In conditioning a lot of twenty-one cocks I have my coops eighteen by twenty inches, or twenty by twenty inches, up off the floor about three feet and fill the coops with fresh straw. When the cocks arrive I get them in the coops and give them a few swallows of water and then take. them out one at a time, cut off the spurs, and trim the feathers off the stern, and then grease them about the’stern and under the — wings with sweet oil and oil of sassafras. If they came a great distance I don’t bother them any the first day. My first feed to them is bread and milk. I take a loaf of wheat bread and soak it in water, and after it is well soaked I squeeze the water from it and throw it into a pan and add milk enough to it to make a kind of batter; that is their first food and acts as a physic as well as food. If they are not too tired I take them out and bathe their heads and feet with hot water, then rub with whisky _ or alcohol, after being rubbed dry. In the morning, the first thing, I take them out and examine their droppings, and if any show signs of fever I take him away BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. 49 frovi the rest and treat him for it with qui- nine. Always in the morning feel the bird’s legs and head tosee if he has fever. Having examined the lot and having put in clean straw, I begin on number one and see how he can hit, and see whether he is sound on his feet. If he is O. K., I then put: him through a pretty good exercise, as I have described above. After getting through with him I put him in the coop to cool off, and begin on the next, and go through the same process, until after I have worked about five or six. I then feed those that I have worked and are sufficiently cooled off, and then continue to work that way until I have worked them all. My feed in the morn. ing is scalded oats and scalded barley. t don’t drain it too dry, and put in about eight or ten hard-boiled eggs. I mix this wellina bucket and feed. I don’t give any water in the morning, the oats and barley being moist enough. In the afternoon, the first day, I give four or five swallows of fine chopped beef, and at night I feed by artificial light. I give old corn (cracked) or old hominy, wetted. In the afternoon Igive a few swal- lows of water. The next morning I follow the same process. I increase the work, and in the afternoon I give apples chopped fine in place of meat, one day meat the 4 — 50 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERNS’ GUIDE. next day apples or onions, and. if any cock shows any sign of unnatural thirst I give him three or four swallows of orange juice. I scald the oats and barley twenty-four hours before using. I follow the same process until the day before the fight. JI then discard the meat and apple, and also oats and barley, and feed nothing but old corn. In feeding corn alone it makes too much heat, and your cocks are more lia- ble to the swell-head. In feeding oats and barley they will not get the swell-head. The meat and apple regulate the bowels, and if fed this way the cocks will hit as hard when they are dying as when they first entered the pit. Don’t feed too much in the morning; you are liable to stall them. . The reason for feeding corn, a day before the fight, is this: If you feed the scalded oats and barley and meat up to the time of the fight, the droppings of the fowl would be soft, and in the pit, after being severely cut, the droppings will be watery, although it would not impair his strength ; by feeding him corn alone his droppings will become hard. It is better to have a few grains in the craw when fought than have cocks too long without food. A sup of water just before the fight is good. Always have a scale in your stable and weigh your cocks, BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. 51 and then you can see every day what they are doing. If you have no apple take raw cabbage or onions and cut it up fine and feed it to the fowl. They must have something | green when cooped. Use carbolic acid to disinfect. Wash their heads and feet with warm water and wipe dry, and then use al- cohol or whisky. Rub well on the day of the fight.and cover up your coops on the last day. Feed about ten hours before the fight. The food I have described here is just what every cocker uses and many cockers flip their cocks *for the reason that they do not know any other way, and in feed- ing, aman must use some little judgment. If he thinks he likes raw barley the best, then let him use it or any other food I have described, and then take note how it acts. No cocker, after he reads the above article, need _ look for advice elsewhere, because no one can tell him any more. Raw barley and hominy or old cracked corn make a good feed. Raw barley is hard to digest. You can feed raw barley in the morning, baked barley and — corn at night and meat in the afternoon, or scalded barley sun-dried and corn or hominy mixed. I don’t believe in parched corn, no substance being left init. Feed anything that doesn’t