RIG AN BREE:

OF POULTRY

PtATt

t nutrition Llv

THE

AMERICAN BREEDS
OF POULTRY

THEIR ORIGIN, HISTORY OF THEIR DEVELOP-
MENT, THE WORK OF CONSTRUCTIVE
BREEDERS AND HOW TO MATE
EACH OF THE VARIETIES
FOR BEST RESULTS

BY

FRANK L. PLATT

PUBLISHED BY
AMERICAN POULTRY JOURNAL

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

Ocx-

COPYRIGHT, 1921 BY

JAS. W. BELL & Co

CHICAGO, ILL.

Mr m I^b.

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PREFACE

The purpose of this book is to present an authentic history of the
origin and development of the American breeds of domesticated fowls
and set forth the proper matings to be made in each of the varieties.

The writer also has undertaken to explain the widespread popu-
larity which the American breeds today enjoy, by setting forth the
reasons why this type of fowrl is the most useful and productive.
Moreover, it has been his aim to point out why a further extension
of their breeding is both practicable and desirable.

With a firm economic foundation upon which to build, the next
-step has been to show the permanence of the position occupied by
constructive breeders of these fowls and the vital relation that their
breeding yards bear to the poultry industry as a whole.

It seems highly desirable to make plain this important relation-
ship between the breeder and the national industry of producing
poultry meat and eggs for human consumption, that the true dignity
of the breeder's craft may be fully understood and appreciated, and
that the beginner may feel justified in devoting the time necessary for
a thorough study of the principles which underlie the breeder's work.

The title of this book was suggested by James W. Bell, publisher
of the American Poultry Journal, and its production has been made
possible by him. More than a year has now elapsed since the work
was started. As I have proceeded in writing the manuscript the
horizon at times has seemed to broaden and recede. However, the
leisure necessary for research and study has been granted cheerfully,
and the expense of travel to gather certain details on history and
mating has been met as cheerfully. Therefore, may I not in the words
of Swinburne say to J. W. B.:

"Take, since you bade it should bear,
These, of the seed of your sowing —

Blossom or berry or weed.
Sweet though they be not, or fair,
That the dew of your word kept growing,
Sweet at least was the seed."

1 desire to acknowledge with appreciation the suggestions of my
friend W. H. Smith, assistant professor of animal husbandry, Uni-
versity of Illinois; the freely given experience of numerous successful
breeders, each of whom is credited in the text; and the help and
inspiration gained from Eugene Davenport's ''Principles of Breeding."

FRANK L. PL ATT.

486503

The American Breeds

Breed Variety

Barred
White

PLYMOUTH ROCK <( OM .,

I Silver Penciled

Partridge
Columbian

Silver

Golden

White

, Buff

WYANDOTTE \ ^. ,

Black

Partridge
Silver Penciled
Columbian

RHODE ISLAND REDS f Single Comb

Rose Comb

BUCKEYES ........... Buckeyes

DOMINIQUES .......... Dominiques

\Mottled

Blue Plymouth Rocks, Rhode Island Whites and
Black Giants are new varieties which also are treated
in the text.

CHAPTER I
ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN BREEDS

Origin of the fowl — Introduction of the fowl to Europe — Important
developments of fowls in eastern Asia — Introduction of the Asiatic
type to America — Crossbreeding that led to the production of the
American breeds — Appearance of the Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte and
Rhode Island Red

The American breeds are the production of poultry breeders, often
called fanciers. Their history is modern. If the Dominique and Java
are excepted, it may be said that the other four breeds which comprise
the American class — namely, the Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte, Rhode
Island Red and Buckeye — have been developed and introduced since
the close of the Civil War. Thus, within the lifetime of men still
living, American breeders have done what nature had not done in all
the epochs of history. They have originated a new economic type of
fowl and given to the world the Plymouth Rock, the Wyandotte and
the Rhode Island Red.

This remarkable achievement came about not as the result of the
creation or sudden appearance of totally new features, but rather as a
result of the new breeds inheriting qualities and characteristics which
were drawn from already existing foundation stock.

* The early history of the modern American breeds shows them to
have originated from the crossbreeding of three distinct and distantly
related types of fowl. One type, which was the home stock, had been
carried to the eastern United States by the early settlers from Eng-
land and western Europe. The other types were imported to America
from southeastern Asia and from China. An account of these Old
World groups of fowls should prove an instructive preface to the
rise and development of the American breeds.

Origin of the fowl. The original wild stock from which the old
domesticated races descended is believed to have had its origin in
Asia. That continent has the largest land area, the most varied cli-
mate and food supply, and, in fact, the general aspects of nature are
the most diversified in the great geographical division of the earth
known as Asia.

Inhabiting the primeval jungles of India and the Malayan coun-
tries there may be found even to this day a little wild fowl, Gallus
bankiva. Charles Darwin, the great English naturalist, accepted this
jungle fowl as the parent source of all the breeds of domesticated
chickens. It is a black-red colored variety, similar to the Brown
Leghorn, but much smaller than the Leghorn. The traveler to that
far country who spends a night on a clearing, with the lofty forests

5

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

and dense thickets round about, may awaken in the morning to hear
the crowing of these cocks, and during the day he may hear the
cackling of wild hens and the peeping of their chicks.

One who has had this experience has remarked on how strange it
was to hear rural sounds of civilization and domestication in the vast
solitude of the jungle. He has told of being on a piece of cultivated
land near the haunts of the wild fowl, after the crops had been cut,
and seeing twenty or thirty of the birds advancing boldly into the
open in twos and three. But no game is more difficult to reach, and
before the stealthiest human foot could approach they had taken wing
like quails and found covert in the recesses and dense foliage of the
jungle.

It is said that the natives catch the wild fowls by stretching a rope
across where the birds are believed to walk; and tied to the rope are

Callus Bankiva, or Jungle Fowl of India, as Painted by Louis A. Stahmer, From
Models in the Field Museum, Chicago.

strong hair nooses into which the birds are run; or, if the rope is laid
on the ground, the birds may step into the nooses, which tighten and
hold them.

Jungle fowls in domestication. The bankiva is hardy when con-
fined in captivity, and it withstands climatic changes to good advan-
tage when transported from its native haunts — offering a basis for
that adaptability of fowls to the wide range of conditions around the

ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN BREEDS 7

world to which they have been subjected. The young birds become
tame when reared in confinement. This is an interesting trait of this
wild species, because an adaptability to domestication seems to be
one of the rarest qualities possessed by animals. The pheasant, for
instance, is truly wild, and there is an indescribable timidity about it
that will not permit it willingly to accept the company of man, his
care and protection in exchange for its own life in the wild. It has
been stated that the number of different kinds of animals which man
actually has domesticated, in the "thousands of years capturing, sub-
duing and taming hundreds of different species of all classes," does
not amount to fifty.

There are three other varieties of wild Galli, in addition to the
bankiva, and all bear some resemblance to the common domestic
fowl. The late Homer Davenport had all four kinds on his farm at
Morris Plains, New Jersey. He found the gray and fork-tailed varie-
ties particularly wild, and it was impossible to handle them to any
extent. "They never become tame, and grow restless, however large
their aviaries may be," he wrote. Undoubtedly the four varieties are
allied somewhat closely, for they have been known to cross between
themselves and produce fertile offspring. The bankiva, however, is
known to cross with domestic stock and produce offspring that is
fertile.

Darwin rejected all of the varieties, except the bankiva, as probable
progenitors of the domestic fowl, because of certain dissimilarities.
However, there was some lingering doubt in the mind of the old
naturalist, for he wrote: "Finally, we have not such good evidence
with fowls as with pigeons, of all breeds having descended from a
single primitive type." Later investigation, including the experiment
commenced in 1903 by the Ceylon Poultry Club to determine the
possibility of the Ceylon jungle fowl, or Gallus stanleyii, having been
one of the varieties from which domestic poultry had its origin,
resulted in showing in a limited way that when the G. stanleyii is,
bred to domestic fowls, the hybrids are not altogether sterile when
bred between themselves. This is of interest, for it suggests the
possibilities of some other wild species, of which no trace now
remains, having influenced the early domestic fowl. History on this
matter is very incomplete.'

Introduction of the fowl to Europe. While the theory has been
advanced that the bankiva is a feral race — which is to say, tame stock
that has escaped into the wild, like the wild horses that roamed over
the western plains which were descendants of horses brought to
America by the Spanish invaders — the more general opinion prevails
that the bankiva was the progenitor of the early European stock.
The sculptured Lycian marbles now in the British Museum portray
a type that is representative of the jungle fowl. The bankiva is the
diminutive prototype of the Black-Red Game of the old English fight-
ing stock, and also resembles the Brown Leghorn, an Italian breed.

8

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

There was an important route to the west along which the fowls
of India were carried. Darwin believed that the first domesticated
specimens reached Europe about six centuries B. C. The Greeks
referred to the fowl as a Persian bird. This indicates the line of
distribution. Persia laid to the west of India, and the line of impor-
tation was from India, through Persia to Greece, Italy and southern
Europe, thence from the shores of the Mediterranean to France, the
Netherlands and Britain.

Mosaic of a cock unearthed from the ruins of Pompeii, Italy, that ancient city
which was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius, A. D. 79. The
type of fowl to be found in Italy in the first century is thus preserved by the small
pieces of colored stones that were fitted together in that long ago time. This
valuable piece of inlaid stone worlk was in the collection of the late C. W. Post,
and the illustration is furnished by the courtesy of the Postum Cereal Company.

Edward Brown, who possesses a critical knowledge of poultry
breeds, and who has been privileged to study the native stocks of all
the principal European countries, stated at the second Reading
(England) conference of poultry instructors and investigators that

ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN BREEDS 9

he believed all the breeds of western Europe to have originated from
the Italian races of fowls. It is a straight line from Italy to the
East; so it probably was the "Persian bird" which had come originally
from India that was carried westward to the Mediterranean and then
followed the tendrils of civilization westward across Europe.

This was the stock that was carried to the shores of North America
by those early colonists who, turning their faces westward and
seeking the freedom of the New World, still cherished the fruits of
the Old.

Important development of fowls in eastern Asia. Fowls also were
bred in China and the Malayan countries. The early travelers into
China particularly were astonished by the large size of the poultry.
It is on the origin of this large Chinese race, which is now known
as the Cochin, that the greatest doubt is cast on the bankiva as being
the parent stock. Extraordinary size as well as structural and tem-
peramental differences make it stand apart. Could birds of the
Cochin type have descended from the same primitive wild type as
the Game, the Leghorn or the Spanish of Europe? The bankiva is
smaller than the least of these.

Variation in form is one of the most interesting and useful con-
siderations in the entire subject of origin. If races were not always
as they now are, what factors contributed to the changes and brought
about new developments? There is no animal breeder who believes
there can be no variation in form or departure from a previous type.
The most inexperienced is familiar with the fact that no two animals,
even when born of the same parents, are exactly alike. He knows
that visible deviations from the parent type may be caused by sub-
jecting the growing stock to poor housing, parasites and insufficient
food.

Natural selection. In taking a hasty glance back into the past, it
appears easy enough to see modifications of type taking place as the
early tamed fowls adapted themselves to new conditions of life under
the tremendous influences of climate, food supply and the general
aspects of nature. But when we come to put our finger on the time
when a factor for size got into the germ plasm of the Cochin and
made the Cochin a big breed because it was within its nature to grow
big, we find the theory of gradual evolution and acquired characters
is a speculation on a phase of history that is most obscure because of
the lapse of time and scarcity of evidence.

How did the size of the Cochin arise? It is easy to speculate on
a supposed period of transition through which the Cochin of China
passed — a period in which the early tamed fowls of the tropics were
carried into central Asia, where the vicissitudes of a rigorous climate
stimulated digestion, and then transplanted to the superior feeding
grounds of eastern Asia, where the birds were fed paddy or unhusked
rice, a grain in which the proteins are of a high order. But growth
is the result of cell division, not larger cells, but more cells; and how

10

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

did a new element get into these birds that enabled them to grow
a bigger bone, a larger body, a fuller plumage before they were
matured and cell division had ceased? We do not know. It is known
that the individual animal has a growth tendency or impulse to obtain
a certain size, and the best food will no more than enable it to attain
the upper limit of that size. The size possibilities of an animal's
skeleton are determined by heredity.

Origin of the Chinese stock is unknown. Tegetmeier, who was
associated with Darwin in some of his researches, at first accepted
the theory that all breeds of domestic poultry originated from a
common primitive ancestry, but more extended and careful con-
sideration led him to the belief that the Cochin must have descended
from some large-bodied, short-winged, easily tamed species that
entirely passed into a state of domestication as did the camel and
the horse.

Other scientists have suggested a multiple origin of the domestic
fowl. They have suggested that the case is similar to that of the
humped cattle of the Orient, which are believed to have descended

from a different stock than
that which furnished a foun-
dation for the cattle of
Europe. However, the do-
mestication of animals was a
work performed by primitive
man. Even fowls appear to
have been domesticated be-
fore the dawn of civilization,
and man's own recorded his-
tory does not carry present-
day students back to within
sight of the early processes
and developments. Accord-
ing to an old Chinese ency-
clopedia, the domestic fowl
of China was first received
from the West about the year
1400 B. C.

The Malayan stock. The
Malay, another old race of
the Orient, came from the
southeastern section of Asia,
particularly from the penin-
sula whose name it bears. It
is somewhat smaller than the
Cochin, representative speci-
mens that were imported in
the early days weighing nine
to eleven pounds for cocks

A red game cock brought from Maley about
1846 by Captain Richard Wheatland, and bred
in Salem, Mass., for three seasons, and now
in preserved form in the Peabody Academy
of Science, Salem. This cock has a pea
comb, yellow legs, red plumage throughout,
including tail (except white in flight of one
wing). Under color, light to dark slate. This
type of Maley is generally credited as the
progenitor of the R, I. Red.

ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN BREEDS

11

and seven to nine pounds for hens. The origin of the size of
the Malay, like that of the Cochin, is lost in the records of time.
Modern specimens of this breed carry a peculiar comb, called straw-
berry in America, walnut in England, and it may be produced by
crossing a pea comb on rose combed fowls. The pea type of comb
was common in early importations. It has been suggested that the

A Pair of Malays Imported From England by E. R. Cope
of Philadelphia in 1850.

Malay may have resulted from a cross of the compact bodied, pea
comb Aseel Game of India on scantily feathered Cochins.

The Aseel is believed to be a very old breed, representing the
ancient fighting stock of India, which dates back to ten or twelve cen-
turies before the time of Christ. It is brawny across the shoulders,
wide-hipped, plump-breasted, and strongly muscled on wings, breast
and thighs. It is the direct ancestor of the Cornish Indian Game, in
which these characteristics are so pronounced. There is a tendency to
this brawny type in occasional specimens of the American breeds.

The early importations of Malay game fowls are the third type
that was referred to in the beginning of this chapter as determining
to some extent the hereditary bent of the American breeds.

Introduction of the Asiatic types to America. The Malay was the
first of the big Asiatics to be imported to England and America. In

12

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

addition to its size, the breed was characterized by standing high upon
the legs, being long in neck, and having a cruel expression of head.
In his book on poultry, which was first published in London, 1815,
Moubray speaks of it as "the largest of all the Gallinaceous tribe."

Malays were introduced in and around Philadelphia at about that
time, and were used to throw size into the native stock, the result
being the production of a large mongrel breed which was variously
named Chittagong, Bucks County fowl, and even Malay. The Malay
also was introduced into that section of New England which lies
between the ports of Fall River and New Bedford, and exerted a
lasting influence on the breed which this historical poultry district
has developed — the Rhode Island Red. In those early days of sailing
vessels, fowls for food were carried alive in ships, and, if possible.
a particularly fine bird was kept alive for sale at the end of the voyage.
The Chinese stock followed the introduction of the Malay. Five
principal ports of China were thrown open to commerce in 1843.
including that of the city of Shanghai. From thence the "Shanghais''
came, and soon there appeared in England and America a type ot
fowl that now is known as the Cochin. Some of the cocks weighed
twelve to fifteen pounds and, because of their copious plumage, looked
even larger. They created a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic.
The most ridiculous tales were told respecting them. The roosters
were described as being at least big enough to eat off of the top of

a barrel, and while ordi-
nary hens probably could
lay one egg a day, these
ostrich fowls from China
were supposed actually
to lay two or three. The
birds were said to take
to petting kittens, and to
be unable to fly over a
three-foot fence. There
resulted a Cochin mania
which took the country
by storm from 1849 to
1854. Money was plenti-
ful, and here was to be
had a new sort of poul-
try far different from the
old native stock.

A surprisingly large
number of people want-
ed to participate in the
ownership and breeding

of these new fowls. In
A Pair of Shanghais as Shown at the First Poultry , i j •

Show Held in America, Boston, 1849. acknowledging receipt Ot

ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN BREEDS

13

a pen of the birds, Henry
Clay wrote: "To my
stock on hand your birds
will be a congenial and
valuable addition; and if
we succeed with them, I
will take care not to mo-
nopolize the benefit of
them." Daniel Webster,
in response to the arri-
val of some of the stock,
wrote: "The coop of
chickens arrived safely
and are noble specimens
of the Chinese fowl. I
thank you for the con-
signment, and consider
them a most valuable
addition to my stock of
poultry."

In England, the peo-
ple, from Queen Victoria
and the nobility down,
were enthusiastic about
this new stock. Before
1850 very few people ex-
cept farmers had paid

attention to fowls, and such as they kept were the native stock of the
home districts. There were a few old breeds fairly well established
but not generally introduced. The advent of the Cochin, however,
gave to purebred poultry an impetus that has continued ever since.

Crossbreeding that led to the production of American breeds. The
Asiatics were bred in increasing numbers, particularly in the New
England states, and their blood was diffused into the common stock
of the country. "They, more than any other race, had the size which
degenerate native stock everywhere lacks," writes John Robinson.
It was stated by the same authority that, as a result of the infusion
of Asiatic blood into the native stock, "the average size of the fowls
brought to the Boston market was doubled within a few years."

While the Asiatics were being used largely for immediate results,
there was a designed effort on the part of an American breeder to
employ the Chinese stock in the production of a new breed. Refer-
ence is made here to Dr. John C. Bennett, of Plymouth, Massachu-
setts, and the product of his effort was shown as "Plymouth Rocks"
at the first poultry show in America, held in a tent erected on the
public gardens, Boston, 1849.

These Plymouth Rock fowls were the result of crossing Cochin-

Dr. Bennett'iS Original "Plymouth Rock" Fowl.

14

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

China and Malay blood on the old English stock. However, the
plumage of the fowls so produced was variegated, and the color of
the shanks also varied, being white, yellow, green or blue in different
individuals. Some of the birds were feathered on shanks, and the
majority carried five toes, the extra digit being inherited from the
English Dorking breed. "They are domestic," wrote the originator,
"and not so destructive to gardens as smaller fowls."

Chittagong- Fowls as They Were Illustrated in Dr. J. J. Kerr's Poultry Book.
Published in Philadelphia, 1851.

