Food for Thought

Jack Prescott
(Internet Published) Aug 2000

Friends, if you believe that you can import Tipplers from Britain, breed from them and get marathon times from the progeny, you are about to become very disappointed. If you believe that you can buy Tippler stock raised for several generations in your own country, but originally from some long dead Englishman or even from some Englishmen who hasn't kept Tipplers for more than 20 years, and then fly marathon times, then you are about to become very disappointed.

At very best, all of these purchases, are good basic raw material that needs work, dedication, training and time to bring out their potentials. Even in the country of origin, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, not all of the young birds produced each year will respond to the expert selective pressures and the training of these masterminds, who in one way or another exported the stock. In incapable hands, the Lovatts, the Bodens, the Gordon Hughes and the Irish Delights will become more of a disaster than a delight. When you buy into an issue of Tipplers you may or may not buy good raw material. Only time and effort will tell. Harry Shannon, a legend in our time, realist, World Champion, gentleman, and indeed an honorable man, will testify that he has his culls and his disappointments. He may very well export his birds, but his dedication, even though available to any man, is seldom transmitted effectively. There is a vast difference between the climate of Northern Ireland.

May, June, & July and that of the USA at that time. Temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit plus are unknown in Britain including Northern Ireland. Harry does not know how his birds would cope in those conditions or how they would adapt even after years of selective breeding.

My own birds do very well in Sheffield England and under my own selective pressures and under my own system, right or wrong. What they would do in New York, Las Vegas, Detroit or Ontario/Canada, Australia or even Hazelet NJ, I simply do not know. Probably they would fail and I must allow that I could not live anywhere but in Sheffield in dear old England. My roots are here and I belong here, Our laws, our politicians do bring olde England down and Patriotism is now a dirty word.

Jack Prescott