make much heat, that is strengthening and don’t produce fat. Work 52 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. the cocks, always, before feeding. In flip-. ping or tossing cocks, get a sack and fill it with soft straw and put it ona spring board and take the bird and toss him up and let him fall on the sack. After two or three falls, he will land on his feet. Start in the first day by tossing twenty-five times, the next day fifty, next seventy-five and then one hundred. Keep at one hundred for five or six days, then decrease. A cocker must judge how much work a cock ought to have. Never keep your cocks in the dark through the day. ‘ They want sunlight. Some cock- ers keep their cocks in the dark during the day. That is a bad practice and no good results can come from it. Cocks are sure to get sick and if they are conditioned that way they will be easily whipped. All fowls want sunlight. A cocker goes into his sta- ble in the morning and after feeding and working his fowl he closes up his stable and leaves his fowl in darkness when they should have sunlight. If he intends to fight at night he does not go near his fowl until night, and feeds by artificial light. After feeding he turns down the lght and the cocks are left in the dark until he arrives in the morning to feed. They sit still, the food does not pass through them and when he comes to feed he finds his fowls BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’. GUIDE. . 53 don’t digest their food well and he comes to think there is something the matter with the feed. He knows no better and keeps on feeding and keeping his cocks in the dark. By and by the cocks lose their appetite and refuse to eat and begin to get sick, and if he pulls through with them they won't amount to much. In conditioning a cock you want to put all the feed into him ‘that he will eat and all the work he can stand at _ certain times of the period of conditioning. While conditioning you must not go to ex- tremes in feeding or working. In the middle | part of your conditioning time you can work the cocks all you want to, but when it gets down to the last days you have to quit: if your fowl can’t digest his food, then you can’t work him. Unless you can work him he won’t be able to fight, and unless he eats he won’t have strength and is of no use. In conditioning a cock for a fight, the object is to get strength and lung power. - The only way to do that is to get him to eat. The more feed you can get into a cock the more strength it will make, providing it is fed to him ina proper way. In condi- tioning fowls, according to my method, af- ter I feed in the morning and ready to close the stable, I let out a hen and an old _ bat- tered cock to scratch in the straw. The 54 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. cocks full of feed will not sit down all day; they will be constantly working all day, try- ing to get at the hen. That is just what I put the hen in there for. When I go to feed in the evening I find the food has passed through them, nothing in their crops, and ready for a good dose of corn, or anything else I choose to feed them. Now, the man that has his cocks in the dark goes to feed at night, and he finds the same food in the crops that they ate in the morning, and he either feeds very little or not at all. His fowls have been sitting still all day, and they have had no exercise and their food © would not pass through them. Every feed adds strength if properly fed, and if the cocks can not pass the food, then they can’t eat it. Cocks must have sunlight and ven- tilation, by all means, and unless you give them both, I would advise you not to coop up your fowls. A great many.cockers use no judgment, and hearing of some cockers doing so and so, they think they must do likewise, never stopping to think of using a little com- mon sense, or that he knows as much about chickens as the other man, and prob- ably more, but because the other does so he must do likewise. The hen is a necessity in a cock house where you have a lot of cocks confined, and should be left there until about BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. 55 two or three days before the fight, and then taken out. After you have worked your cocks, no matter how you work them, or how hard you work them, you must quit about three days before the fight. In those three days they want rest. All you want to do with them is to throw them down and let them scratch in the straw for about ten minutes each day, and on the day you fight you want to cover your coops with old sacks, but not before. Never work cocks up to the day of the fight. About ten or twelve days are sufficient to work cocks, and if you work them longer they will get worse in place of better. In working cocks they lose their speed, and after you have them in shape you want to quit working them, and then they | will recover their speed. A great: many cockers work their cocks up to the last day; that is bad. That does not give them a chance to recover