The public was receptive to the idea of a large, docile, yet pro-
ductive breed, and stock was shipped into "most of the New England
states and western New York." The demand for Dr. Bennett's
"Plymouth Rocks" was reported by him as greater for the first season
or two than for any other breed which he kept at the time. The.
crucial test, however, always is in the ability of stock to breed true
enough to transmit with some certainty and satisfaction the charac-
ters and qualities of the breed. This is true even in new varieties, once
they are offered to the public; for the very continuation of a breed
depends upon it being sufficiently well established to reproduce itself.

ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN BREEDS

It was the subsequent breeding of Dr. Bennett's cross that did not
fulfill the early and generous expectations of those who had taken
up the fowl, and the first "Plymouth Rocks" died out.

From the crossing of Asiatic on native stock other breeds arose,
and two of them particularly, the Chittagong, or Bucks County fowl,
and the Jersey Blue, attained some standing, but, like the early
Plymouth Rocks, proved to be neither lasting nor durable, and long
since have passed out. There may be found today in Burlington
County, New Jersey, a large black fowl of more recent pedigree. It is
called the Black Giant, having been bred first on the farm of John

Plymouth Roclk fowls as they appeared in 1872. This is believed
to he the earliest picture of thj breed. The original wood cut bore
the initials of Edwin Forbes, an early delineator of poultry who lived
in Xew York.

and Thomas Black, about thirty years ago. Like the old Chittagong
of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, it is used to make Philadelphia
capons. While never receiving more than local recognition, the Black
Giant is a comparatively modern expression of the Asiatic influence
on the common stock.

Appearance of the Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte and Rhode Island
Red. A breed is more than a mere intermediate type. It is a family
the members of which possess distinctive characters that are fixed
so firmly that they may be transmitted uniformly. The modern
Barred Plymouth Rock was such a family. It made its appearance
in 1869, when the New England Poultry Club, centering at Worcester,

16 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Massachusetts, held its annual exhibition. Several years already had
been spent in the work of developing the breed, and here in reality
was established between the Cochin and a common Dominique male
a cross that was to make lasting friends.

It is recorded that Rev. D. A. Upham, who made the 'exhibit at
Worcester, took orders for one hundred setting of eggs at two dollars
a setting. By 1882, C. E. Thorne, associate editor of Farm and Fire-
side and author of "The Complete Poultry Book," referred to the
F'lymouth Rock as "the most popular breed of fowls in the United
States, and deservedly so, since they combine more qualities valuable
to the general poultryman than any other single breed. By 1885 the
Poultry World, published at Hartford, Connecticut, remarked: "The
number of breeders of Plymouth Rocks exceeds that of any other
variety." That this large-bodied, clean-shanked, prolific stock was
indeed a great boon to American farmers and poultry keepers gener-
ally was shown by the wide dissemination of the Barred Plymouth
Rock at the end of a quarter of a century after its introduction, when
it was the accepted and common type of farm fowl from the Maine
woods to the prairies of western Nebraska.

The Wyandottes and Rhode Island Reds have been introduced
since the Rock made its debut, although their early history traces
back about as far. They likewise are the result of combining the blood
of the old Asiatic and European stock as imported and bred in
America. The success of the Plymouth Rock was a challenge and a
stimulus to the Wyandotte breeders, who, in their effort to develop
an intermediate type or general purpose fowl, selected the rose comb
character and bred for a laced color pattern, in contrast to the single
comb and barred color pattern of the Plymouth Rock; while in the
farm fowls of Rhode Island the red color always remained uppermost,
making them distinctively Rhode Island Reds.

Breeders have since improved each of these breeds to the point
where they are today, a point where an average sort of bird which
may sell for ten dollars may be far better than what the early breeders
had to work with, even though they had sought such a specimen, pre-
pared to pay a hundred dollars for it. Indeed, the history of the
development of the Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte and Rhode Island
Red is a story of progress in breeding and vast multiplication in
numbers bred.

CHAPTER II
A DUAL PURPOSE TYPE

Utility qualities of the American breeds — As meat producers — Grading

up the farm flock for size through the use of purebred Plymouth Rock

males — As egg producers — On the farms — Future of the American

breeds — High prices for purebred specimens

Grade specimens of the American breeds are today furnishing the
bulk of the poultry meat and eggs that are consumed by our popu-
lation. The widespread use of the blood of these breeds is not the
result of chance or necessity, nor is it due to advertising propaganda
or exploitation by breed associations. It is a success based on
economic efficiency, that is, on the ability of fowls of this type to
return the largest profit when they are fit into the operations of the
general farms of the country.

Utility qualities. To be popular with the farmer, a chicken must
be a family fowl, producing a satisfactory number of eggs and fur-
nishing a carcass of good quality and sufficient size. Fresh beef,
pork or mutton are not available in the country on any day through-
out the year, and a large part of the poultry that is grown is used to
supply the farmer's table. The American breeds possess both meat
and egg properties. They are dual purpose, sometimes called general
purpose breeds. It is this combination that makes them all-round
fowls and gives to them the advantage of a strong appeal to the
average farmer.

That we may fully understand what utility qualities these improved
races possess, let us sum up briefly the characters and 'traits of the
foundation stock from which the Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes and
Rhode Island Reds derive their inheritance of size, flesh and egg
qualities. To begin with, the common barnyard fowl of England, as
found in all parts of the country, was "of middling size," according
to Moubray, who was the author of the first poultry book, published
in London, 1815. The skin of this common British poultry was stated
by Darwin to be white.

On the other hand, the Asiatic type was especially characterized
by large size. Slower movements came with great size, and birds
from the Asiatic importations were poor foragers and easily confined.
The females were ordinary layers, not exceptional. They were par-
ticularly persistent setters, the maternal instinct being emphatically
strong in them. Both Malays and Cochins were yellow skinned. Both
carried a relatively large part of their weight in their legs, the thighs
and drumsticks being thick and musclar, and the bone in the shanks

17

18

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

heavy. Their meat was rather coarse-grained in comparison with the
fine-grained flesh of the poultry of England and western Europe.
The Asiatics were, however, of more robust constitution. The
Malays were of rather pugnacious disposition, and the males some-
what troublesome. Both breeds laid eggs with strong shells, and
the chicks were well covered with down when hatched, but rather
slow to feather. The eggs were of brown color, for the breeds were
inclined to red ear-lobes, with which, strange as it may seem, brown-
shelled eggs are associated.

Such was the foundation on which the modern superstructure has
been built by the genius of American breeders. They have produced
a group of breeds that are the embodiment of a new economic type
which has since been imitated by the breeders of England in their
Orpingtons and Sussex, by the breeders of France in their Faverolles,
by those of Belgium in the Malines, and those of Spain in the Prat.
There are certain features, such as color of skin, development of
head appendages, or feathering on the shanks, which readily distin-
guish the modern European breeds from the American, as might be
expected from breeders of different nationalities working with a spe-
cies such as domestic poultry, which not only possesses many variable
features, but in which crosses between diverse types may be made

with ease. However, the gen-
eral history of the origin of
the modern European and
American breeds, and the
place occupied by them in
their respective countries, are
parallel.

The Plymouth Rocks, the
Wyandottes and the Rhode
Island Reds are well known
to be yellow skinned, to lay
brown-shelled eggs, and to
be sitters. Likewise, their
size and vigor have been in-
fluenced by the infusion of
Asiatic blood, and represent-
ative specimens of the Amer-
ican breeds will be found to
possess not only substantial
size and good substance, but
also a hardiness that adapts
them to the climate, food and
treatment of the nation.

In number of eggs laid
and quality of flesh, these
A Well F'.-shed White Rock Capon. breeds are an improvement

A DUAL PURPOSE TYPE

19

on the Asiatics. While neither flighty in temperament nor quick on
the wing, the American breeds are not as inactive as the big races
of Asia; they are domestic, yet satisfactory foragers, when, the
snow having melted and the poultry house door opened, the chickens
are at liberty to glean most of their living from the range of the
general farm.

The American breeds are moderately hard-feathered, which makes
them more economical to grow than the longer, more profusely
feathered Cochins. Excessive feather is always costly to grow.

As meat producers. The Standard weights of the American breeds
as set by the American Poultry Association are as follows:

Cock

Pounds

TTen
Pounds

Cockerel
Pounds

Pullet
Pounds

Plymouth Rock

9^

7>->

8

6

Wyamlotte

ZYi

6J4 7^/2

534

Rhode Island Red 8J/2

6'A 7X

5

Buckeye 9

(»Vi 8

sx

Java
Dominique

9 J4

7

7r/>
5

8
6

6 1/-
4

Taking the birds as they run, it will be found that the Rocks are
the largest of the six breeds which comprise the class, and when bred
somewhat for meat production the}- meet the most critical demand for
roasting or large type fowls.

The Wyandotte made its early reputation as a broiler rather than
a roasting chicken. It reaches the two-pound stage quickly, in a
plump condition and better covered with plumage than the Rock.
The Wyandotte makes a plump and nicely fleshed, well proportioned
capon at weights of from seven to nine pounds.

The Rhode Island Red originally was colony farmed for eggs in
the Little (Jompton district of Rhode Island, and the uniformity of
size found in the Reds at the present time is the direct result of
selective breeding since fanciers have taken up the breed. Popular
favor has been extended to even a larger type of Red than what the
American Poultry Association has set as standard, and a six-pound
pullet usually will win over a Standard five-pound pullet, other points
being equal. The Red therefore may be said to have valuable meat
quality. D. O. Barto, in charge of poultry at the Illinois Agricultural
Station, states that three out of five of his best capons are Reds.

Each of these breeds has strong vitality, and this is an important
matter, because there cannot be high fertility in the eggs, good
"livability" of the chicks, sturdy growth, fleshing qualities, or high
egg production without strong constitutional vigor.

20 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Specially selected meat type. In the development of a strictly
meat type, the Plymouth Rocks generally are considered as possessing
the rather greater possibilities. The Plymouth Rocks have competed
with the most formidable of the Asiatic sub-breeds, namely, the Light
Brahmas, and in the great poultry growing section of eastern Massa-
chusetts the Rock has displaced the Brahma on some farms, and on
some others the two are crossbred to make the finest capons and soft
roasters.

It should be said, however, that pure Barred and White Rocks are
extensively used down the shore south of Boston, where the famous
South Shore roasters are grown. These roasting chickens consist
both of caponized cockerels and fat pullets. It is one of the few
places in the world where pullets are grown for their meat. The
general run of South Shore roasters weigh from eight to nine pounds
for males and from five and one-half to six pounds for females.
Not infrequently heavier weights are obtained. The writer has han-
dled a pair of South Shore White Rock capons that weighed twenty-
two pounds four ounces and were said to be nine months old. There
is no opportunity for milk-feeding establishments in a district like
this where the birds are "grown fat." As the fowls are not finished
by being confined and crate-fed, their meat is relatively firm, yet a
certain softness results from the rapid growth.

J. H. Curtiss, of Assinippi, Massachusetts, who has been called
the "father of the South Shore," being credited with having started
the industry there about 1880 by growing the best poultry that he
could, has strongly recommended the White Plymouth Rock. Said he:
"It produces a golden yellow leg, a golden yellow bill, and as high-
colored meat as any fowl in the world." To show the size this variety
attains and the satisfactory, quick growth that it makes, he took the
carcass of a White Rock capon that had just come from the picking-
room, put it on the scales, and it pulled eleven pounds four ounces.
It was May 3, and the bird was a winter chicken eight months old,
having been hatched September 1.

Henry Dana Smith, of Norwell, Massachusetts, an extensive grower
of roasting chickens, preferred the Barred variety. Commenting on
the matter, he said: "The Barred Rock is now the best bird on the
South Shore. I have found that on the same feed and with the same
care the Barreds average one-half pound more than the Whites.
Growing five thousand roasters a year, this half pound means twenty-
five hundred pounds of high-priced soft roaster meat a year." Mr.
Smith's near neighbor, Joseph Tolman, keeps White Rocks, and thus
the matter of preference runs. Success with a certain kind depends
more on the flock or strain than it does upon breed name.

Plymouth Rocks on the South Shore which are most desirable as
producers of roasting chickens are of Standard weight or slightly
heavier. The Rocks of the midwest farms are largely grades, and
while somewhat under Standard weight, as a rule they usually are

A DUAL PURPOSE TYPE 21

in relatively good flesh, and if fed for about two weeks make excellent
milk-fed poultry. Stations equipped with feeding batteries for approxi-
mately twelve to twenty thousand or more fowls at a time are being
established over the Middle West and some parts of the South. The
feeders are critical of the type of fowls the farmers grow. They want
the stock to possess good fleshing qualities, whether young or old.
The American breeds are the favorite with them.

Grading up the size of the farm stock through the use of purebred
Plymouth Rock males. It is not exaggeration to say that the farm
fowls of the country owe much of their size to the Barred Plymouth
Rock. With a view to showing the breeding value of a purebred
Plymouth Rock male when introduced into a flock of nondescript,

Grade Barred Plymouth Rocks. Three generations removed from mongrels.
This pair is the result of grading up through the use of Purebred Barred Plymouth
Rock sires on the poultry farm of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

mongrel hens, an experiment was conducted on the Government
Poultry F'rm at Beltsville, Maryland, by Harry M. Lamon, senior
poultryman, United States Department of Agriculture, and Robert D.
Slocum, assistant in charge. Some typical dunghill hens that had
come from the farms of Maryland and Virginia were purchased in
the Washington market.

A Barred Plymouth Rock male was placed in the first pen. He
was of Standard size and conformation. The pullets from him when
full grown weighed 5.63 pounds each, or one pound six ounces more
than their mongrel dams. The next year these grade pullets were
also bred to a pure Barred Rock male, and this union produced pullets
weighing an average of 6.22 pounds each. In other words, the use of
purebred sires for two generations had brought the pullets up to.

Standard weights, All weights were taken as of March 1,

22 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

A White Plymouth Rock male was used on the pen of mongrels
that averaged 4.33 pounds. The first cross produced pullets that
weighed 5.68 pounds each. ,

It is well known that they have fine coops on the government
farm, and that, in addition to splendid housing and range, Uncle Sam
is a good provider and his chickens have the best of feed, in the right
proportion, and plenty of it. It was natural, therefore, to ask Mr.
Slocum, who had charge of this breeding experiment, if the increase
in weight was partly the result of the young stock of each cross being
full fed; that is, given all the nourishing food required to make bone,
muscle and feathers, or whether the increase in size from generation
to generation was altogether clue to the birds growing bigger because
it was within their nature to grow bigger as a result of the employ-
ment of Plymouth Rock blood. Mr. Slocum replied: "I attribute this
increase in weight entirely to the infusion of the Plymouth Rock
blood. Work carried on with the use of mongrel males leads to this
conclusion."

Buyers of market poultry prefer the American breeds. The buyers
of market poultry throughout the Middle West encourage the keep-
ing of the American breeds because of the satisfactory size attained by
the mature specimens. In some places a premium of two. three cr even
four cents a pound is paid for hens that weigh from four to four and
one-half pounds and up; in other words, hens that weigh less than
four pounds bring two to four cents a pound less than the heavy sizes.
In explanation of this price schedule, Stanley Wyckoff, president of
the Indianapolis Poultry Company, writes:

It is almost impossible to sell small sizes that dress out under four pounds,
except at a loss, as the average family does not wish to buy a chicken under four
pounds for a roast or stewing purposes ; and small sizes are neglected by hotel, cafe
and dining-car trade, as they positively will not purchase any fowl under four and
one-half pounds, and prefer five-pound stock, as it is more economical for slicing. The
canning trade that puts up chicken soup will not use small fowl even at a discount,
as they say it is not economical in comparison with the amount of meat that can be
taken off, in comparing the .frame with larger sizes.

When H. C. Pierce, now of the United States Foo«" Research
Laboratory, was working for his master's degree at Cornell, 1907,
he made up a table showing the proportion of edible meat to the
dressed weight, and the breeds made the following showing: Barred
Plymouth Rock, 74 percent; White Wyandotte, 72 percent; Buff
Orpington, 69 percent; White Leghorn, 66 percent.

This means that one hundred pounds of Barred Plymouth Rocks
carry eight pounds more edible meat than one hundred pounds of
White Leghorns. It also is equivalent to saying that the buyer kills
and dresses two three-pound hens to get four pounds of edible meat,
whereas he kills and dresses one six-pound hen to get approximately
four and one-half pounds of edible meat. The double cost of handling
the small sizes adds materially to the operating expense. It there-

A DUAL PURPOSE TYPE 23

fore follows that live poultry buyers and shippers are enthusiastic
about maintaining the general purpose breeds at Standard weights.

As egg producers. While breeders as a rule are partial to the
breed of their choice, and on every occasion champion that breed with
pardonable enthusiasm, it usually is conceded by authorities who
have a broad view of the entire field of breeds that the Single Comb
White Leghorn, taking all the specimens of the race as you find them
on the commercial egg farms of New York, New Jersey, eastern

Four of the high laying females in White Wyandottes, R. I. Reds,
Barred Rocks and White Leghorns at the 1919 International Egg
Laying competition, Connecticut Agricultural College.

Pennsylvania and Connecticut, is the more fool-proof laying type and
the somewhat more economical consumer of feed. However, when
the American breeds are bred for egg production, that is, when an
intelligent effort is made to regulate the type and tendencies of the
progeny by carefully selecting the parent stock, hens and pullets of
the American breeds may be depended upon to make a creditable
showing in the egg-laying competitions, and it frequently does happen
that a pen of these birds wins the championship prize.

The records made by four breeds at the sixth egg-laying contest
conducted at the Missouri Poultry Experiment Station, which covered

* 1

A DUAL PURPOSE TYPE

25

a period of one year, November, 1916, to November, 1917, show the
ability of highly egg-bred fowls of the American birds as layers along-
side of the highly specialized Leghorn:

All Rhode Island Reds averaged 188 eggs each.

All Wyandottes averaged 184 eggs each.

All Leghorns averaged 178 eggs each.

All Plymouth Rocks averaged 175 eggs each.

The silver cup for highest production went to a pen of White
Wyandottes owned by J. F. Jordan, Missouri. This pen of five females
laid 216, 245, 269, 273 and 213 eggs, respectively, a total of 1,226
eggs for the year, or an average egg production of 245 for each
female in the pen, the highest average which had been made at the
Missouri station up to that time.*

At the Agricultural Experiment Station of Connecticut, where the
widely advertised eastern competition known as the International Egg
Laying Contest is held, the American breeds have made fine records
from month to month, year after year. The report of the fifth annual
contest (Bulletin 89, February, 1917) gives some interesting data on
birds of different breeds, from which the following table is made up:

Number
of Hens

Eggs
per Bird

Weight
per Dozen,
ounces

Percent
of Birds
Broody

Average
Weight,
pounds

Feed Cost,
Averaga
Pen

Plymouth Rocks .
Wyandottes . . .
R I Reds . . . .

170
170
210

160.4
169.6
158 7

26.4
23.5
24.4

44.4
57.6
65.6

5.97
5.12
5.73

$20.72
18.68
19.93

White Leghorns .
Miscellaneous . . .