their speed. Always have small gravel or pounded oyster shells and egg shells lying on the floor of the cock house, so in scratching they will always find something to make them work inthe straw. It is not alone beneficial but it is necessary for the cocks to have it. The following food can be used for condi- tioning, and is the only food that should be used : 56 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. OATS AND BARLEY AND HARD-BOILED EGGS. Put the oats and barley in a bucket, and pour over it scalding water until all. is sub- merged; then cover with a cloth, so as to keep it from getting cold too soon. Let it stand for a day and night, and when you go to use it you will find that the oats and barley have absorbed most all the water. When you want to feed, take as much oats and barley out of the bucket as you want to use, and peel your eggs and mix with your feed what you want to use. Give no water when you feed this in the morning. Give as much as they will eat, and then take it away. In the afternoon give three swal- lows of water and five or six swallows of fine chopped meat, and at. night give hard cracked corn. OATS. AND BARLEY. . ~ Oats and barley, scalded, without eggs, may be fed in the morning, water and meat in the afternoon, and hard corn. or hominy at night. PURE BARLEY, SCALDED. Scalded barley for morning, water and meat for afternoon, and corn at night. SCALDED OATS AND HARD-BOILED EGGS, Scalded oats and hard-boiled eggs in the BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. awe / morning, water and meat in the afternoon, and corn or hominy at night. SCALDED BARLEY AND OAT MEAL. _ Sealded barley and oat meal in the morn- ing, meat and water in the afternoon, and corn or hominy at night. BARLEY AND EGGS. Sealded barley and hard-boiled eggs in the morning, water and meat or apple in the -afternoon, and corn at night. BARLEY AND HOMINY OR CORN. Scalded barley, mixed with corn or hominy, in the morning, water in the afternoon, and corn at night. RAW BARLEY, MIXED WITH HOMINY OR CORN. Raw barley and hominy in the morning and at night, and meat in the afternoon. If fed this way, wet the feed morning and night. BAKED OR ROASTED BARLEY—NOT TOO WELL _ROASTED. Roasted or baked barley in the morning, meat in the afternoon, and corn or hominy at night. Give water in the morning, and wet the corn at night. 3 ROASTED BARLEY AND CORN OR HOMINY. Roasted or baked barley, mixed with corn or hominy, morning and night, and meat in the afternoon, 58 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. RAW BARLEY. Raw barley and water in the morning, meat in the afternoon and corn at night. CORN OR HOMINY. Corn or hominy, wet, in the morning and at night, and meat in the afternoon, Never feed unscalded oats. | In feeding apples and meat or onions, change about every other day, or every day is better. | Should any of the cocks show any signs of unnatural thirst give him three or four swallows of orange juice. All the ways of feeding and the food I have here described is natural food and a common-sense way of feeding, and any amateur that will follow any of the methods I have here described need not be afraid of not having his fowl in proper fix, if he does not work them too much. CORN SHOULD NEVER BE SCALDED. Never, while you are conditioning cocks, feed bread or dough. The only time to feed bread is the first food you give them after you have cooped them for the fight, and that should be bread and milk to clean them out. Never under any cir- BREEDERS* AND CocKERS’ GUIDE. 59 - cumstances give a healthy cock drugs. No good result can come of that. Any amount of cockers drug their cocks when they first get them off the walk, no matter whether they are sick or well. That is nonsense. What do you want. to physic a sound, healthy cock for? And a great majority of the cockers that give their cocks drugs to physic, don’t know whether it will kill them or physic them. If you are going to physic a cock let him be a sick one, not a healthy one. I have received cocks from cockers _ supposed to know all about cocks, and they would be so weak from physic that they were more dead than alive; and the cocks would pick up eight to ten ounces. You can not condition cocks by physicking them to death. A sound healthy cock just off the walk wants nothing but a good feed of bread and milk, and that will-physic him all he needs. I would not advise corn alone, as it makes too much heat, and if he should take the swell-head he will take it very hard. 60 BREEDERS’ AND CocKERS’ GUIDE. HANDLING. — Handling can only be learned by experi- ence. A handler must have a mind of his own, must be cool, keep his temper, use judgment, must be quick in action as well asmind. One thing above all, learn to pay no attention to what outsiders say, for if a pitter goes into the pit to handle a fowl and stops to listen and argue with every ‘spectator that chooses to interfere with him, he won’t have much time to attend his fowl; he gives all his attention to outsiders. — Never pay the slightest attention to them. Act just as if no one was in the building ‘but you and your opponent. In the pit you must use your own judgment. When- ever you are in the pit you are the boss of the fowl, and you are not obliged to listen ' to any advice. All bets go according to the battle money. If the stake is only one ‘dollar and aman on the outside bets one thousand, that cuts no figure with the pitter. You are there in the pit to fight according to the rules of the pit, and are fighting for that dollar. You are not fighting for that man’s thousand dollars, and are not obliged to listen to him if he is inclined to argue | that you are not handling according to his BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. 6] ideas. Sometimes a very large crowd assembles at a cock fight, and when a fight is going on any number of outsiders will yell at every move the pitter makes, and if he is any ways timid he will lose his wits. It is not an easy matter by any means to get into a pit and handle a cock in a fight where there is a large crowd present and lots of money bet. There will be all kinds of slurs thrown at the pitter, and if he tried to please them all he would make a sorry mess of it. Therefore a pitter should never, in the slightest manner, let what the outsiders say interfere with his judgment. Before entering the pit he should know the rules. That is necessary. If he does not know them he should call for them. — If they have no rules he should acquaint him- self with the custom of fighting cocks at that particular place. At most every fight- ing place they have different rules. (Rules are a custom.) Also find out from your opponent if he understands the rules or custom. If you both understand each other there won’t be any arguments; but if both pitters are fighting, and both, or one of them, don’t know the rules, there is bound to be trouble. Mostly all the trouble in the pit arises from this cause, and it is astonishing how few cockers understand the © 62 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. rules thoroughly. The first thing to do, examine the gaffs. In putting your fowl down in the pit be careful you put him on his feet. Don’t throw him down. And don’t wait and hold your fowl in your hands until your opponent's bird comes over and kills him in your hands. If the cocks hang when you go to handle, put your hands on both fowls, (the rules require you to do that,) until the other handler has taken hold of his own bird. Your opponent must do likewise. That prevents the fowl from striking you. You are not to handle your opponent’s bird under any circum- "stances, unless you have his permission. If the birds are hung, you are not allowed to draw the heel out of your opponent's bird. Nor must he draw the gaffs from your bird. You are not allowed to pull the cocks apart when they are hung or in any manner jerk them apart, but hold them quietly until the heels are drawn. Before putting down the fowls, always see that the gaffs are clean and his legs are free or clear after a buckle. When you pick your bird up after a buckle do not toss the bird about; hold him quietly and gently straighten his feathers and see that his feet and gaffs are not entangled and get him ready as soon as possible, so you won't have to be told too often to come BREEDERS’ AND COCKERWS’ GUIDE. 63 down. In holding the bird quiet he will re- gain ‘his wind. If there is nothing on his head or beak, don’t fool with him and annoy him for nothing; always hold him in a position so he can see the other bird so that when you put him down he will know where to look for him. If you see your bird is fighting fast and exhausting himself, pick him up as soon as you get a chance to handle and let him recover his wind, press his legs up; but all this time you must hold the bird perfectly quiet and change the bird from one hand to the other without tossing him about. In tossing him about you do him more harm than good. If the bird is rattled or bleeding at mouth don’t use the nasty habit that some handlers have of suck- ing the blood. That is disgusting and does not do any good. If a bird is rattled catch him ‘by the beak and draw his head up; stretch his neck full length, press your fin- gers on his craw at the same time and if he is not too badly rattled he. will swallow it. If he won’t swallow it and is badly rattled you can make him sling it out. Always see that the bird’s nostrils are clean and if there is blood on his nostrils wet your thumb and forefinger and clean them with it. Don't. use tobacco while you are handling, for if your bird gets much distressed you want to 64 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. wet his tongue with saliva quite often, and tobacco will make him sick. In handling a — vicious bird, don’t use him roughly, and if he bites your hand don’t pull it away; let him bite; hold your hand perfectly still; he will then quit. In jerking your hand away you will do yourself more injury than the bird could do you. If