350
100

165.4

147.2

23.8

24.3

13.6

38.7

3.70

4.24

17.48

18.34

Four birds that made high records in the principal varieties at
the contest (1919) are illustrated on page 23. The White Wyandotte
in the upper left corner laid 238 eggs, and she was the high bird for
all the Wyandottes. The Rhode Island Red, to the right, laid 258
eggs and was the high bird of this breed. The Barred Rock laid
235 eggs and was in the pen that won the contest. The White Leg-
horn made a production of 213 eggs, having laid sixty-four days
without a miss. (The highest White Leghorn record for the year
was 260 eggs.) The high pen for 1919 was composed of ten Barred
Rock pullets which laid 2,022 eggs, or an average of 202 eggs per bird.

*These figures are taken from the official report of the station; however, if the
egg yield of the five hens is added, it will be found that the total is 1,216 eggs instead
of 1,226, as reported, and this error appears to be explicable only by the assumption
that during the year ten eggs were laid on the floor of the house a.nd were not
credited to any individual hen,

26 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

The best pen of White Leghorns finished the year with a record of
1,867 eggs. The records of the eight years since the inception of this
contest show White Leghorns to have been the winners in 1912, 1913
and 1914, White Wyandottes in 1915 and 1916, Barred Rocks in 1917
and 1919, and Professor James Dryden's "Oregons" in 1918.

It is fair to state, and it should be understood thoroughly by the
beginner, that the specimens entered in egg contests are specially
bred for eggs, selected for the competition because they develop into
active, thrifty pullets, and these birds are then fed throughout the
test on a ration that supplies in abundant quantity and proper pro-
portions the complete food nutrients necessary to make complete eggs.

Prepotent eggbred males to grade up the farm flock for egg pro-
duction. There is a growing demand among farmers for purebred
males that have "the lay" bred in them, to use in grading up their
farm flocks. These males are wanted for the purpose of gearing up
the egg-producing abilities of farm flocks, the same as Holstein bulls
are used to grade up the milk-giving capacity of farm cattle. The
whole tendency is toward higher average production of the animals
on the farms. Increased land values on which interest must be earned,
increased wages and scarcity of help to care for the livestock, in-
creased value of grain that is fed, increased selling prices for animal
products, all combine to make it increasingly plain to the farmer that
two efficient animals are more economical to own, care for and feed
than three inefficient ones.

It is sound policy for the farmer to grade up his flock for egg
production by employing purebred males of high producing strains.
The practice of grading in cattle and hogs is becoming general and is
recognized by all livestock men as the cheapest and quickest way of
making improvement.

Grading up the farm flock of chickens through the purchase and
introduction of Standardbred males will broaden the outlet for good
poultry. The time was when there had to be a White Wyandotte
fancy if there was to be trade in White Wyandottes, for breeders
could only sell their surplus stock and eggs to other breeders. The
same was true of Barred Rocks, Golden Polish and Silver Sebrights.
However, the tima has come to put the utility breeds to their greatest
usefulness by getting them out more and more into the hands of the
people who actually are producing the eggs and poultry for human
consumption. The opportunity is here for purebred poultry on the
farms to justify itself from an economic standpoint. There is no
basic reason for the existence and extension of purebred poultry in
preference to scrubs, unless purebred stock represents a more depend-
ably useful and more truly valuable type of fowl.

In 1912 the Kansas Agricultural College asked the question: "Will
cockerels from high producing families of various practical breeds
improve farmers' flocks quickly and effectively?" Experiments were
begun with a view to getting a definite answer to the question. Ten

A DUAL PURPOSE TYPE 2;

mongrel pullets that had come from Kansas farms were mated to an
eggbred Barred Plymouth Rock male. His dam had a record of 232
eggs. The egg production of the mongrels was 98 eggs; of their grade
pullets, 132 eggs. These grade pullets were now mated to another
purebred Barred Plymouth Rock male whose dam was the same
232-egg hen. The pullets resulting from this second infusion of pure-
bred blood laid 150 eggs. These pullets were in turn mated to a
Barred Rock male of eggbred stock but without pedigree, and the
pullets so produced averaged 156 eggs each. In this last lot of pullets
one laid 248, one 250 and one 260 eggs within the year.

In commenting on the experiments at the Kansas station to
increase egg production by breeding, Professor William A. Lippin-
cott says:

Systematic breeding for egg production is still in its infancy. Desirable cockerels
from the production standpoint undoubtedly are more numerous now than when this
investigation was begun, and are becoming more numerous each year. But record-
keeping breeders are still too few, and unscrupulous promoters who advertise 200-egg
strains, without even using trapnests, are, unfortunately, too many.

Purebred birds for egg production. The breeder who wishes to
specialize in egg production ordinarily will reach his goal much more
quickly by breeding within the breed, that is, by making selections
within a purebred flock rather than by crossing breeds. Professor
James Dryden, after a quarter of a century of poultry experience,
recently has succeeded in making a cross which he has called
"Oregons," and these birds have come into^ the limelight by making
splendid egg records not only at the Oregon Agricultural College,
where they were originated, but also in the Connecticut and Missouri
egg contests, although they have not proved superior to the estab-
lished breeds. The breeder who stays within a breed will find that
he has the benefit of established breed character and does not have
to contend with a diversity of new and troublesome factors that not
uncommonly arise when breeds are crossed. Moreover, late reports
indicate that there is no particular permanency to the value of the
"Oregons" as egg producers. At the International Contest starting
November 1, 1919, and covering the six winter months up to May 7,
1920, two pens of Barred Rocks, two of Rhode Island Reds, one of
Rhode Island Whites, and two pens of White Leghorns each laid
over one thousand eggs, or an average of one hundred eggs per bird
during the six months, while a pen of ten "Oregons" laid 711 eggs.

There are those who believe that all flocks or strains should be
developed along the line of pronounced egg-laying propensities. This
would amount to these strains of specialized fowls practically absorb-
ing the breed. While the author earnestly subscribes to the recom-
mendation that more and more thought should be given by fanciers
to the potential egg-laying capabilities of their fowls, he believes that
specialized strains for egg production should be developed within the
breed and that they should not absorb the breed. We must not lose

28 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

sight of the two-purpose type in our American breeds. It is yet to
be demonstrated that the very best meat and egg qualities can be
developed in the same individual, and until it shall have been proved
that the one temperament does not strive against the other, and that
the 280-egg hen not only produces Standardweight pullets but gets
cockerels that at the proper age will dress off as large, well meated
capons, it is inadvisable to put emphasis on one quality alone, to the
exclusion of the other, in so far as the breed as a whole is concerned.

Effect of heavy laying on breeding power. Poultry breeders as a
class have been criticized for not establishing production records as
have the breeders of dairy cattle. The hen usually is associated with
the dairy cow, both being producers. However, in arguing the
validity of his position in not going in for high records in all his
breeding females, the practical poultry. fancier may point out a differ-
ence between the hen and the cow.

The cow bears her young alive, while the hen lays an egg from
which the young is hatched outside her body. The egg contains some
sustenance in the form of yolk, which is absorbed into the intestines
just before the chick is hatched and serves as the young's first food;
but the 'egg also contains all the material necessary to make the
chick — its blood, muscles, cartilage that later will Harden into bone,
scales on its shanks, down on its body, etc. When you breed to
increase milk production you breed to increase the sustenance that
the mother is to supply to her young; when you breed to increase
egg production you breed to increase the vital process of reproduction.
It seems true that a hen may lay in excess of her own strength, in
which case she is unable to impart to her pullets that vitality which
is necessary if they are to equal the egg record of their dam. It is
on this ground that some practical breeders maintain that what may
be termed a high normal layer is the surer breeder.

There is a diversity of opinion on this matter, and data on experi-
mental breeding at the federal and state experiment stations are not
yet sufficient to influence the majority of fanciers. Thomas E. Quisen-
berry, founder of the American School of Poultry Husbandry, and
for a time in charge of the work at the Missouri Poultry Experiment
Station, writes:

We had at the station one hen which laid 286 eggs, and we incubated every one
of them and were able to hatch only one chick, and that was a pullet. This pullet
since that time has not laid enough eggs to half way pay her feed bill. I believe
laying will in most cases affect the vitality of a hen to such an extent that the
chicks are liable to be weak, but this is not always the case. I have found a good
many hens that were able to lay between 250 and 300 eggs, and the greater percent-
age were fertile and many of them hatched strong, healthy chicks. My contention
is that when a breeder finds such a hen he should keep her and endeavor to build up
a strain or family of such producers.

Harry R. Lewis, professor of poultry husbandry, New Jersey
Agricultural College, handles the subject in a conclusive, way and

A DUAL PURPOSE TYPE

29

definitely states that high egg production is not carried on at the
expense of breeding power. He writes:

We have no evidence to show that heavy egg production in a normal, healthy
bird will exhaust her strength and vitality. There are, of course, many hens that
fail to stand up under production, but invariably we find their failure is due to a
general lack of vitality and inherent vigor. We have made a careful study of fertility
and hatchability as correlated to egg production, and we find absolutely no relation
between heavy and poor fertility and low hatchability. In other words, we find just
as much poor fertility and low hatchability from low producers as from high pro-
ducers. We quite frequently find that pullets from high producing hens do not
produce nearly as well as their dams, which, of course, is just what we expect through
the influence of Mendelian segregation of characters in the progeny. In other words,
if a hen and the male to which she is mated are high for production, we conse-
quently get pullets, all of which are high producers. On the other hand, if they are
impure for high production — or, expressed another way, impure for winter produc-
tion— we get progeny representing various degrees of production.

The method of inheritance of fecundity, or the laying tendency, is
discussed in Chapter III.

Farm Flock of Purebred Barred Plymouth Rocks.

On the farms. The type that makes good as a farm fowl is the
dual type. While in especially bred strains of the American breeds
either egg or meat values may be developed to a point where the
stock is comparable with that of highly specialized breeds, in the
last analysis it will be found that it is a satisfactory combination of
the two prooerties as found in the American breeds that makes them
a well balanced type for general purposes. There are those who will

30 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

say that they are interested not primarily but first and last in eggs.
The farmer, however, who takes up a highly specialized egg breed
may not long keep it pure, because of its inferior size. He is prone
to cross large males on such stock, that he may get as much potential
capacity for size as possible in each chick that is hatched. Therefore
it is not safe to assume that the type which possesses table quality
will fall into disregard and be succeeded by any other fowl.

To determine the present and future place of the American breeds,
our facts must be sufficiently diversified and the scope of our vision
sufficiently extensive to enable us to understand the requirements of
those who have adopted this type and to see something of the con-
ditions under which their fowls are grown. This means that we
consider the economic aspects of the poultry industry and note the
place that American breeds occupy in the permanent agriculture of
the country.

The popularity of the dual type is rooted in the best systems ot
general farming. Under such conditions a diversity of crops are
produced, and poultry is a relatively minor enterprise on the farm.
Approximately ninety-five percent of the poultry and eggs that enter
trade channels and are consumed as foe 1 by the population, are pro-
duced on the general farms of the country.

A great deal is written about intensive poultry farms where eggs
or poultry meat is almost a single product, but, after all, the gross
production of all these plants is a small item in the market. The
north central geographical district, for example, comprising the twelve
states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska,
North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, report,
according to the 1910 census, 54.3 percent of all the fowls in the
United States, and 52.7 percent of the entire annual egg production.
In other words, of the 280,345,133 chickens on the farms of the United
States, 144,664,064, or more than half are to be found in the upper
Mississippi Valley; and on these same broad acres is to be found the
range from which the hens glean a large part of the food for their
yield of 784,804,653 dozens of eggs, or more than half of the country's
annual production of 1,457,385,772 dozens.

These twelve states, containing about one-third of the population
and producing one-half of the poultry products, furnish an excess to
be consumed in sections like the middle Atlantic and New England
states, which, with 28 percent of the population, produce 13.5 percent
of the eggs. Illinois alone produces about one hundred million dozens
of eggs a year, and of this number there were shipped in the months of
March, April, May and June, 1918, to the four great consuming centers
of Chicago, Boston, New York and Philadelphia, 1,017,712 cases of
eggs, each case containing thirty dozen. This is farm poultry pro-
duction. Each of the states of Ohio, Iowa and Missouri also produce
approximately one hundred million dozens annually.

Dual purpose type fits into general farming. Poultry culture on

A DUAL PURPOSE TYPE 31

the farms is not a specialized business. The growing fowls get some
food that has a marketable value, to be sure, but they also consume a
large amount that otherwise would be waste; and some of the care
and attention bestowed upon them would otherwise be unpaid labor.
As an example of farm poultry culture, the case may be cited of
Mrs. Homer Caton, McLean County, Illinois, who reported 1,224 eggs
from sixty-four White Plymouth Rocks in the 'month of April, 1919.
The birds were on the range 'of a general farm where some cattle
were kept, and the chickens were not fed except during the winter
months.

Compared to where the pojultry operations have been intensified
to the point of a one-product: plant, there is in the case of farm
poultrykeeping more of what would be waste feed and unremunerated
labor and there is less capital, invested in buildings and equipment.
On the general farm there may be a four-horsepower engine that c^n
be used to grind alfalfa for the poultry mash or to crush grain; there
may be screenings after the seed wheat is fanned; there may be
straw to use in the scratch shed. In other words, on a diversified
farm the poultry enterprise links up with other departments. More-
over, the poultry and livestock in general are linked up with the
growing of crops; there is a balance existing between the feed that
is grown and the animals that are kept; in feeding animals, the farmer
is not dependent on feed shipped from a distance, but has the advan-
tage of feed at farmers' prices.

The farmer finds that the large type of fowl makes the more profit-
able use of the feed and conditions under which it is grown and
maintained; its tendency to size provides more potential "raw mate-
rial" in each chick that is hatched; and if there is good egg-laying
power combined with the liberal size, the type is bound to be popular
with him. This is in line with the well established policy among
farmers to select the larger dairy animals within the breed. The most
widely distributed dairy breed, the Holstein, as bred in its native
country, Holland, is reputed to produce the best veal to be secured
on the Continent; and the breed has won its reputation in America
partly because of its value in terms of meat when ultimately it
reaches the block. The milking Shorthorn today is enjoying the
greatest popularity that it has enjoyed in a generation, and the
increased demand for such dual purpose cows is a demand for more
efficient animals to convert into meat and milk what the economist
calls waste feed and unproductive labor.

The future for the dual purpose type. We may expect to see more
hens and more dairy cows kept as population increases. The secre-
tary of agriculture has stated that we should count on an increase in
the population of the United States of one million a year for the next
decade. Increased population inevitably means more labor and propor-
tionately less land. Following this condition, in the older countries of
Europe, chickens and dual purpose cattle have maintained themselves

32

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

A Nine-Wedk-Old Rhode Island Red Chick,
Well Developed For Its Age.

and increased with the popu-
lation at the expense of other
classes of livestock. Beef ani-
mals alone cannot subsist and
increase in numbers when an
increasing population inevi-
tably requires that from year
to year the products of the
land be more and more in-
tensively produced. This, of
course, is a view into the
future.

At present a large part of
the farm crops are produced
especially as a food for ani-
mals.

Of the corn grown, over
ninety percent is fed to ani-
mals, and they consume all
of the stover, for corn is pri-
marily a food for animals;
they consume seventy per-
cent of the oats, and thirty
percent of the wheat returns
to the farms as bran and middlings. The pasture and hay crops are
much larger than the cereal crops, and animals alone afford a means
of marketing them. Livestock, therefore, follows crop production as
a natural sequence.

It takes about one hundred pounds of feed to produce twenty
pounds of meat, regardless of the kind of animal. Meat is a high
form of nourishment for human consumption. While a great wealth
of plant products is directly available to man, both in abundant quan-
tity and appetizing form, the fact is that half his diet consists of
foods of animal origin. The United States Bureau of Labor statistics
show that in the city of Toledo, Ohio, for instance, during the year
ended March 31, 1918, the average family of the 207 families investi-
gated in the shipbuilding district where data were collected, spent
$605.17 for food, of which $303.24 was for meat products, excluding fish.
Economical producers. Animals such as cattle, hogs and hens bear
an intermediate relation between plants and man, and foods of animal
origin are more costly and valuable than foods of vegetable origin,
because the production of the former involves the use of the latter.
Therefore, the economy with which animals produce is of ever great
importance. The hen and the cow are entitled to first position in the
ranks as economical producers. Unlike beef cattle or hogs, they are
not designed especially as a laboratory to convert fields of corn or
acres of grass into a marketable product, beef and pork, by which

A DUAL PURPOSE TYPE 33

the farmer can market his labor and crop in a condensed form; the
hen and the cow are wise provisions of nature to utilize and trans-
form much of what would be unmarketable grain and pasture into a
high form of nourishment, eggs and milk, and then render up their
carcasses for food.

In addition to that economy which makes dairy cattle and chickens
a part of permanent agriculture, the products of these animals are
particularly valuable because they are well balanced foods. The
price of meat cannot be compared to the price of eggs, because they
are dissimilar products, meat being defective in ash and low in
vitamines. Eggs have satisfactory proteins and, like milk, are satis-
factory in ash or minerals, also in vitamines, which are necessary to
growth and health. In cooking, there is no substitute for an egg any
more than there is a substitute for wheat. The chemical analysis of
another grain may show as many calories, but if the gluten is not
of the same kind, it makes a crumbly bread instead of a light bread.
The albumen of the egg serves about the same purpose in cooking.
Thus, taking it all in all, considering the place of the hen on the farm
and the value of her product, it is evident that chickens are in a class
by themselves, and no one can fairly doubt of the future.

Demand for poultry products. It is not necessary to urge the
farmers of the country to take up poultrykeeping. They already have
poultry, they know something of its possibilities, and they are becom-
ing more and more interested in better stock and better methods, for
they perceive the dawn of a new opportunity which is based on a
new price level for poultry and eggs, and a demand so wide that the
products are always staple.

It is interesting to contemplate how enormously poultry produc-
tion can be expanded by these country producers, not as a result of
more labor and a materially increased cost of maintenance, but by
employing sound stock and giving the birds more thoughtful care.
Missouri furnishes an example of what grading the hens and intelli-
gently directed effort on the part of the caretaker will accomplish.
According to the census, the farm hens of Missouri lay an average of
sixty-four eggs a year. The State Agricultural College at Columbia
sent a man out into the state to arrange with some Missouri farmers
to put into practice such recommendations as the college could offer
on poultrykeeping, and the recommendations were put into practice
and the work carried through on twenty-four farms in thirteen coun-
ties. The average egg yield on those farms was a fraction over one
hundred eggs per hen for the year, or three dozen more than the
state-wide average. What does this mean? If the farm hens of
Missouri could be made to lay only one more egg per hen per year,
and that egg could be sold in December at five cents, there would
be an increased return of one million dollars to farmers of the state.

Successful poultrykeeping is not limited to the more fertile and
rich sections. It is, in fact, of relatively more importance in the

34 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

poorer sections: than on the rich brown-silt loam of the corn belt.
A grain crop failure does not seriously hamper poultry operations,
which would be the case if larger quantities of feed were required as
for beef cattle, hogs, etc. Poultry is one of the things with which
the people in the poorer sections can do well. There are counties in
southern Illinois where the receipts from the sale of poultry and eggs
per acre of cultivated ground are three times what they are per culti-
vated acre in some of the rich northern counties.

The farm management office of the United States Department of
Agriculture made a five-year survey on twenty-five southeastern Ohio
hill farms and found that the receipts from the sale of poultry and
eggs formed the second largest source of income on those farms,
amounting to more than the receipts from any other source except
cattle. It is interesting to note in this connection that the farms
keeping from 200 to 330 hens reported 16 percent more net profit
per hen than those keeping 60 to 100 hens. Undoubtedly, this greater
income from the larger flocks is to be accounted for on the ground
that where the poultry enterprise was developed, more attention natu-
rally was directed to the facilities of housing, proper feed and care, as
well as to the quality of stock kept.

When a man realizes the importance of good care, he begins to
want good stock on which to bestow his care and attention. It is so
with a man whom we met recently. He had wintered eighty-six
Rhode Island Red hens and in the month of January had sold $53.66
worth of eggs from those hens. He had purchased two males at
$5 each to head his flock and was so pleased with them that he asked
the writer to buy four females for about $20 to mate to one of the
cockerels. He wanted something better than he had. On another
farm in Vermilion County, Illinois, where 250 Rhode Island Red
females were wintered, there were sold an average of $21 worth of
eggs per week throughout the months of December, January and
February, 1918-1919. It was the first time that this owner ever had
given attention to the chickens. It was easy for him to invest $76 in
good quality males from two of the best breeders in the Middle West
for the breeding season of 1919.

High prices for purebred animals. A new era, distinguished by
broader opportunities for the breeder of Standardbred poultry, is
being ushered in. That means that the best blood is to be put to its
greatest use, and no breeder who sees the vision and whose aims are
focused on the good that the established American breeds can be
made to do, and who therefore is reproducing his flock along the
lines of Standard type, breed characteristics, stamina and general
productiveness, need fear for his future. The farmer needs more
dependable poultry of this type.

It is the function of the breeder to produce for him the animal
machine of the right size and type to do his work economically; the
farmer's function is then to employ profitably this animal machine in

A DUAL PURPOSE TYPE 35

the conversion of his raw material, of feed, into a finished product,
of meat and eggs. Nature covers his farm with plants, both grass
and cereals, which are nourished by earth, air and water. They take
the inorganic materials and elaborate them into a living structure
which serves as food for his animals. Thus the farmer is essentially
a crop grower and feeder of livestock, not particularly a breeder, and
it is plain that he must look to the constructive breeder for the efficient
animals that can meet his requirements and produce economically the
maximum of what the market requires.

He is buying that kind of livestock, with the result that purebred
cattle and swine are selling at higher prices and are in greater demand
than ever before. He is buying purebred stock because it alone may
be depended upon to possess linebred and established uniformity and
usefulness. This explains the top prices at the sales we read about.
It accounts for the public sale of fifty Duroc-Jersey hogs by a breeder
in Nebraska at an average of $1,021 each, followed in the same season
(1919) by a breeder in Ohio who gathers together fifty-four speci-
mens which auction at an average of $1,018 each. In the season of
1918-1919, as reported by the Duroc-Jersey Bulletin, there were 175
sales of Durocs at which 7,729 animals were sold at an average of
$208 each. This against 6,950 head sold in 1917-1918 at an average
price of $153.88.

We notice the same widespread appreciation of purebred cattle.
For example, 242 Shorthorn cattle were sold in 1916 for $1,000 or
more; 543 were transferred in 1917 at $1,000 or over, and in the first
six months of 1918 there were 840 Shorthorns that sold for $1,000
or more.

From $50 to $200 frequently is paid for a choice male of the
American breeds, and not uncommonly such a sire heads a pen from
which $200 to $1,000 worth of stock and eggs-for-hatching are sold.
While these sales usually are to other breeders, they in turn sell to
their trade, and thus sooner or later the best blood is diffused into
the average flocks of the country. Therefore the last analysis shows
that the traffic in Standardbred poultry, as in other purebred stock, is
based fundamentally on the economic value of the improved races.
If it were otherwise there would be no lasting foundation to the
purebred business.

Measuring up to the opportunity. The future in Standardbred
poultry is for men who can breed good quality, who can organize a
business, who themselves can grow bigger with the passing years.
How big are you? How big are your plans? What are you aims
this year? What is your goal line as chalked on the field of endeavor
for ten years hence? Let us sit down and take stock of ourselves,
measure our resources, look into the future, and see if our pathway
leads to a destination that will be distinguished by the fruits of
success. Let us see if we cannot reflect the greatness of the poultry

36 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

industry in our own poultry business and make that business of ours
amount to something in the estimation of our town banker.

For whom do you plan to grow fine fowl? A back-lot fancier?
If so, that type of purchaser will influence the ends for which you
bred and the kind of business which you develop. Are you growing
seed stock for a great animal industry composed of poultry raisers
who are ever dependent on the constructive effort of poultry breeders
for new stock and new blood to reinforce their flocks? Then you
will not grow your birds soft, you will not be satisfied to grow just
a few of them, but you will seek to develop a type that will prove
highly useful in the hands of men and women working under average
conditions, and you will seek to multiply your supply of such stock
to meet the demand.

We do not need greater opportunity in poultry. What we stand
in need of today is larger vision. There are nearly six million farm
flocks in the United States. There are perhaps as many more back-
lot ooultrykeepers.

CHAPTER III
THE BREEDER— HIS PLACE AND HIS WORK

The place of the breeder — The qualifications of a breeder — The poultry
show — Appreciating the quality of a specimen — The work of the
breeder — Prepotency — Principles of breeding — Values that command

good prices

Having established the place that the American breeds occupy in
the general scheme of economic agriculture, we shall be able to point
out clearly just what position the purebred breeder of these breeds
occupies in relation to the poultry industry as a whole. The poultry-
man who is a breeder has a definite place to fill, a definite service to
render, and it is important that he should understand precisely his
status, that he may completely assume the responsibility which he
bears to the industry and fully enjoy the opportunities which that
position affords.

The place of the breeder. The true function of the poultry breeder
is to maintain a breeding establishment from which may be supplied
seed stock in the form of breeding birds, eggs for hatching, or chicks.

Roughly, poultrykeeping may be grouped under four heads: the
breeder, the farmer, the commercial poultryman, the back-lotter. The
business of the breeder is the maintenance of a supply to which all
the members of the other three classes may go for foundation stock
or blood to reinforce their flocks. From such a source flow the
rivulets of good size, type, breed character and stamina that are to
be absorbed by the poultry of the country.

While nearly everyone who keeps poultry is somewhat interested
in the problems of breeding, the relative few become constructive
breeders. The majority remain mere multipliers, and their poultry is
continuously running out, not because it is inbred, as they may avow,
but because too many poor individuals are allowed to reproduce
themselves. The great majority, therefore, are dependent upon the
constructive efforts of the breeders.

It is not generally understood that the breeder has made a real
contribution. Some folks seemingly take for granted that the breeds,
as we have them, always existed. It is therefore easy for them to
misunderstand the motives of the fancier and, assuming him to be
engrossed in an idler's hobby, condemn him for the hours he spends
with his birds. The fact is, however, that very often they are hours
of quiet observation and thoughtful study.

It should be remembered that the men who have been devoted to
their fowls, who, while the surrounding countryside has been asleep,

37

38

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

have carried the lantern to the poultry house because they were
interested in the birds that were roosting there, are the men who
have given us the breeds. They have had in their nind's eye "the
better fowl," and we need to recognize and appreciate the contribu-
tions that they have made.

Breeders supply seed stock. The fancier-breeder is a negligible
minority in the production of poultry and eggs for human consump-
tion, but as the producer of seed stock for a great animal industry,
he is the master key. Where is the farmer who has decided to get
better poultry, a more uniform and more productive flock, to get this
better stock except from a breeder of Standardbred poultry?

There are those who profess to be interested in utility alone. But
when they come to buy foundation stock they do not purchase mon-
grels; instead, they secure stock birds, eggs for hatching, or chicks
of the improved races. Who established these breeds and varieties?
If devoid of the breeding instinct, the commercial poultryman does
not improve the stock which he carries on his plant any more than a
feeder of hogs improves the breeds of swine. Indeed, the breeders
who made the breeds, who are the custodians of the standards to
which they are bred, who from year to year reinvest the blood
of the best poultry of America and bring forth a new generation, are

First prize_ pen of Buff Plymouth Rocks at the Kentucky State Show, 1898.
Here is a reddish-buff male and four females that are buff only in hackle. Only
the conscientious study and painstaking work of constructive breeders has developed
the pure buff birds of today. Let those who would belittle the work of fanciers
realize that such a pen as is here illustrated would today be typical of the variety
were it not for the fancier-breeders,

THE BREEDER— HIS PLACE AND HIS WORK 39

the constructive improvers of our stock. They bear a vital relation-
ship to the great poultry industry. They deserve much credit and
every encouragement.

The problem of production rests with the farmer and commercial
poultryman. The breeder's function, his excuse for being, is to breed
stock birds that have a hereditary capacity for producing in the least
time and at the least expense the maximum of what is required,
coupled with uniformity of size, shape, color and temperament, so
that a clutch of chicks may be depended upon to grow evenly, to
mature about the same time, to attain about the same size and type,
and to possess about the same temperament. That is a man's job,
and the man who fills it occupies a position alike honorable and
useful. He must be remunerated for the thought and patient effort
which he devotes to this work; so birds of good breeding, like silk,
cannot be purchased at the prices of calico.

The qualifications of a breeder. Who can become a constructive
breeder? Not every man, any more than every farmer can become
a livestock breeder. Many grain farmers become live stock feeder^
in order to secure a satisfactory crop rotation and economically utilize
corn roughages that they grow as a by-product of their grain. But,
as feeders, their business is to convert feed into meat, and their
relations are with the shippers and commission houses.

To be a breeder, one must needs be a man among men. This
does not mean lavish expenditures for entertainment during shows.
It means the possession of the breeder's instinct; a sympathetic under-
standing akin to affection for our dumb friends, even those of the
feathered type; an exalted aspiration to be a producer and to bring
forth something better, and withal the patience to "carry on." Such
a man reads a little, experiments some, and thinks a great deal.

Such a man is a fancier. He ever strives to improve his own
stud, and seeks and enjoys the company of other stock improvers.
He goes to a poultry show and fails to hear the roosters crowing
in the noisy, merry place because he is intensely interested in the
birds themselves. At his own home he somehow feels that the hens
are not laying eggs especially for someone's breakfast, but rather to
reproduce their own species, and all their lives he mates and cares
for his birds with a view to their breeding possibilities.

His poultry plant is not a factory where hen machines are kept
solely to convert raw material or feed into a finished product, meat
or eggs. It is a place where the lives of the fowls are marked, first,
by the period of embryonic development, then the period of actual
growth, and, lastly, the period of reproduction.

There is a difference between production and reproduction. One
is the function of a relentless machine; the other is a process by
which a new organism is generated from that already existing and
the perpetuation of the species assured.

The stock becomes plastic in the hands of the breeder. There is

THE BREEDER— HIS PLACE AND HIS WORK 41

response to every thoughtful selection and wise mating. There is
infinite scope for study and experimentation, and fact on fact, correc-
tion on correction, the breeder builds up a rich knowledge of breeding.
He does not learn suddenly or swiftly — Nature does not teach that
way; but "slowly, gradually, with infinite reserve, with delicate con-
fidences, as if to prolong our instructions, that we may not forsake
her companionship," she yields up her secrets to the student who is
devoted to his work.

This should be understood: all men alike have the same sort of
feed to use, their birds breathe the same air and range on the same
Mother Earth, and the success achieved depends very largely on the
intelligence with which the breeder's efforts are directed.

The poultry show. At the close of the growing season and during
the winter months the poultry exhibitions are held. The birds are
then in full bloom, both the old birds that have come through the
molt and the young birds which are then mature. With the advent
of the poultry show season the time is at hand for breeders to put
down the product of their thought and labor to compete with that
of one another, and the breeder-artists vie with one another in exhibit-
ing the birds in which they have sought to give an expression of
reality to the Standard ideals.

Force of circumstances, unfortunately, has tended to alienate the
best breeders of purebred poultry from the breeders of purebred
livestock. When the stockmen are showing their animals at the fairs,
the poultry breeder finds that the majority of his old birds are in the
molt and his young stock is still immature. The show is the purebred
breeder's best means of securing an audience and giving expression
to his work, and the poultrymen have to leave the fairs largely to
professional showmen who carry a railroad car full of various sorts
of fowls. In order to exhibit his best specimens in the pink of con-
dition, the poultryman patronizes the exclusive winter shows, with
the consequence that he often loses contact with the breeders of
other kinds of livestock, and especially with the rural population,
who without reflection may think of poultry breeding as a thing apart
from the purebred livestock business.

As an encouragement to poultry breeders, several of the leading
states, including Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa, together with the
province of Ontario, Canada, have provided means of subsidiary sup-
port to poultry shows from public funds. For instance, up to $250
may be appropriated by the boards of supervisors in each of the
102 counties of Illinois, and up to $400 may be appropriated in Iowa.
The money is made available to encourage the exhibition of the seed
stock of a great animal industry.

The merit of the purebred show has been well summed up by
Professor Herbert W. Mumford in the following words: "With all
its imperfections, the livestock show is, for a series of years, the best
available measure of merit for pedigreed breeding animals."

42 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Some criticism has been directed against the poultry show because
of the standards by which birds are rejected and disqualified. Both
sides of the case should be stated. It is argued that Standard dis-
qualifications should be for malformations of body, evident lack of
vigor, and deficient breed characteristics. It is said to be absurd to
disqualify a bird of good substance for what properly should be
termed a defect, while an inferior utility specimen wins the premier
honor. The classic example of such a case, cited by Felch, was that
of a trio of birds that founded the famous old Essex strain of Barred
Plymouth Rocks which "was disqualified at Music Hall show, Boston,
for downy feathers between the toes of one of the hens; yet in them
we find 'the stone the builders rejected has become the chief stone of
the corner'."

On the other hand, if you could have seen on an express truck at
a junction in Iowa a pair of Silver Wyandottes that were being
shipped for stock purposes, you probably would have favored the
inclusion of numerous technical and arbitrary disqualifications as a
protection to the buyer. Such was the motive that actuated Reese V.
Hicks, as chairman of the 1915 Standard revision committee, to cham-
pion the retention of the disqualifications in the text of the American
Standard of Perfection. This is the copyrighted text published by
the American Poultry Association, which is the guide of the judge in
the showroom.

Appreciating the quality of a specimen. Knowledge of what con-
stitutes a good bird comes from study, observation, experience. It
cannot be summed up in a single sentence. The phrases in the
Standard are hollow and empty to one who never has caught the
vision of a detailed fowl and to whom "all Barred Plymouth Rocks
look like mongrels."

When you look at a specimen you can see only what you know.
I see much in a Buff Plymouth Rock cockerel, but in a Duroc-Jersey
hog I can see little more than an arched back, and gather an impres-
sion of the head and an uncertain idea of the size. When a herdsman
steps up to the animal and puts his finger on a wind-puff on the
hock, I see that also. It has been pointed out

Some learn faster than others what constitutes a fowl. The first
section of a bird I ever noticed was the wing. Many people see the
comb first and count the points. I was slow to distinguish a bay eye
from a gray eye, always seeing the pupil instead of the iris which
carries the color, and likewise slow to distinguish between pure white
and the brassy or straw color effect common to some white males.
It was a source of secret discouragement to me not to be able to
look at the back of a male and see the straw color that was quite
prevalent in the White Wyandottes of twenty years ago. These points
now seem simple enough.

No time is ever lost by the beginner in training his eye to appre-
ciate conformations and other qualities that go to make up high

THE BREEDER— HIS PLACE AND HIS WORK 43

class specimens. By accepting the visible qualities of fowls at their
true worth, you establish a base on which the imagination may safely
play in picturing the possibilities of birds when mating up the breed-
ing pens. Breeding is not merely a matter of pedigree; simply
breeding back to a good sire or dam is not in itself sufficient to
guarantee success, and an eye for a bird is the greatest asset that
any breeder can have.

The work of the breeder. The poultry breeder sees a great deal
of breeding. He not only is working with a species that matures
quickly and has an annual cycle, but the number of eggs that a
single hen may lay in the breeding season, or the number of young
that one sire may get, is great enough to afford a wide range for
observation and critical selection when the j-oung are grown.

A Shorthorn cattleman may buy a bred cow and raise a bull calf;
buy two heifers "on speculation"; go to a sale and buy a cow with
a calf at her side, and be termed one of the purebred breeders of his
county. In reality, such man has purchased only a little blood, and
has a feed lot back of him. The poultry breeder must be infinitely
more than this. He must be a detail man. He must know every
part of the material with which he works, and, in addition to knowing
good quality when he sees it, he must know the fundamentals of
breeding good quality.

Building a strain. There are beginners who take up poultry and
secure stock from one breeder, then from another source the follow-
ing year, keeping within the breed, to be sure; yet these buyers do
not have a clear perception of what they are seeking, because they
do not have a clear perception of what they are trying to produce.
New blood should be introduced for a definite purpose, to improve
some point, to check some fault. There can be no such definiteness
of purpose unless the breeder has a standard of quality well defined
in his mind and is ever working toward that ideal.

If the experienced breeder were to go out of business and then
begin over again to reestablish himself, he would go to a flock of
his chosen breed, and, with the Standard type firmly set in his mind,
he would select from the available specimens, with some respect to
blood lines and pedigree, those that measured up to what he required.
None would be perfect but all would be strong, healthy birds, with
a good point to balance and counteract every poor point possessed by
any other, so that, as far as possible, birds having the same defects
would not have to be mated together. This selection would give the
breeder, in his chosen birds and carefully mated pens, a selective type
that would distinctly set his line of stock ahead of the common pre-
vailing type. By interbreeding this stock, the breeder soon would
have a strain within the breed — his own strain.

The value of selection. Selection is the secret of the breeder's
magic. It enabled Sir John Sebright to produce a breed of Bantams
which bears his name and of which breed the birds were so uniform

44 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

in type, so beautifully marked and precisely colored that even his own
friends are reported to have doubted his ability to produce such won-
drous lilliputians of the feathered tribe, and to have stated openly
that he must have imported them from some foreign land.

It is selection that has enabled the Polled Hereford breeders to
breed the horns off Hereford cattle within a single decade — something
that nature had not done in all the centuries. It was intelligently
directed selection that established the American breeds and arranged
in order that medley of heredity and variation that arose when the
Asiatic and European stock was crossed.

Selection is not new. It is recorded that the ancient Chinese
sought to improve their sheep by choosing with particular care the
lambs that were to be used for breeding, in nourishing them well,
and keeping the flocks separate. They practiced the selection of rice
seed of large size. The phaeony tree has been cultivated, according
to Chinese traditions, for fourteen hundred years.

The propagation of plants and the domestication of animals is
one of the oldest pursuits of man. When the human race entered the
agricultural stage it could not have been long in learning that what
it sowed, that likewise did it reap. The appearance and very exist-
ence of his food became the result of man's own act. It is not
improbable that the cock that made a successful growth and attained
a maximum development against the one that made a moderate and
indifferent growth, has long been selected for the stud. It is said that
the Fuegian, possessing but the small intellectual attainments of the
south sea savages, practices selection in the breeding of his dogs,
and if he has "a large, strong and active bitch" he puts her to a fine
dog and takes care to feed her well, "that the young may be strong
and well favored."