he has hold of your hand and won't let go, hold perfectly still and blow at his head and he will let go. When you set a biting bird down of that _ kind in the pit, they are apt to turn on the pitter and while turned around, the opposite bird is liable to come across the pit before your bird can see him and kill him. In put- ting down a bird of that kind in a pit put him down on a line with you, about two or three feet to the right of you. Put him down quickly and run across toward your oppo- nent. He will see you run and start for you, and in going across he meets the other bird. These birds are spoiled by being fooled with. A vicious bird is easily cured if you treat him kindly, take him out of his coop quite often, and put on a pair of gloves and stroke his neck up and down gently; and when he wants to bite hold perfectly still, and in a few days he will be perfectly gentle. If a bird is coupeled, and not too bad, you get him on his feet by holding the bird firmly S ee BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. 65 a . e in your left arm; lay him on his side with his back toward you; pull his legs straight out behind, (one at a time,) take the leg in your right hand and put your thumb on the knee joint (the outside), and push the leg straight toward the body as if you intended -.to push the leg straight through the body toward the head. In doing this you don’t want to let your thumb slip from the joint. -Push the leg up very hard. After you have pressed them both up take the bird firmly | in your two hands, draw his legs up to his body as if you intended to make him set on the ground. Put him down in that manner with his legs under him, and put almost your full weight on him. Do not let the weight fall on him suddenly, but gradually, and, ‘when it is time for you to let go, do so suddenly. Handle then as often as as you can and the more you can handle the better it will be for the bird: You want to repeat this as often as you can get hold of your bird, but don’t use the force you did the first time, and every time you repeat this use less force until the bird-is on his feet again. It requires some experience to do this successfully. A handler must use good judgment when it gets down to a long , fight. He must watch his fowl and must be able to judge whether he has strength, or 5 . / 66 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. tell when he is failing, and must also tell whether it is policy to pick up his fowl or not; or in other words, take the count or not. At times a cock will get a cut on top of his head, (what is called a brain blow,) and when he receives it he generally squawks and | runs, first one way and then another. It is always policy to catch him as soon as possi- ble. If you can get a hold of him, rub the back of his head hard with your thumb, and when he comes to, if he is a game cock, he — will fight harder than ever; but it is not al- ways policy to pick him up when he receives this stroke. It may only be a light one, and immediately on coming to he will fight very. hard. Some cocks, when struck there, get their eyesight destroyed, and many a good gamecock has been given the credit of being a dunghill for running around the pit and not fighting, when the other cock is keeping after him and continually cutting him in the rear, A large percentage of cocks that receive that stroke, become stupid and crazy, and lose their eyesight also; they would not come to, and are not able to fight again that ‘night, and probably never. A cock in this condition, with another after him, and con- tinually cutting him in the stern, is not re- sponsible for his actions. The best of game cocks will do it. It depends entirely how BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. 67 | severely the sight is injured. Cocks at times will receive a stroke there, and their eyes will turn completely around, and remain -so. Such cocks very seldom recover. It is always best to get hold of them if you can. They are liable to recover in your hands. While on the ground in that condition he is an easy prey for your opponent. At times, in a long fight, your bird be- comes exhausted and terribly distressed. If you can possibly do it, you want to delay the fight as much as the rules will allow. Your bird will tremble very hard. At that stage you will have to show your nursing qualities. He will recover if you can get the time and give him the proper kind of nursing. Your bird’s feet will be cramped, and the man that tied the heels on will be given the credit of tying on the heels too tight, by ninety-nine _ people out of a hundred, and all believe it, and old cocker8 believe it. That is not the cause of it. It is caused by exhaustion. The bird is distressed, his muscles become cramped, his feet are cramped. Wet your thumb, rub his knee joints very hard, straighten out his toes and rub them vigorously, and after you get through rubbing his feet and joints, rub the thighs, and when you put him down draw his feet up under him. Put your thumbs on 68 BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. his back and keep his feet pressed under him very hard; set him on the ground gently. If he has lots of fight in him, pit close; don’t make him run over any unnecessary ground. Repeat this rubbing until the cramp has left him. You will have to work fast, for you only have half a minute at a time to work. Handle as often as you can at that stage, and repeat the rubbing. There are any amount of things and cir- cumstances that come in a handler’s way during a cock fight that he must act upon instantly. That knowledge can only be ac- quired by experience in the pit.’ To be a _ successful handler he must have experience; he must have a mind of his own; he’ must have confidence in himself, be active, must know how to keep his temper; must know | the rules; must pit fair; and, by all means, learn to pay no attention to the outsiders. So HEELING. Heeling a cock is very simple. Some -cockers try to make you believe that every- thing in a cock fight depends on the way the gaffs are set on the cock’s leg, and if not tied on by a certain party the cock can- not win. This isabsurd, There is nothing BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. — 69 mysterious about it, and it is very simple. I have handled thousands, and if there is any secret about it J have never found it out. All it requires is a little confidence, and of course you have to know how to tie them on, which any one ought to do after once seeing it done. There is no secret about it: all there is to it is throwing them out or in. If the gaffs are properly set in the leather, and the leather is cut straight, and you put them on according to leathers, straight across the leg, then you can not heel them wrong even if you want to. In put- ting on the heels you throw one heel out beyond the joint (I generally throw out the right, and and some cockers throw out the left, but it is a mere matter of fancy), and the other you set just inside the joint, or in the middle of the leg (when I say throw the | gaff out, I mean the point). If you have a high flying cock and a good leg fighter, then it is proper to throw them out, but if the cock is weak you heel them more closely and need not throw out any heel; but do just as you feel about it. If you throw them in too far and your cock is weak he is liable to gaff himself through the head; that fre- quently occurs, and is caused by weakness and being heeled to close. In short heels it requires even less knack ral BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. to heel than it does in the long ones; they have very little set to them, and some have not any, and all a man has to do is to tie them on according to the leathers. I have heard men say So-and-so is the best heeler in America. That is all nonsense. There is no sense or reason in it. I have often seen parties at a cock fight carrying a cock around, wanting to fight him, but could not find any one who could tie on the heels to suit, and there were a dozen men present who could tie them on; but they would have to have their man to heel or no fight. When he did come and tie them on, they were satis- fied, win or lose, that no one present could tie them on like he did. Now, probably he had never seen the cock on his feet to strike a blow. How could he tell how he was going to fight any more than any one else present? He simply tied them on, just the same as every cocker does, as I have described above. Take two cocks of equal weight and equal fighting qualities, take two pair of heels of equal size and set, square in their leathers, and let the best cocker in America take one pair and tie them on, and let a man who never saw a cock fight tie on the other pair, if he can put them on according to the leathers, and tie them securely, then what € . license has the expert to win? None, none ' BREEDERS’ AND COCKERS’ GUIDE. 7} whatever! It is an even thing. It takes a little experience to tie them on securely and a little confidence; that is all there is to . it. Some heels are set wider than others, and they do not need any throwing out, There is no such thing as right or left footed cocks and heeling according. In certain parts of the country they are in the habit of using short heels, and never having used long heels they are under the impression that their cocks cannot fight with long heels; that is nonsense. Take two cocks of equal weight, one raised where the custom prevails to fight long heels, and the other raised where they fight short heels, weighing five pounds each, put two and a half inch heels on both, there is no odds; the short-heel fighter is just as liable to win-as the other; all else is imagination, nothing more. It depends on the size of the cock the gaffs he can carry. good sized sponge and apply the hot water freely, morning and night. Carbolic acid, diluted in water, not too strong, will also do to syringe with. This is the best remedy that I have found. I have not seen one I could not cure in ten days.