Natural selection. Man works quickly by consciously making
selections of the best and most desired type. It is important, how-
ever, to realize that while man on this earth is loose in a portion
of the Creator's workshop and is endowed with a brain that aspires
and still aspires, he has only limited dominion. In addition to his
artificial selections, natural selection, or the survival of the fittest, is
working all the while. The breeder is on safe ground only as long
as he works in harmony with nature, who always is seeking to keep
the domesticated races from becoming enfeebled; and if the breeder
disregards the fundamental biological factors of constitutional vigor
and by careful selection perpetuates a short type of Wyandotte, or
effeminate type of Bantam, natural selection steps in and decreases
fertility. It is important, therefore, that all ideals should be sound,
that they should represent the most useful and productive types.

Inbreeding. Having an understanding of type which is funda-
mental in breeding, the breeder makes selections of this type from
year to year, and practices inbreeding, that variability from the
desired type may be reduced. The very word "inbreeding" is highly

THE BREEDER— HIS PLACE AND HIS WORK

45

distasteful to many people. The fact is, however, that some of the
greatest animals in history have been produced by close inbreeding.
An inbred individual has fewer different ancestors than the maxi-
mum possible number. A table showing the maximum possible
number of ancestors for twenty generations follows:

Generation

Maximum Possible
Number of Ancestors

Generation

Maximum Possible
Number of Ancestors

1st

2

llth

2,648

2d

4

12th

4,096

3d

8

13th

8,192

4th

16

14th

16,384

5th

32

15th

32,768

6th

64

16th

65,536

7th

128

17th

131,072

8th

256

18th

262,144

9th

512

19th

524,288

10th

1,025

20th

1,048,576

It is plain from this tabulation that to produce an unrelated pair
of birds at the end of twenty generations, the foundation stock would
have to number over one million head. Of course, no flock, or even
breed, could have such a multiple origin. Therefore, inbreeding in
some degree becomes necessary because of overwhelming numbers.
Inbreeding is necessary to reduce the number of ancestors and thereby
reduce the chances of variation.

Inbreeding intensifies and fixes the characters that are so bred.
It was resorted to by early breeders of purebred poultry because
outside their own or related flocks they were not able to find and
procure birds that would serve their purposes as well as birds of
their own breeding or birds of blood relationship to their own stock.
The evil effects of inbreeding are not infrequently evil effects result-
ing from the breeding of weak birds, for when father is mated to
daughter, or brother to sister, or mother to son, not only the good
points are intensified, but weaknesses are likewise augmented. If
there is a constitutional predisposition to weakness in the stock, it
becomes accentuated when bred in-and-in.

As practiced by breeders, the principal purpose of inbreeding is to
restrict, that is, to simplify, the blood lines by excluding all outside
characters and tendencies, thus intensifying the points which the
breeder has selected and which he desires to perfect and perpetuate.
It has been said that at last an inbred family breaks down and "runs
out." There appears to be no evidence of this when the standard
bred to is a sensible standard, a true ideal that does not encourage the
development and perpetuation of freakish traits. Even though it be
granted, however, that inbreeding at last leads to decadence, it is not

46 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

a sufficient argument against the intensification of good qualities. The
strain so bred, with its established quality, may raise the general
quality of the variety before the family or strain itself becomes
extinct. Even though the period of vigor for the strain should be
comparatively short, the breed as a whole partakes of the improve-
ment, and the good of the closely bred family is absorbed by the
mass as the result of the dissemination of stock birds.

The fear of inbreeding is losing its terrors. It is becoming gener-
ally understood that a fixity of type can be secured and maintained
only through in-and-in breeding. When size and vigor are selected
the same as shape and color, no disease or deformity may be
attributed to close breeding as a cause.

Linebreeding. Many cases of inbreeding do not represent line-
breeding. Linebreeding is commonly looked upon as involving the
breeding together of specimens of the same strain or family, but less
closely related than in inbreeding. This interpretation makes line-
breeding a mild form of inbreeding; but the fact is that linebreeding
may involve a very close form of inbreeding.

When the application of inbreeding is in the hands of a thinker
who is ever drawing his blood lines from the past and projecting them
into the future; when inbreeding is practiced by a constructive breeder
whose aim is to concentrate the blood of certain individuals, then
inbreeding properly is termed "linebreeding."

This term "linebreeding" was used originally by the cattle breeders
of England to indicate that the progeny were bred in a direct line
from a famous ancestor.

Inbreeding is to breed within the line; yet related specimens may
be mated to very little purpose, and some inbred flocks are not line-
bred. If a cockerel is mated to his dam to fix or intensify some
quality possessed by the dam or characteristic or her sire and the
line from which she came, the progeny resulting from the union of
that cockerel mated to his dam are linebred. When a specimen is
truly a linebred bird it is the product of a system of breeding that
has been carried on to stamp certain desirable and valuable char-
acteristics of the ancestors on the offspring.

Value of linebred birds. Breeders have been known to inbreed
their fowls for fifteen to twenty-five years without the introduction
of a single new bird. The most renowned producers of high quality
Standard specimens have been close breeders, without exception.
Invariably they have maintained that no evil effects accrue to line-
breeding. On the contrary, in, the case of these successful breeders,
their stock reaches such a high state of perfection that they know to
a nicety what may be expected from a mating before the chicks are
grown, and they dread the introduction of ^resh blood, fearing that
it will spoil the blood lines which it has taken them the greater part
of their lives to establish.

Variation. While linebred strains can be counted upon to repro-

THE BREEDER— HIS PLACE AND HIS WORK 47

duce their like with fewer birds showing a turning out of line, even
in closely bred lines in which the number of different ancestors has
been reduced considerably there are to be found fluctuations in size,
shape, color, etc. If such were not the case and there were no varia-
tions to afford the breeder a field from which to make selections,
selective breeding by which further improvement could be made
would be impossible. If there were no distinguishing differences
between birds of the same breed, there would be no best bird, no
poorest. These fluctuations give individuality to each bird and permit
it to be set definitely in the scale of values. "Variation precedes, the
breeder follows."

Those who wish to do constructive breeding should early learn
that a hen is more than a unit. A hen is an individual, arid scarcely
any two are alike. Numerous and varied charts on linebreeding have
been published, and the weakness of these theoretical chart systems
is in the fact that they estimate as mere units in a grand plan the
birds that are employed in the breeding operations from year to year.
The man who breeds chickens soon learns that there are such things
as prepotency, long life, strong constitutional vigor — all of which are
the possession of some birds. When the breeder finds such a specimen
he is able to use it to good advantage for several years. The chart
system of breeding, however, takes for granted that one specimen is
as strong a breeder as another, but every practical breeder knows that
this is not the case.

Prepotency. Occasionally there is born into the line a specimen of
unusual vigor and outstanding quality, and he not only transmits but
stamps himself upon his, progeny. Fortunate is the breeder who
secures a prepotent sire of this kind. A single instance will serve to
illustrate the value of such a bird.

For years an important section of the Buff Wyandotte fancy cen-
tered around northeastern New York state. About 1900 a number
of the best breeders participated with an entry at the Cambridge
(New York) fair to determine which of them had the best stock.
R. Brooks Robbins showed a sensational male bird which has been
described to us by John D. Jaquins as "possessing an even shade
of color, a little chestnut on tail, and nearly clear wings — about a
shade darker than is being shown now." At that time this bird was
the only short-backed, typical round-typed male of the variety that
had been shown. He was entered as a cockerel, but before the
ribbons were placed Mr. Jacquins bought the bird and reentered him
as a cock, the fair being held in August and the bird having been
hatched very late the previous season.

Mr. Jacquins bought the male for fifteen dollars. Frank Bean
offered twenty-five dollars for him. Every breeder who saw the bird
appreciated him, and Mr. Jacquins had a number of chances to sell
him, "inquiries even coming from Canada for this wonderful male
that had been written up in papers." The bird at last was purchased

48 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

by the late Warren T. Lord at something like fifty dollars and became
the foundation of Mr. Lord's fine male line. Indeed, from this sire
was developed the best line of Buff Wyandotte males in the country.

Principles of breeding. Thus far we have outlined in a general
way the work of the constructive breeder of Standardbred poultry.
Strictly adhering to a rigid standard, he makes closely culled matings,
giving the preference in reproduction only to the best; he linebreeds
to intensify the blood of these good specimens, and never fails to take
advantage of an exceptional bird that promises to improve his line.

The best breeders are always keen students, keeping records of
pedigrees by toe-marking the chicks, not infrequently making special
or experimental matings, and always noting results. Their progress
has outrun science, and the teachers of the principles which underlie
the practical breeder's art are just beginning to present comprehensive
rules which classify the subject of heredity.

The papers of G. Mendel have offered the modern basis for an
analysis of breeding. Mendel was an Austrian monk who was deeply
interested in the mode of inheritance. The results of his experiments
were first reported in 1865, but went unheeded. The papers were
rediscovered in 1900, and the last twenty years have developed a
steadily clearing conception of the processes of inheritance.

Mendel was aware that the subject of heredity was complex and
intricate, so he limited himself to simple and prominent features, such
as long stem versus short stem of peas. He crossed tall peas that
measured six feet with dwarf peas one foot high. The result was
that all the plants were tall. He therefore said that the tall character
was dominent and the short character was recessive.

These tall hybrids were then reproduced and out of a thousand
plants grown, there were approximately three that were tall to every
one that was short. It was then found that the short plants appeared
to be purebred, for the following year they produced all short stems.
When the tall plants self-fertilized and reproduced it was found that
one tall plant in three appeared to be pure and transmitted tallness
with certainty. Thus we see Mendel reducing heredity of this pair
of characters to mathematical certainty.

Inheritance of Rose and Single Combs. Mendel's pea experiment
has been repeated by crossing rose comb fowls on single comb fowls.
The results are identical, that is, all the hybrids are rose combed, and
when they are bred together they produce 3 rose to 1 single, and the
single is pure single. A pure rose comb, inheriting roseness from
both sire and dam, may be indicated by the letters R R; a pure single,
S S; while a bird that inherits roseness from one parent and the single
form from the other parent has a comb that may be designated as
R S. When pure rose is mated to pure single, that is when R R
is mated to S S the birds produced in the first generation are all rose1
combed, because rose is the dominant factor.

From the standpoint of inheritance these combs are not pure

THE BREEDER— HIS PLACE AND HIS WORK 49

rose because one of the parents was single combed. This first gen-
eration may therefore be indicated as R S. When R S is mated
together the rose and single comb factors separate themselves in
some of the progeny and 25 percent come as pure single, and 75 per-
cent as rose of which one-third are pure rose and two-thirds are
impure rose. When the 50 percent impure rose are bred together they
likewise give 25 percent pure rose and 25 percent pure single.

RRXSS

RS

F1 g-pnerati^n

1

RR

i I
R S R S

S S
r L veneration

50%

This application of Mendel's principles shows that a plant or animal
is not an indivisable whole or that the breeding of it is largely chance.
It indicates that our fowls are a combination of rather definite factors;
each character being represented in the germ cells of the reproductive
system by some factor that is transmitted not by mere chance but in
an orderly manner. It is reasonable to believe that the factors may
become contaminated in crossing and that the highest quality results
from pure breeding; but the big point is that a fowrl inherits different
characters as somewhat definite factors.

The business of the breeder, therefore, is to consider the charac-
ters in his line that are well established and can be depended upon to
reproduce themselves. The factors of perfection may exist in a flock,
yet perfection may never be exemplified in any one individual. Hav-
ing noted the points in the flock that are good, the next thing is to
consider those characters which require improvement. Perhaps size
should be increased. We have already explained in connection with
the rise of the Cochin, Chapter I, that size cleoencls upon a growth
tendency that is inherited; and this point is illustrated in Chapter II
where it is related that Standard sized Plymouth Rock males on the
government farm transmitted a tendency for increased size when
mated to small mongrel hens. The possible size of a bird is there-
fore determined by a factor for this character in the germ substance
of the egg from which the bird is born. In order to get large sized
young stock, you must therefore breed a bird of good size and sub-
stance, for feeding alone cannot grow a bird bigger than its inherited
capacity to size.

Breeding for increased egg production. Egg production likewise
depends in the first place, upon inheritance. At the Maine Agricultural
Experiment Station it was found that one female with 1,550 yolks or
ova that were visible upon examination of her ovary, had produced
13 eggs during the winter months; a female with 2,145, produced no
winter eggs; one with 2,451, laid 54 winter eggs; while a female that

50 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

was found to have 2,306 had a winter production of 3 eggs. Almost
any female will carry enough minute yolks to theoretically make a
200-egg hen for five successive years. What is it then that gears hens
up so that they will mature a larger number of these yolks and lay a
larger number of eggs? The answer is a factor that represents high
production which the bird must inherit.

There is a distinguishable difference between low production or less
than 30 eggs during the winter months, and high production or more
than 30 eggs during the winter months. Let us observe how high
producing pullets have actually been bred from low producers. The
hen that has a winter egg yield of less than 30 eggs is a hen and has
an ovary and H will stand for her. She lays some eggs and E will
stand for this character. The hen that lays less than 30 eggs may
therefore be designated as HE. Now, if a hen is to be a high layer,
a new factor is necessary in the germ plasm. Let IGHT stand for
this new factor. The low producer inherited and possesses two fac-
tors H and E, while the high producer inherited a supplemental factor
IGHT which raises the first two factors, hen and eggs, to HEIGHT
of egg production.

At the Maine Station where the breeding experiments were carried
on, it was found that females may possess all these factors and be
high producers, yet they can transmit to their pullets only the first
two, and the determining factor for high production must be possessed
and transmitted by the male. Accordingly it was found that a prop-
erly bred and fully possessed male would grade up a low producing
flock in a single generation. The factor for increased production is
not present in all males and being an invisible hereditary cell, its pres-
ence can only be determined by experimental breeding of the individual
itself. Chapter IV will hold out some help to the breeder in pick-
ing his birds for egg production according to easily distinguished
somatic characters; nevertheless, the experimental evidence on the
inheritance of fecundity is as valuable as it is interesting in showing
that inheritance for high production is not from dam to daughter but
from sire to daughter, and therefore a poor male mated to high
producing females will Decrease the production of the pullets for
they depend upon their sire for the inheritance of the excess produc-
tion factor.

The lesson to be learned. A conception of the fowl not as an
indivisible whole but as a composite whole made up in an orderly
and consistent manner of different parts which behave and are trans-
mitted as factors, gives rise to several important subjects. First, a
bird may be purebred in respect to one character and not pure in
respect to another. Blue color in chickens, for instance, is never
pure, which is to say that blue chickens always produce some black
and some splashed white chicks. Such a bird while not pure for
blue color may be pure in respect to other characters; for instance,
comb. Second, on figuring transmission the old way which was as

THE BREEDER— HIS PLACE AND HIS WORK. 51

Sire Dam

100% 100% 1st Generation

50% \ 2nd Generation

An Unsatisfactory Way of
Indicating Inheritance.

75% 3rd Generation

follows: a specimen inherits one-half from its parents, one-quarter
from its grandparents, one-eighth from its great-grandparents, for that
is not a satisfactory way of indicating inheritance, because it does not
take into account the true hereditary processes. Third, a cheap bird
that possesses a desirable feature may be employed in breeding, and
the character incorporated in the flock along with other desirable
characters already established therein. For instance, a light eye is
recessive to red, and if a flock is weak in eye color, a red-eyed bird
will improve it quickly; and this flock improver, or male, need not
have every other good quality possessed by the flock. Fourth, if a
new bird is introduced into the breeding yards, the progeny resulting
from the cross may not exhibit the desired quality in the first genera-
tion, as, for example, if a single comb character were introduced into
a pure rose comb flock, the chicks would carry rose combs; but if
these chicks are bred between themselves, they would produce a
certain proportion of pure breeding single combs.

This is an extreme example which the practical breeder will not
have occasion to duplicate but the point is that many a breeder has
introduced into his yard what appeared to be a specimen possessed
of desirable quality and being disappointed with the results, dis-
carded all the birds produced, whereas in another generation he could
expect the parental character to manifest itself in some of the chicks.
Fifth, the number of points that a breeder may strive for in a single
mating are limited. More than three or four points at a time is
beyond the range of the most skilled breeder.

The chances of satisfying the breeder's expectations and his re-
quirements by finding in a single bird that is born into the line a
combination of three or four points along which improvement is
being sought is even less than the chance of finding any one charac-
ter or a combination of any two. It is because the breeding for a
few characters at a time is not only more simple but the more cer-
tain that a large part of pedigree-breeding for eggs is carried on

52 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

with white varieties where the color consideration is all but elimi-
nated.

It should be understood that these characters or different factors
which make up the complete fowl, are not always sharply separated
from one another, or rigid and immutable as atoms are. Experi-
ence indicates that they may become somewhat contaminated in cross-
breeding. Two apparently distinct characters are sometimes asso-
ciated together, as for instance: pure yellow shank and pure black
neck plumage in a Black Wyandotte male is never found in the same
individual, it being impossible in this case for nature to give full
expression to the shank character unless a sacrifice is made in under
color of neck. Some of the other points in which the breeder is
interested will be found not to yield to simple analysis, and all of
the processes of heredity cannot be reduced to simple terms.

Values that command good prices. In the sale and distribution
of Standardbred poultry there are three measures of value (A) the
individual merit that the specimen exhibits, (B) the breeding that the
bird possesses, say its pedigree, (C) the record of the bird as a
breeder or producer of choice specimens. An occasional bird may
qualify in all three respects but such a one is almost priceless.

The majority of buyers insist on individual merit, assuming that
the bird would not possess the desired quality unless it was properly
bred. This point is carried to the extreme by many farmers who
require cockerelbred Barred Rock males. At the same time they
complain that their females run too dark, yet it is only on the
strongest representation of a conccientious breeder that they will
accept a pulletbred male which is too light in color to appear well
yet is what is needed.

High priced buyers commonly insist on "a good looker" asking
"what is the use to buy breeding value unless the bird is itself a
demonstration that the breeding will produce"? This argument holds
good nine times out of ten, but now and again you find a good looker
that has been produced from an excess color mating and is a full
brother to a number of wasters; and unless you have some idea of
his breeding it may be difficult to mate him to advantage. On the
other hand, a full brother to a winner, even though the brother is a
little coarse, may prove a splendid purchase.

A few buyers will buy breeding, figuring that breeding alone will
come cheaper than breeding coupled with individual merit. In this
case it is necessary to rely on the reputation of the seller to ship
something that is bred right. This emphasizes the importance of
buying only from an established breeder who has some standing in the
poultry fraternity. When such a purchase is made, the buyer may
feel that his bird carries the best of blood and though not presenting
the best appearance, the quality is there as a latent factor and blood
will tell. A striking instance of such a purchase was brought to the
writer's attention at the Washington (D. C.) show of January, 1917.

THE BREEDER— HIS PLACE AND HIS WORK 53

Mr. R. J. Waldron exhibited three splendid Barred Rock pullets which
won 1st, 2d and 3d. We placed one of his pulletbred cocks 1st and
another 4th. He came to us later and asked how we liked the 4th
cock, and we remarked: "He has no under barring, is almost white
half way to the skin." Yes, said Mr. Waldron, "I have sold better
looking males for $5 but I paid $50 for this fellow because he was
bred right and he is the sire of my three winning pullets."

There is a true story of a man in the northern Wisconsin woods
who bred a certain variety for many years. Every year or two he
would send to the breeder of an old established strain for a new bird,
sometimes a male, sometimes a female. Never did he receive, for the
price he paid, a specimen as good as his own best birds, and yet
his new purchase always resulted in producing better birds than he
ever had before. That was because the birds which were shipped
to him had been bred right for generations, and carried the rich,
strong blood lines of a valuable strain.

Still fewer birds are purchased on known performance as breeders.
because the life of a fowl is relatively short and by the time a bird
is a proven breeder the owner is reluctant to part with it. These
known producers are not always the image of the Standard illustra-
tions but may be rather rustic appearing. They invariably are birds
of evident vitality, standing strong and linn on legs and toes, broad
backed and well chested. Not infrequently they are found to carry
some defects that prohibit them from taking part in the great con-
tests in the show rooms and limit their career to the breeding yard.
This is not altogether unfortunate for many a finished cockerel of
great promise has been enfeebled by over showing and is then brought
home and mated to too many females. This is one reason many
cockerels never "come back" as cocks and the rougher bird at home
proves the stronger breeder.

Fortunately for the poultry breeder, the demand for males is
equal to that for females. This is as it should be. While one male
may be mated to eight to fifteen females, depending on range, etc.,
everybody is not just starting with poultry and in the market for
foundation stock. Many have the females and they simply need new
males. There are a great many Hocks of the popular American
breeds throughout the country and the big progress and big improve-
ment in building up that stock of the general people, rests in the
use of good males. "A good male is half the flock, a poor one is
more than half." A good female is of value in the hands of the
breeder, but the good of a breed is distributed and put into circula-
tion by the males. The blood of good breeding females is only dissi-
pated when in the hands of an or'dinary breeder; in the hands of a
good breeder that same blood is invaluable. The instances of
breeders getting ahead through the purchase of high-priced females
rather than males, are relatively few. On the whole, it requires more
pains and intelligent handling to develop a male than it does a female.

54 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

A somewhat larger proportion of males show poorer build and less
symmetry and finish, than females.

Fully mature breeding birds of both sexes when mated together
are the more dependable producers of the truly masculine type of
male, which is necessary if a cockerel is to display that vitality,
strength of bone, substance of body and finish of plumage that is
required in the 1st prize winners at the leading shows. A successful
breeder of males recently remarked that every fall he "puts away"
some of his best pullets and "forgets about them" until they are
hens, when they are employed in the breeding yards.

The function of breeding is to put potential qualities into that new
organism which is to develop from the germ and bursts its envelope
and usher forth into the world, and accompanying its inheritance
of shape and color must be a vital strength that will enable the
chick to make a full and successful development. This pronounced
vitality cannot be acquired, it too must be inherited from thrifty,
mature breeding stock.

CHAPTER IV
BREED TYPE

Standard of shape — Relation of size to type — Importance of plumage
— Body shape and typical shape — Body shape of good layers — Breed-
ing shape for high egg yield — Typical shape of breeds — An explana-
tion of the different sections.

While the Rocks, Wyandottes and Reds are closely allied, each
breed has a type which distinguishes it. Years ago T. F. McGrew
said that "shape makes the breed," because each breed should be
bred to a definite shape and specimens which vary greatly from this
accepted type are not worthy members of the breed. It is therefore
important, if we are to have typical specimens of the race, to know
what the Standard type is. If we refer to page 56 and look at the
profile of a typical Plymouth Rock hen, we see that her back is of
medium length with a slight concave to tail, while the back of the
Rhode Island Red is long and flat, and that of the Wyandotte is
moderately short and full.

In addition to this question of conformation, there are certain
breed characteristics such as the rose comb and round head in the
Wyandotte, which are important points in lending distinctiveness to
the breed. These distinctive points are often referred to as breed
characteristics and their perfection gives breed character to any speci-
men possessing them.

Judging the shape of a bird. The standards of shape for the
breeds take form in the breeder's mind only after study and obser-
vation afford a true basis for knowledge, but once the standard is
visualized, the judgment of the eye becomes quick and accurate and
may be trusted in preference to mechanical measurements of different
sections. To distinctly fix a clear ideal in the mind is absolutely
essential, and this not only includes the general features, but also
the minor points, for competition nowadays is so keen that nothing-
may be neglected if winners are to be put down in fast company.
Definite and complete knowledge leads to a discriminating eye and
correct judgment.

Birds are judged in the showroom by either of two systems,
score card or comparison, and the show management decides on the
method to be employed.

The purpose of the score card is to record a mathematical valua-
tion which a competent judge gives to the defects that are found
in each section of the bird being scored. The cuts, as made by the
judge, are then added, and their sum total is deducted from 100, which
is the numerical value given to perfection. Thus a bird that is cut

55

BREED TYPE 57

six points scores 94. The highest scoring specimen wins 1st, the
second highest scoring bird, 2d, and so on.

The comparative method of judging requires that the judge make
a mental comparison of the specimens on exhibition, and prizes are
then awarded by the judge according to the apparent rank of the
birds. This system is the more rapid, and also the more satisfactory
when large classes of birds of superior and nearly equal quality are
shown. In the actual practice of applying the score card, it is exceed-
ingly difficult to meet all the line gradations of stature, type, feather
and color with that mathematical accuracy which good score card
judging requires, and judgment of the eye commonly proves to be the
better measure.

Relation of size to type. The quality presented by a bird is rela-
tive. It is better or worse. Even weight which might appear to be
positive, because it can be determined by the scales, is, after all,
relative, because weight should be proportionate to the size of the
bird, and a bird that meets the Standard weight requirement because
it is fat, yet does not possess sufficient stature, fails in its general
set-up to meet the true Standard of typical shape. Size is an impor-
tant factor in the American breeds. Birds that are more than two
pounds under Standard weight are disqualified in showrooms where
the Standard of Perfection is enforced. Both weight and size arc
printed on the official score cards and although a bird may be up to
Standard weight, it may still be deficient in size.

In judging size, the bird should have a reasonably large frame and
be reasonably well fleshed. An especially fat specimen is never prime
for breeding purposes. Birds and breeds that fat uncommonly easily
are usually weak sexually. The Dorking breeders, whose fowls fur-
nished the prime table poultry of England half a century ago, helped
to spoil their own breeding stock, by fleshing their best specimens
so that when a judge laid his hand on the breast it was plump and
full. Fat males are inclined to give low fertility and over-fat females
often lay soft-shelled or misshapen eggs. Cornish breeders are today
experiencing the ill effects of over-conditioned birds.

Where heavy egg yield is the sole object in breeding, size is
easily lost, for the best layers are frequently the smaller specimens
within the breed. For this reason it is difficult to hold size in highly
specialized egg strains of the American breeds.

Every poultryman can recall instances of pullets starting to lay
early in life before they had attained the proportions and weight
that are typical of the breed and they never did grow to sufficient
size.

O. F. Mittendorff of Illinois, who has specialized for some years
in breeding Barred Plymouth Rocks for eggs, has an eye for size
that he may have typical birds to comprise his flock, and he meets
the issue by giving preference to a pullet that devotes the first 200
days to growth and development of body. This means that the

58

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

pullet starts laying when about seven months of age. She not only
* attains good size in that time, but is evidently better fitted to stand
up under the strain that metabolic demands make upon her system,
as she proceeds to convert a large amount of feed into a big number
of eggs. In other words, she is not a precocious pullet that starts to
lay very young, before full growth is attained, and then never does
develop into a Standardsized bird. The pullet that is well grown
before laying commences has a large frame and can carry consider-
able flesh, somewhat similar to a dairy cow about to go on test and
whicli has been put in good flesh prior to the lactation period.

It usually happens that pullets, which begin to lay November 1,
gain steadily in weight until March 1, increasing to the extent of about
one pound in the American breeds; and then generally fall off in
weight until September or October.

Importance of Plumage. Plumage has a great deal to do in giv-
ing shape to a bird. It has all to do with the shape of the tail and
wings and much to do with the outline of the back. In fact, the
entire contour of the bird is largely dependent upon feather develop-
ment. The neck of a dressed cock, for instance, is insignificant in
size compared to the neck with flowing hackle of a live cock. If you
strip the feathers from a Wyandotte and Rhode Island Red hen, and

lay the two carcasses to-
gether, there will not be the
difference in body shape that
the living specimens seemed
to indicate. The Wyandotte
hen's back and body plumage
were quite full, giving her
an appearance that was short
in comparison with her
length, while the flat, hori-
zontal back, low, straight-
out tail and relatively tight
feather of the Red added to
her apparent length. Breed-
ers know the importance and
appreciate the value of feath-
er formation; they know how
dependent is profile shape
upon a properly bred and
properly developed coat of
plumage.

Feather growth is costly.
Growing chickens or molt-
ing fowls requite nitrogen-

Relation of Plumage, Flesh and Skeleton, OUS f°°d tO Produce the
Reproduced by courtesy Pratt Food Company. plumage. A profuse feather

Copyright.

BREED TYPE 59

type is not as practical as a farm chicken as the harder feathered
types; and the American breeds present an intermediate tendency in
this respect, not being as tight feathered as the Game or as long and
profusely feathered as the Cochin. Some types are useful. Some are
expensive to produce. A type that depends for its shape on great length
and profuseness of feather is costly to develop, because the full
plumage has to be grown as well as the bone and body of the bird.
Some types are dangerous to produce, because they are extreme and
enfeeblement in the breed has followed their development.

Plumage adds finish. A cockerel may appear somewhat ungainly,
but as he grows and develops a proper plumage, he may "fill out."
There are many competent critics of mature birds and when the win-
ter issues of the poultry journals come out, illustrated with pictures
of the winners at the winter shows, there follows a great deal of
consideration and much discussion of the outlines of those finished
specimens. The average man has the profiles of the Standard well i«
mind. A really good judge, however, is one who can see the possi-
bilities in a young growing bird.

A man once visited the yards of Arthur G. Duston, Massachusetts,
and his eye fell upon a White Wyandotte cockerel and he spoke of
the bird as possessing wonderful possibilities. That winter this
cockerel, out of several hundred that Mr. Duston raised, won 1st
at the Madison Square Garden Show.

When the White Orpingtons were introduced we went to England
and visited a number of breeders, including Rev. A. Nodder who
had some splendid maturing young stock. He had won 1st at Hay-
wards Heath, one of the best early shows, on a cockerel that was
one of the most promising young males to be found in all England.
His tremendous bone and heavy body were plain, but he was short
in hackle feather and he was not finished in tail, needing more time
in which to complete the development of feather upon which typical
shape is so dependent.

The publication of a picture of this bird failed to create a ripple,
although another English breeder exported $12,000 worth of stock
and eggs that year. Too few could size up the quality of the Nodder
stock by the unfinished male, although if they had sought in their
own yards for a cockerel of even age, equal to the one in the picture,
they would have found that many of their own birds had shanks
like pencils, while the Nodder cockerel was standing on mill posts.
Try to visualize the possibilities of your young stock, cull out the
less promising, and give the advantages of yard space, feed and
care to those that give promise of fulfilling the outlines of the typical
specimen. Get them to roost early in life (on roosts 4 inches wide),
so that the air can circulate all around them; and see that their tail
plumage does not butt against the wall, for remember that their
finish will depend in a large degree upon feather growth,

60 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Feather is not merely to meet the Standard requirements and fulfill
the eye of the breeder and judge. Feather is one of the important
points in indicating the masculinity of a male. Immature cockerels
are equally immature in plumage. Males of low constitutional vigor
never develop wealth and furnish of feather. Full development of
feather is typical of the mature, virile male. It gives him masculinity
and markedly distinguishes him from the female. A weak and effemi-
nate male invariably lacks the complete coat of plumage which is a
sex character of a strong, virile cock.

A strong head and large face are points that also determine mas-
culinity. Too many males are effeminate in head features. In addi-
tion may be mentioned substance, as a quality which gives body to
the male and makes of him ''a rooster." Insistence on good substance
eliminates from consideration all narrow bodied, long legged birds,
which, like the scantily feathered ones, are usually weak.

Body shape and typical shape. The American Poultry Associa-
tion has failed to differentiate between the features that arise from
body formation and those that are to be attributed to plumage and
has, for instance, considered length of neck, and contour of neck, as
shape of neck, although the one is dependent on bone structure and
the other is an outline dependent upon plumage.

There are but two descriptions in the Standard and two sections
on the score card, one for shape, the other for color. This naturally
leads to an over-emphasis of type as determined by plumage, although
in a few breeds, such as Exhibition Games, where feather is bred as
short, narrow and hard as possible, it has led to an abnormal struc-
ture of body, resulting in a height or reach that impairs the utility
functions of those fowls. An understanding of structure and feather
as separate factors which contribute to shape, is desirable; the study
of the exterior alone is superficial and leads to ephemeral ideals.

What a bird looks like in the yard or show coop and how the
same bird handles in the hand of the breeder are two separate mat-
ters. A cockerel may have a pleasing outline, but upon handling
it is found that he has a thin thigh, a poorly fleshed breast, a pent-up
keel bone, or a crooked breast bone.

A few of the points of body formation must be cut on the score
card when they are found defective, and the growing tendency is to
take body formation more and more into consideration. In order
to distinguish between body formation and general outline, we recom-
mend the use of the score card shown on page 61, which we devised
after several years of experience in judging score card shows.

We found that the typical shape of the bird could only be secured
when the bird posed naturally in the coop. The moment you touched
him, he might crowd to one side of the cage, or pinch down his
feathers and thus lose his typical carriage. On the other hand, there
were defects of body formation that should be cut in scoring, such
as a crooked breast, and this fault could only be determined by taking

SCORE CARD

(Name of poultry show association here)

(Date of show and address of association here)

E.VII ibitor

yariel y SV r

Entry \o B

md No Weight

Typical Body
Shape Shape

Color

Remarks

Symmetry

Weight or Sice

i

Condition

Comb

Head
Beak

Eyes

Wattles and I'.ar Lobes.

I

Neck !

IVings
Bach

Tail •

Breast . ....

Body and Fluff

EC at and Toes

*C>'cst and Beard

^Shortness of Feather
Total Cuts

i
11

. . . .Score

. . ludac

Srrrptarv

* Applies to crested breeds. | Applies to Games and Game Bantama.

62 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

the bird in hand and feeling his breast bone. The division of shape,
therefore, was designed as a practical advance in score card judging.

New points are now being introduced, such as abdominal capacity
and shape of pelvic bones. They, too, are distinct from typical shape
or general outline and deserve separate examination and recording.

Body shape of good layers. Because the general appearance of
laying hens varies greatly, it was for a long time assumed that there
was no egg type. Egg capacity, however, has been found correlated
with body formation, and that general appearance of the bird which
is dependent on the plumage may continue to vary in different high
producers. It has been found that the good layers have large intes-
tinal development to permit the assimilation and elimination of large
quantities of food.

1

Large and small abdominal capacity. The bird on the left has
large intestines. The bird on the right is "dried up," having small
Intestinal capacity.

The carcass to the left in the illustration of dressed fowls shown
herewith, shows good intestinal development. The abdomen in the
live bird was large and soft. Large intestines are a fundamental
in good layers; but a large abdomen or belly that is full and hard
indicates layers of fat around the entrails rather than large intestines,
and such a hen is of the meat type rather than the egg type. The
body of a heavy layer in the flush of laying should not only be large
but found to be soft and pliable when your finger is gently pressed
against the abdomen.

Culling the flock. Abdominal capacity is measured by the dis-
tance between the end of breastbone and the pelvic bones. The car-
cass to the right shows small egg capacity, the breastbone curving
toward the pelvic bones so that not more than two fingers can be
placed between them. Following are shown the methods of measuring
this capacity in living specimens. On either side of the vent, just
below the vent are the ends of the two pelvic or lay bones. They may

BREED TYPE

63

be easily felt through the thin skin of the abdomen, as they are well
developed. Some aerial species of birds have small development of
pelvis, but this is not the case with the domestic hen.

The distance from the pelvic bones to the rear end of keel or

Two Fingers Capacity Between the Pelvic Bones and End of Breast-
bone— This Hen Should Be Culled and Marketed.

breastbone, varies from one to seven fingers. The larger capacity
indicates the better layer. With this should be considered the soft-
ness of the abdomen. Fat around the intestines will make the abdo-
men relatively hard, whereas in the hen of high potential egg-laying

64

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OE POULTRY

capacity, the abdomen is rather soft and pliable like the udder of a
cow after milking.

The bony structure of the pelvis should also be considered. Lay-
bones in strictly egg-type females run from about % inch in thick-
ness to about y$ inch. Over this and up to 1 inch and even \l/2 inch
is the beef type. However, a flock of White Plymouth Rock hens

Four fingers capacity. If coupled with this capacity, the abdomen
is soft and pliable like the udder of a cow that has been milked, and
the pelvic bones are reasonably thin and flexible, this is a satisfactory
hen to keep.

can be graded too closely on the laybone test, because the females
of a large breed of this kind seem to naturally carry a somewhat
heavier bone. A safe rule is that the laybone should tend to thin-
ness. They should be straight out and rather pliable when the tip
ends of the two bones are gently pressed together. When a hen lays

BREED TYPE 65

an egg, it comes out the vent passing between the pelvic arch. The
thin bone that is pliable indicates easy passage of egg, enabling the
lien to lay her egg quickly. She is thus released to scratch and gather
the food nutrients that are required to form an egg for the next day.
Such a hen is an easy layer, soon off the nest and busy scratching,
wearing down her toenails.

In the hen has curved pelvic bones, curved together like a pair of
cow's horns, and they are rigid, not pliable, we would cull her out,
even though she had fair capacity. Hens with thick bones put on fat
easily. The thin bone is an indication of the egg type or temperament
which readily converts the feed consumed into eggs. J. W. Parks'
325 egg hen, Miss Smarty, has laybones y2 inch thick. The feature,
however, is counterbalanced by an enormous crop, 7 finger abdomen
and large body.

Internal organs. It cannot be said that body measurements and
the laybone test are an infallible guide. The trapnest is the sure guide,
just as the milk test rather than the capacious barrel and roomy udder
is the sure test in judging dairy cows. The correlation is not a unity,
but the value of body formation is so great that it deserves equal recog-
nition with other points of conformation. After all, we cannot judge
the whole bird. The viscera is entirely hidden from our view, and yet
if those internal organs fail to perform their function, if because of
faulty heart tissue the circulatory system fails in the assimilation and
distribution of the digested food constituents, the bodily organism must
fail and the bird die. Our judgment is limited to the somatic features
and any part of the body which we can examine and which may have
a relationship with the internal functioning of the animal should not
be dismissed as unworthy of our attention.

The heart, gizzard and intestines are hidden from view, yet we
know that we want large vital organs, for if birds are to grow fast and
lay with intensity, they must be equipped to digest large amounts of
food quickly. Of course, we do not want a heart in a chicken as strong
as the heart of a lion, for the single beat of such an organ would send
blood rushing through the valves with such a pressure that it woulr;
burst the arteries; but we do want internal strength proportionate with
the life, necessary activity and designated purpose of the species.

Selecting breeders for shape to produce heavy laying offspring.
There is much that is invisible, particularly that which is carried in the
invisible cells of the reproductive organs. Mendelism and the segrega-
tion of characters have shown that birds are impure in some respects,
even though we consider them as coming from a pure breeding strain
and look upon the chickens of a single purebred flock as identical in
composition. If the body and laybone tests are rejected, extensive
breeding experiments must be carried on to determine which male
carries the factor for high egg production and if a prepotent trans-
mitter of that factor. Dr. Charles H. Woods, director of the Maine

66 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Agricultural Experiment Station, at which Dr. Raymond Pearl did his
notable breeding work, writes:

The test always comes in the number of eggs that the pullet offspring produces.
These records can be obtained only from trapnesting and recording accurately the
records of the individual fowl. Hence, if the producing qualities of birds in a flock
are known for a few years it is possible, with reasonable accuracy and correct
analysis of the data, to obtain a knowledge of which birds carry the hereditary factors
for egg production. There are, as you say, nine possible classes of males carrying
the factor for high egg production or its allelomorph. These classes will not, of
course, be in equal numbers. Only one of the classes will carry no factor for egg
production, and only one of the classes will carry both factors for egg production,
homogenous in the individual. All possible stages in between are, of course, possible.

This condition respecting the Gametic construction of the germ
cells, justifies the practical breeder in looking for some easily deter-
mined, somatic test, such as body capacity and pelvic bone formation.
Experience would seem to justify such a course. F. S. Tarbill, an ex-
perienced breeder and judge writes:

In a general way I have found the male to influence the egg-laying qualities
of his pullets in quite a marked degree. In my own flock, you may remember the
hen which was third at Peoria a year ago last winter. She was the mother of the
first cock at the same show. Well, this hen was a remarkable layer. I trapped her
for two months and she laid fifty-seven eggs during that period, and also kept right
on all summer and fall. I mated her to her own cockerel, which, while a good
exhibition bird, was of small capacity (one and one-half fingers) and quite heavy
and crooked in bone. The pullets from this mating were comparatively poor layers ;
although I did not trap them, I know that the flock average that year was poor as
compared to the hen. Last season I mated these same pullets to a male that was
extra large in capacity (four fingers) and with a thin, straight pelvic bone. My
next-door neighbor has fourteen pullets from this mating. They are not selected,
but just as they came, and they have laid as follows since the first of the year:
January, 198 eggs; February, 250; March, 287, and up to the 13th of this month
(April), 124. This is a flock average of about sixty percent — a quite perceptible
increase over my pullets last year; but as figures are ladking for the one season, 'this
may be of no. value to you.

On this interesting subject, C. R. Baker, specialty breeder of Buff
Plymouth Rocks, who has been a leading winner at the Chicago and
New York shows, and who is a strong advocate of the body formation
test, writes as follows:

I have had several cases, two very distinct ones, where the males practically
ruined the egg-laying efficiency of their pullets, the pullets' dams being good as
layers themselves. Also, we have had decided improvements in pullets over their
dams as layers when sired by a high-testing male. However, I cannot state definitely
that either male or female outweighs the other in influencing the pullets' laying
efficiency, when it comes to taking sex alone into consideration. I want them
both good, and an exceedingly poor one of either sex is discarded, for it surely
will pull down its mate, as we have demonstrated. The greater the prepotency and
vitality of either specimen, as you are aware, combined with its egg-laying efficiency,
the greater will be the degree to which its chicks will follow its tendencies.

Body shape for meat production. When meat property is the
desideratum, the body capacity should measure about four fingers from
pelvis to end of keel, and the pelvic bones should be heavy with gristle
and fat. Such a hen will lay on fat easily, and if she is to be kept in
good breeding condition she should be fed sparingly and exercise <n-

BREED TYPE 67

duced by scratching in litter for feed; and while she will not be a high
layer, the eggs she lays should produce big boned cockerels of good
substance and good fleshing possibilities. Such birds make prime
capons.

The breeder must always have a definite idea of what he is aiming
to produce, a clear conception of what he is desirous of accomplishing,
and he must adhere persistently to one standard.

Typical shape of breeds. No matter whether you breed for eggs or
meat, the distinctive type of the breed should not be sacrificed. It is
comparatively easy to build up a flock that is strong in any one point
if all others are ignored. Such breeding is not well balanced, and such
a flock can never excite the admiration and secure the plaudits of a very
large section of the interested public. Such birds, even though they
are of pronounced efficiency in their own particular forte, never com-
mand the highest prices. Moreover, highly specialized breeding of
this kind cannot long endure; the strain so built lacks permanence and,
if it is not reinforced from time to time with other blood, runs out.

"Shape makes the breed and color the variety," and no breeder
can afford to sacrifice the shape that alone makes a specimen typical
of the breed. It is not necessary to sacrifice utility in order to get
breed character in the Plymouth Rocks, Wyandcttes and Rhode
Island Reds of today, for the standards for those breeds are true,
not false standards. There is always a tendency to ride hobbies, to
get a Wyandotte a little shorter, to get a Red a little longer than is
typical of an active, normal fowl. However, enough old races, such
as the round bodied, profusely feathered Cochin, the long legged,
short feathered Exhibition Game, and the elongated Dorking, have
been spoiled as commercially profitable fowls, for modern breeders
to understand the importance of well-balanced, symmetrically-built
birds.

Breeding standardbred poultry is not merely a pastime for the
rich, or a game in which silk ribbons and silver cups are offered as
prizes. It is a business of opportunities and responsibilities. When
during the show in New York one of the great metropolitan dailies
laid aside war, politics and big business, and came out with an illus-
trated editorial on purebred poultry, it was to mention, not the win-
ner of a prize, or the player of a game, but to give credit to a great
improver of domesticated fowls.

Purebred poultry must always justify itself from an economic
standpoint, otherwise there is no economic reason for its extension,
or no basic reason for its existence in preference to scrubs or plain-
breds. It is, therefore, of capital importance that breed type shoul 1
be developed along sane lines, so that the nearer the makeup of a
bird approaches to standard type, the more dependably useful and
truly valuable that fowl will be as a breeder of chickens that will
grow flesh and produce.

68 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Fads are ruinous. We are not unmindful of the enthusiasm of
fanciers and the fact that their enthusiasm will always lead them to
lay emphasis on the smallest points. We look for advancements
from none other than those who have this interest and keen percep-
tion. Were it not for fanciers, we would still have little other than
the old dunghill sort of fowls. However, artificial selection should
never be encouraged along the lines of ephemeral standards, and
breeders, judges and standard makers should stop to inquire which
are the true types that represent the greatest usefulness and pro-
ductiveness.

Faddist breeding and judging in our great American breeds should
never be encouraged. Hobbies ruin breeds, and fanciers who profess
to love their fowls, should not, for the sake of making money, pur-
sue a course that is detrimental to the welfare of the breed. It is not
morally right to encourage a feature that strikes at the vigor and
strength of the race.

No breed is ours to ruin if we choose; we inherited it from that
great school of breeders who preceded us; we leave it to that pos-
terity which shall succeed us. They have a right to expect from us a
Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte or Rhode Island Red that carries vigor
and robustness, maturing qualities and prolificacy. We received these
breeds as the giants of our American fowls — as well balanced fowls,
the first fowls in all our land. We are the custodian of them for a
little time. Are we handing them down to each succeeding year
unspoiled and unblemished for having bred them? Are we stewards
worthy of our inheritance, or are we striving to make a little money
out of each new fad; and, in judging, do we prefer to cater to every
impulse and caprice of petty breeders who, never having learned to
see a whole chicken, make hobbies of particular sections?

In England the breeding of poultry has run in two parallel lines
which do not meet, utility and fancy. In the days of cheap feed, fancy
ran ahead. Now that England is obliged to make more of an effort
to feed herself, and finds it profitable to do so, the utility types are
hading in popularity and sales. In America we have beauty and
utility combined. On this important matter of fancy and utility
combined Pacific Poultryman has printed a well written, unsigned
article from which we quote:

The American idea of utility and beauty in combination in domestic animals
and birds is that those forms and elements of beauty which are expressions of actual
worth, and those which are attractive and in no way inimical to utility qualities,
should be cultivated, but that those which are in any measure incompatible with
usefulness ought to be eliminated.

A section for symmetry. The complete type of a bird is built up
of different sections which, added together, make the whole outline.
Every standard shaped specimen of good vigor is a bird of symmetry;
that is, he presents a balanced structure, for there is a perfection to
each of the parts, such as comb, head, legs, wing, back, tail, etc.. which

BREED TYPE 69

combine to make a perfect whole. The term "symmetry" has been
much abused and the abuse has lead to misunderstanding. This has
resulted from symmetry being placed in the scale of points and given
a valuation of four points out of the one hundred which is thei
numerical valuation given as the sum total of perfection.

Symmetry is the harmonious blending of all the parts. It is the
harmony of proportion. Many judges refuse to cut a bird for sym-
metry, stating that when they cut a specimen for shape of neck, back,
tail, wings, breast, body and legs, they have proceeded on the basis
that if the bird in question were corrected in those faulty sections to
the extent which the cut represents, the result would be a perfect
whole; and that the bird cannot in fairness be cut on symmetry of
the whole, for such would be an additional and superfluous cut.

If a bird should be cut for color in each section in which it is
defective, and then cut for harmony of color as a whole, the cut
would be as justifiable as a cut for harmony of proportion or sym-
metry. We pointed out this fact to the American Poultry Associa-
tion Convention at Atlantic City in 1913, and symmetry was dropped
from the scale of points, only to be reinstated to its former position
at the next meeting held in Chicago, when men who had never
judged a bird and knew little of applying the scale of points to speci-
mens, arose and talked about every animal having a symmetry of
form, and so befouling the issue that the popular vote was cast in
favor of symmetry as a distinct and separate feature in the shape of
specimens.

I. K. Felch, the father of the score card, was opposed to a section
for symmetry. He maintained that it enabled judges to award prizes
under suspicion, for after cutting for defective shape in the different
shape sections, judges were privileged to give a bird an additional
cut for symmetry — a cut that was not explained, since it defied ex-
planation, and the bird so cut lost in close competition with the one
passed as perfect in symmerry.

Sections considered in judging. The different sections of a bird
are given on the score card, page 61, and the different parts of
a bird are shown in the diagram of the male, page 70. It is im-
portant that the breeder should become thoroughly familiar with the
names of the different parts.

We recall that when the Silver Penciled Wyandotte first came
out, and the variety was first illustrated, we, as a beginner, set for
ourselves the task of learning the different sections. At that time the
nomenclature in the Standard of Perfection was a caricature, and
poultry literature as a whole was in a very feeble stage. As we read
the sections under the Standard caricature, and applied them to the
Silver Penciled Wyandotte male, we wondered if we should ever be
able to learn and to know the different sections.

We remember, too, that the wing was the first section that we

70

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

ever actually saw in a chicken. Theretofore, we had looked at a
bird as a whole and had not seen that the whole was made up of
parts in which pronounced variations migh occur. Again, it was a
long time before we could see the brass or straw color on the back
of a White Wyandotte male. The bird seemed to be white enough,
and it was a source of secret discouragement to have others speak
of "brass" which we could not see. Since that time, we have officiated

POINT?

Diagram of Male, Showing Different Sections.

as a judge at the New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago shows,
and have served on a committee of judges to award the special for
the best bird in the Madison Square Garden, New York, show. If
this little personal history will prove a source of inspiration and
encouragement, we shall feel compensated for the diversion into
intimacies.

We received our early training in score card shows. When a

BREED TYPE 71

beginner is asked to participate in a comparison show, he is being
asked to read before he can spell; he is being asked to sum up the
value of the whole bird before he is acquainted with the parts that
make the whole. Comparison judging is the quickest and most
accurate means of placing prizes; but the analytical value of the
score card makes of the exhibition a far better schoolroom for
beginners.

As ground work for a liberal understanding of what constitutes
a good specimen, let us discuss the sections one by one. We shall
consider the three breeds, Rocks, Wyandottes and Reds together,
for how are we to know what "medium" means in the Rock, unless
we see and understand what "short" means in the Wyandotte and
"long" means in the Rhode Island Red?

Explanation of the different sections. Back: The back is the
one section which gives the greatest distinction to a bird or a breed.
In the Plymouth Rock the back should be of medium length. The
tendency among prominent breeders is to produce backs that are
longer rather than shorter of medium. This is particularly noticeable
in the best males.

The back of the Rock should be carried horizontal. A back that
slopes down to the tail, like a shed roof, throws up the breast and
throws down the tail and spoils the typical carriage of the specimen.
The back should be broad at the shoulders and the breadth should
be carried back all the way to the tail. Sometimes the long feathers
that grow out of the sides of the back are bent and broken back-
wards or steamed up, so as to give apparent width to the back.
However, the true proportions may be determined by taking the
bird in the hands and feeling the width across the hips. The plumage
on top of the back, near the tail, should be full enough to make a
slight concave sweep of back to tail.

In the Wyandotte, the plumage of the back is more roundly
developed. The male's saddle should be broad and rise with a full
development to tail. The female's back should likewise have a full
feather development and the plumage at the rear of the back which
forms the cushion, should present a somewhat rounded appearance.
Observe the backs of Plymouth Rocks and Wyandottes as shown
in the illustrations in this book, for these pictures present typical
birds.

The standard Wyandotte back is shorter than the Plymouth Rock
back, and the slightly convexed cushion adds to the apparent short-
ness of the WTyandotte back. In Rhode Island Reds the back is
long. The Plymouth Rock is medium, the Wyandotte moderately
short, the Red long. The back of the Red should be level, flat its
entire length, with only a minor sweep to tail to overcome the crude
form of a tail sticking out of the back and the two sections not
blending together with sonie harmony.

72 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

In addition to the typical shape of the back, which is largely de-
pendent upon plumage, the back of the bird should be felt in the
hands, its breadth across the hips should be felt, and if the back is
humped up, or there is a ridge on the back, or the bird is hipped,
the defects are major, not minor ones.

Tail: The tail gives balance to the bird. The Wyandotte has
the highest tail, for if the tail were carried low it would add apparent
length to the body of the bird. The tail is carried low in the Rhode
Island Red to carry out the general impression of length. In the
Rock the general carriage of the tail is between, with the best
breeders aiming at a trifle lower carriage rather than higher carriage,
for the general setup of the Rock is medium with a tendency to length.

The carriage of the tail depends on the main tail feathers. The
sickles, lesser sickles, coverts and hangars lay over the male's main
tail feathers. These furnishings should be particularly abundant in
the Wyandotte male and practically cover the main tail feathers
from view. Pinched or scantily furnished tails, or perpendicular
tails are very objectionable. Sometimes pinched tails are spread by
the quill in each main tail feather being broken by bending between
the first finger and the thumb. These breaks are easily felt by
running the finger along the quill, and a bird faked in this way
should be disqualified by the judge.

Some Wyandotte breeders have been at a loss to understand how
to solve the tail question. Disregarding the standard requirement
of the quills of main tail feathers to be carried at fifty degrees above
the horizontal, in a fear of high tails, they have bred low tails and
then pulled out the main tail feathers several weeks before the show
and exhibited their birds with two to four weeks' growth of main
tail. Whenever a judge sees a young main tail covered with fully
grown, mature sickles and coverts, he should penalize the specimen.
The way to meet the tail issue in the Wyandotte is to breed the
fifty degree standard tail, and then birds whose feather growth is
fairly and properly matured may be put down in the best shows
and their shape outline will meet the criticisms of competent judges.

It is desirable to pay some attention to the length and breadth of
the feathers in the tail coverts of the females and observe to what
extent they lay up on the main tail feathers, for in mating females
of good development in this respect, you get away from a sharp
juncture at base of tail (where it joins with the back) in the male
offspring. The two top main tail feathers in females are often
plucked, as they are usually longer and more pointed than the rest
of the feathers in this section; also they are often found to be
off-color to some extent in the parti-colored varieties. The plucking
of these two feathers results in a smoother formed tail in a female
and is considered legitimate fitting.

Neck: The neck joins the back in the fore part, as the tail joins

BREED TYPE 73

the back aft. The neck of the male is much heavier and fuller than
the neck of the female, because of the longer plumage that grows
on the male neck. A weak bird has a long, thin neck with the
hackle feathers drawn up from the body, while a masculine type of
male has an abundant hackle flowing well over the shoulders and
blending with the body plumage. Early in the show season, when
the hackle plumage is not all in, the neck is found defective in shape,
but it is a shape defect that will right itself with time.

It is particularly important that the neck of the Wyandotte
should be well arched to carry out the graceful curves characteristic
of the breed. The neck of the Rock is somewhat longer and not
as fully arched, and the neck of the Red is similar, the distinctive
character of the Red being found in other sections.

Wings: The wings lie at the side below the back line and the
bottom line of the wings should be horizontal, carrying out the level,
well-balanced effect secured by a horizontal back. If the wing
droops like a sword hanging from a belt, it is defective in shape
and spoils the symmetry of the profile.

The wings of the Wyandotte are medium in size. The wings of
the Rhode Island Red are large and long. The wings of the Plymouth
Rock are as long, because the body of the bird is somewhat larger
than that of a Red; and it is desirable that the long flight feathers
of the wing should be flat and not curve inward. If the end points
of the wing curve in to the body, they make the bird appear shorter.
The wings of the Wyandotte should be slightly convexed at the
wing bows, but the primaries and secondaries should not pinch in
at the wing points, for in this breed, with its fuller development of
cushion, wings that pinch in spoil the sides of the bird. The sides
should be as smooth as possible, the cushion and wing points meeting
without a pronounced line of demarkation.

The wings should be found to be well formed when the wing
is opened out; the formation should be so perfect, and the muscles
sufficiently strong, to fold the wing back correctly and firmly. When
there is an open space between the primaries and secondaries when
the wing is opened, the defect is called a split wing. When the
primaries fold on the outside of the secondaries, the defect is known
as a twisted wing, and such a specimen is only fit for market. When
a single twisted feather grows in a wing, it is well to pluck it and
let another one grow to take its place. When a primary or secondary
feather is plucked because of off-color, the wing should be cut on
shape because of missing feather.

Breast: When a bird is viewed from the front, there should be
good distance between the wings. This gives breadth to the breast.
The greatest deficiency in breadth of breast is found in Plymouth
Rocks that have been bred for length of back and in Rhode Island
Reds that have been bred to an elongated ideal irrespective of the

74

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

thickness of the body. We must not be satisfied merely with a nice
profile view. The legs must be well spread. The wings and legs of
birds do not want to be so long that they are poorly fleshed; or
do we want birds that are shallow in body. Such specimens may
present a satisfactory side view, but the moment a good judge
turns the bird around and looks at its front he pronounces it
"slab-sided." A specimen of this kind is too "weedy" to be a strong,
virile useful bird and should not be used. This defect is most com-
mon in cockerels.

Again turning the bird around to a side view, we find the depth
and roundness of breast of much importance in the profile. The
breast of the Wyandotte should be deep and round; the breast of the
Rock, not quite so deep but well rounded; the breast of the Red,
quite straight down in front and quite deep. We have a long flat
back on the Red, and we want a deep square breast, for this body
when complete should present something of the appearance of a
brick set lengthwise on edge. In the Wyandotte, we want the
breast to carry out the full, curved lines that are typical of the
breed.

In measuring depth of breast, it is well to draw a line from where
the hackle and back join to the front point of the breastbone. When

the line is short, the breast
lacks fullness.

Body and fluff: Fluff covers
the belly, or abdomen, and,
being short, does not exert much
influence on shape. The body
section may be spoiled with
long plumage. As a section, it
has never been considered of
major importance. This has
been a grave error. From for-
ward point of breastbone
around to vent, there is an un-
derline that includes the whole
part of the body, and no mat-
ter how fine a top line a bird
may have, the under line must
be equally good to form a stand-
ard body.

Length of keel or breast-
bone influences the length of
this underline. If the keel is

_ curved up at the rear, the

belly will be small and con-
Buff Rock Male Deficient in Breast. tracted, and such a bird wjl

BREED TYPE

75

usually not be found in lay-
ing condition. The correct
underline can best be deter-
mined by studying the pic-
tures of good birds. In this
study it will soon be ob-
served that more winners
fail in underline than in any
other one feature, and many
birds that look good except
for some unnamed deficiency
will be found faulty in un-
derline.

A crooked breastbone is
sometimes due to poor con-
stitutional strength, or roost-
ing on narrow roosts. Grow-
ing cockerels of the Amer-
ican breeds should roost on
2x4's, broad side up.

Legs: The Standard allots
three points out of one hun-
dred to shape of legs and
toes, while the other major
shape sections are alloted

five points each. There is no practical value in the Standard
scale of points. A bird stands on its legs; they bear the body and
well formed legs and toes are as important as back, neck, breast, or
wings, and one of these sections is no more indispensable than the
others. It is absurd to apportion five points to shape of back and
three to shape of legs; or eight to comb and three to legs.

Length of leg gives station to the bird. If the legs are too short
the bird appears squatty. If the legs are weak at the hock joint,
they betray weak constitutional vigor; the bird is knock-kneed and
inactive. A knock-kneed bird should not be employed in breeding.

The toes should be straight and well spread. If the two outer toes
are close together, it shows that the bird does not stand strong and
is constitutionally weak. The hind toe should be well formed. It
should be joined to the shank, not too high up, and above all, pro-
ject backward and not turn forward. This latter defect is known as
"duck foot," and when a bird carrying the defect is bred, the de-
formed hind toe is quite persistent in reproducing itself.

The tibia or drumstick should be visible and not be completely
covered with plumage, except in Wyandotte hens, where the long
fluff sometimes completely covers the tibia down to the hock joint.
You cannot secure a smooth underline when the drum stick is lost

Knock-Kneed Barred Rock Male.

76 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

in the fluff; however, this is a minor defect found in the majority of
heavy bodied hens, yet it is a point that may decide prizes in very
strong competition. We would not consider it a fault in a Wyandotte
hen selected to breed cockerels.

The tibia is erroneously termed the thigh. The fact is that the
thigh of a chicken lies under the skin; it bends the same as a man's
knee. The drumstick or tibia and shank bend backward at the hock,
for the hock joint corresponds with man's ankle.

The section "Legs," as measured by the eye, includes both shanks
and drumsticks. Both bones should be of medium length in the
Rock, short in the Wyandotte and rather longer than medium in the
Red. A long legged Wyandotte is utterly useless. A short legged
Red is of no value; however, there is a tendency to breed an extreme
length. As long as the drumstick is stout, length is permissible,
but when station is secured at the expense of meat on the drumstick,
the long, poorly fleshed leg will be found associated with a shallow
body, and such a bird does not represent the most useful and pro-
ductive type of Rhode Island Reds, notwithstanding the fact that when
viewed from the side, this slab-sided specimen may have an attrac-
tive profile. The same applies to Rocks, but the tendency to breed
high station is not so strong among Plymouth Rock breeders.

A fine boned shank usually indicates a small, fine boned body. A
coarse boned shank is not desirable. Smooth, nicely laid on scales
on the shanks and toes are very desirable. Creases or grooves down
the shanks are objectionable.

Scaly legs, easily recognized by the enlarged rough appearance
of the shanks and toes, are caused by minute mites, which burrow
in prodigious numbers beneath the scales, forming a yellowish,
powdery substance which raises up the scales and makes the shanks
rough and heavy appearing. Scaly legs is a diseased condition, and
it is optional with the judge whether he shall cut legs so affected
for shape and write the word "condition" in the remark column, or
cut the bird for condition and write the word "shank" in the column
for remarks. It might be clearer to write in the remark column
on the score card the words "scaly legs" to explain the cut. Good
breeders never exhibit a scaly leg bird; they scarcely ever have one.
for they never keep one around, never breed one and, most of all,
never set a female so affected.

Head: Having considered the body and the legs which bear and
move the body, we shall now turn to the head, the seat of the senses
which direct the body. A good head is the crown of the whole
bird, and a poor head irreparably stamps the bird as poor, regardless
of how good it may be in any other section, or in a combination
of all other sections.

The skull contains the brain which dominates the activity of the
bird, If the skull is narrow, not wide across, it indicates fine bone

BREED TYPE 77

throughout the body. If the head is rather long, there is every indi-
cation of weakness; and when the skull, lacking breadth, is long, the
bird is spoken of as "crow headed" or "snake headed." Such a speci-
men should be classed as useless for stock purposes.

The eye gives expression to the intellect. If the bird is quick
and active, it has a bright eye, "as bright as a shoe button." Droop-
ing eyelids bespeak inactivity. The eye should be big and clear, so
that the bird may see everything that there is to eat and anything
that is going on. Too many Rhode Island Red females have over-
hanging eyelids. Such birds are often small, weak specimens and
even though they may occasionally win high prizes, the breeder
cannot depend on these drooping-eyelid pullets to breed the fine, big
richly furnished cockerels that win the premier honors in the cockerel
class.

The face is the bare skin on the head over and below the eyes.
A chicken has a face, and a big open faced bird is considered stronger
than a small faced one. In a male, a big face is an indication of
masculinity. All of E. B. Thompson's Barred Rock males have big
faces, and it is a point that this breeder has not overlooked.

The skin on the face, particularly of females, should be smooth
and of fine texture. Wrinkled faces reflect the Malay and Aseel blood
that runs in the blood of some varieties, particularly Reds, and these
wrinkled 'faced hens can be depended upon to be big, heavy boned,
heavy muscled specimens, but they are shy on egg yield. A truly
fine pullet has a smooth face.

The ear lobe is the fold of bare skin just below the ear socket.
A fine texture skin on face and a large face usually are associated
with well developed ear lobes. A very long or very short lobe
spoils the symmetry of the face in the American breeds.

The wattles are the pendant fleshy growths that hang below the
face and beak. They should not be coarse in texture or so long a^
to hang in wrinkles, but should be nicely rounded, of equal length
and smooth texture. Folds are minor faults. Very short wattles,
like very short lobes, fail to give the desired strength to the face.

The beak, including an upper and lower mandible, is the horny
projecting mouth part. A chicken has no hands and uses its beak
to pick and break up food. It is important that the beak should
be well formed, straight out, and the upper bill be properly curved.
A crooked beak should disqualify; in fact, such a specimen is so
deprived of food that its growth is slower than other chicks in the
flock, its development is soon arrested and it becomes the easy prey
of disease. A stout regularly curved beak is always desirable and
important.

A good way to measure the length of the head is to gauge the
distance from the center of the eye to the tip end of the beak. A
long headed bird may have a long back, but a length of body is of

78 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

no value when secured at an unmistakable loss of vitality, as is
made apparent by a long narrow head. Plymouth Rock males par-
ticularly should be observed in respect to this point, and regardless
of how beautifully long they may be, the breeder should remember
that a weak head makes a weak bird. This may not be a deciding
point on the part of the officiating judge but the breeder should
always select birds with a view to the permanence of his strain;
and a judge who rises to be a master of his profession should make
.his selections with a view to the permanence of the breed. Weak-
ness means poor hatching qualities in the eggs, poor growth in the
chickens, disappointed beginners and abandoned breeds.

The comb is the appendage of the head which is usually first
observed by beginners. All Plymouth Rocks and half the Rhode
Island Reds have single combs, and all Wyandottes and the other
half of the Reds have rose combs. The comb is a sort of barometer.
When the bird is not in good condition, or is molting, the comb is
small. It may be tinged with blue when the bird's liver is inactive.
When the specimen is healthy, vigorous and productive, the blood
pressure increases the size and bright red color of the comb. There
should be from four to six points on a single combed specimen of
these breeds, the center point on a strong headed bird being above the
eye. This puts more of the comb in front than many breeders fancy,
but if they will study the most vigorous males, they will find that
the comb is not cut away in front, but is well built in front. The
comb should be free from wrinkles, twists, hollows or other un-
sightly formations. While the standard calls for five points, one
point more or less is not considered a factor by competent breeders;
the principal consideration being good balance, sound formation
and smooth texture.

In rose comb varieties the comb should fit the head closely and be
firm to the head; covered with small pebbling and terminate in a
spike that follows the shape of the head.

CHAPTER V.
COLOR AND STRUCTURE OF PLUMAGE.

The beauty of plumage — Utility of plumage — Structure of the feather

— Texture of the plumage — Colors found in the plumage — Color

patterns — Breeding — Color and markings — Growth of plumage.

In addition to giving shape and outline to the bird and affording
protection to its body, the plumage may be bred to carry beautiful
color patterns. The relation of plumage to typical shape was dis-
cussed in the preceding chapter, and the markings, color and structure
of the feathers will be taken up in this chapter.

The beauty of plumage. Poultry breeders are occasionally criti-
cized for laying too much stress upon feather. The reply may be
made that the breeders of no other form of animal life have had
either the opportunity or the temptation to develop color schemes
such as are found in domestic fowls. Feathers are a unique char-
acteristic of birds, distinguishing them from other animals. With
plumage, there is the possiblity of producing not merely a bay or
black or belted specimen, but there is the opportunity to produce a
complete color design on the individual feather.

There are always some to ask: "Why put emphasis on beauty
in a utility race and demand distinctiveness of barring in a Barred
Plymouth Rock and clear, open centers in a Silver Wyandotte; will
not the cuckoo colored Rock grow as well, or will not the mossy
Silver \Vyandotte be as good a layer?"

If you could present a pen of sharply-barred Barred Rocks or
open-laced Silver Wyandottes to the most shiftless and careless
farmer in your township, he would probably get more eggs and raise
more chickens than he ever did before because he would take a new
interest in the fowls, and, taking pride in them, would give them
more thoughtful care and better attention than had previously been
given by him to his poultry.

Why did nature make the robin red breasted? Would it not seek
out and eat caterpillars, cut worms, white grubs and earth worms
just as well if it were no more beautifully colored than a common
sparrow? Would not the wood thrush continue to eat ground-infest-
ing insects and larvae, or the woodpecker spend its time seeking
larvae hidden in the crevices of posts and under the bark of trees, if
they were the plainest of birds? Beauty does not prevent these birds
from fighting insects and eating weed seeds and thus working
with and for mankind. Does their beauty need defense? "Tf eyes
were made for seeing, then beauty is its own excuse for being."

80 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Not exclusively ornamental. The American breeds are not orna-
menal to the same extent as the White Crested Black Polish, whose
lustrous-black body plumage is crowned by a large, open, white,
crysanthemum-like crest. The general make-up of the American
breeds is in keeping with their employment with enough design and
color in their attire to lift them above the commonplace.

The important thing is for breeders to so thoroughly understand
the inheritance of color-types, to so completely master the subject,
that standards will be written which call for details that are con-
sisent with the breeding tendencies of varieties. Then we shall see
parti-colored fowls rivaling the self-colored varieties in popularity
because they are equally dependable breeders of their own likeness.

At the Sixth National Egg Laying Contest held at Mountain
Grove, Mo., the following records for egg production were made by
the different groups of hens:

All hens of all breeds in the contest laid an average of 175.2 eggs
each for the year. All parti-colored varieties of the American breeds
laid an average of 176.2 eggs per hen. All white varieties of the
American breeds averaged 192.1 eggs per bird for the year.

Records of the First National Egg Laying Contest held at Moun-
tain Grove, Mo., show that the parti-colored fowls of the American
breeds averaged 136 eggs each and the white varieties of these breeds
averaged 121.5 eggs per hen for the year. Compared to the records
of the sixth contest, we find that the intervening years has seen both
groups of fowls advance, but the advantage has laid with the self-
colored varieties. It is particularly important, therefore, for breeders,
judges and Standardmakers to always bear in mind that while it is
just as natural for a penciled fowl to be penciled or a laced fowl to
be laced as it is for a fowl to be white or black, the color require-
ments as set forth in the Standard text and aimed for in the breeding
yard or show room, must not be in conflict with the nature of pen-
ciling or lacing, for the difficulty of obtaining artificial require-
ments adds greatly to the complexity of the breeder's matings. Work-
ing under a natural standard, the breeder can produce good color
coupled with good utility.

The fancier as a student. The constructive type of breeder devel-
oped the breeds with their size, type and breed characters, and he
also established the color. We are apt to think of the fancier as
given to breeding color alone and devoting his time to fine points —
but the bird of good substance is also of his production.

It is true that the fancier will spend hours in the breeding yard
sudying a minor detail of color. He may take a hackle feather from
a Rhode Island Red and observe an orange red ground color and
black stripe extending through it, and ask himself whether he can
produce a rich, red ground color by tolerating this black stripe, or
whether in reality the stripe is a factor that belongs to another color
type and is not an excess of color that can diffuse itself into a darker

COLOR AND STRUCTURES OF PLUMAGE 81

ground color in the neck plumage of the next generation. In the
latter case, to breed striping would not result in the desired darker
hackles but in the perpetuation of striped hackles which are, of course,
objectionable in a Rhode Island Red.

The breeder must then come to the conclusion that he can only
depend upon producing a darker ground color by eliminating the
striped bird from the breeding pen and using birds for breeders that
are strongly pigmented with red with perhaps a bar of slate in the
undercolor to indicate strength of color.

It is not an idle problem. The public will not accept the Rhode
Island Red if it is not red; and if it does accept an orange hackled
female, which breeds an orange topped male who in turn throws a
number of very light, whitish pullets, it is important that there
should be some one who has gained an understanding of how to
develop strength of color and maintain the breed to a standard of
excellence.

Motley plumage makes no appeal to the eye and cannot persuade
a man to invest in better poultry. The color of the plumage is a
good indication of the purity of breeding and its condition is a good
index to the health and condition of the bird.

Development of color depends not only upon breeding but also
upon proper conditions for growth. Lice, sickness, arrested devel-
opment, all show in the feather. A Black Wyandotte that has a
plumage full of purple bars instead of a bright, beetle green sheen,
may have been lousy as it grew; a Buff Rock that has some white
in wing and tail may have crowded and piled up as a chick; a Rhode
Island Red cockerel that along in September has wings so full of
white that the off-color shows from a distance, may have been chilled
as a chick, or. grown in a barren contaminated chicken yard,
or fed only hard grain and under-nourished while growing. There
may be three red cockerels that show white in wings in the same
brood, but if you go to the farm of the man who sold the sitting
of eggs from which these three off-colored chicks were hatched, you
may not find three cockerels like them in his three hundred. It is not
that he sold different eggs than he set. The grower is at fault.

Care cannot transform a poorly bred chick into a prize winner but
the lack of care will ruin the finest chick ever bred. The successful
breeder realizes how dependent are color and shape upon normal
feather development, and he carefully handles his growing and molt-
ing birds, that they may possess a coat of plumage that represents
in full development all the good quality which he has bred into
his line.

Utility of the plumage. Plumage has a very practical aspect. It
keeps the body warm and dry. Nature has not given better protec-
tion to any animal than she has given to birds in the form of plumage.

These light feathers which a chicken carries on its body are an
effective insulator of body temperature. One of the difficulties of

82 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

the incubator manufacturers has been to build a box that would keep
out cold as effectively as does the plumage of a hen setting on eggs.
They have built double walls and padded them in between.

The average man who builds a poultry house that his hens may
have a decent place in which to live, is usually tempted to build the
house tight that the hens may be warm. He fails to learn the lesson
from the bird which he sees sitting on the twig of a tree, singing and
happy, as he looks out of the house on Christmas morning across
two feet of snow. That little bird has been out all night and the
wind has blown and it has been cold, but it did not freeze or die,
for is it not there on the twig, chirp and happy, singing its Christmas
carol?

Fowls, like birds, breathe all the way through their lungs into
four pairs of air sacs (which are the bellows-like portion of their
respiratory system) affording the very best possible opportunity for
the oxygen of fresh air to combine with the blood and be carried
to all parts of the body. One thousand pounds of chickens breathe
from 2 to 2^4 times as much air as the same weight of cattle, horses
or men, according to F. H. King. Birds have a higher temperature.
Therefore, do not shut the poultry up in a close hen house; consider
the nature of the bird and its coat of plumage. This overcoat is of
nature's best make, effective as an insulator of body temperature, a
wonderfully woven fabric of beautiful color. Let us learn more
about it.

The secondary feather. Did you ever examine a feather on the
under side? There is a little secondary feather at the base, called
the after-shaft. The great feathers of the wing and tail are an excep-
tion. This after-shaft of the body plumage serves as "the under-
clothes." Dr. P. T. Woods has suggested that when hens are housed
in open front poultry houses the after-shaft assumes larger propor-
tions than where the birds are cooped in tight quarters.

The downy part of the feather helps to keep the bird warm, the
soft fluff holding more air than were the feather material closely
knit into a smooth surface all the way down to the skin. The smooth
surface, however, is better to shed rain and makes the better outer
protection; it also permits birds in flight to pass through the air
with the least resistance.

It is on the surface that the important color pattern is usually
exhibited. In a penciled or laced feather, the design is entirely on
the web or smooth surface of the feather. A Barred Rock, however,
is an exception, for a good one is barred the entire length of the
feather.

Structure of the feather. Let us examine the feather from the
back of a hen. The feather proper may be divided into three parts:
the quill or shaft; the web or smooth part which forms the surface
of the plumage; and the fluff or downy part at the base.

The shaft or quill is the axis from which the rest of the feather

mmm^—

M0£ffO&%

COLOR AND STRUCTURE OF PLUMAGE 83

extends. The lower portion of the quill is fastened in the skin. It
is like the root of a hair, serving as an anchor, holding the feather
in its place. But the feather itself is unlike a hair which is constantly
growing, for once the feather is grown, the pulp in the quill and
shaft becomes pith, and no further nourishment is extended by the
body. If you cut the quill with your pen knife, you find a series of
hollow, oblong cells fitting into
one another. These cells are
now shriveled, but during
growth they contained the nut-
rient matter from which the
feather was built up.

The web presents the appear-
ance of a smooth surface, groov-
ed with a number of fine parallel
lines. If we place this web
under a lens that raises its size Feather From Back Section of Hen
twenty times, we behold a woven

fabric! We find that the grooved appearances are caused by inter-
spaces between the ribs or barbs which extend out from the shaft.

Again we look at the feather under the microscope and we see
these interspaces are filled with the intercrossing of fine hair-like
barbules. We study longer and find the barbules are all hooked
together. Split the web; it doesn't give apart readily at first, but a
little pressure and the booklets give; gently stroke it back into place
and the booklets on the barbules go into place and hold the barbs
together.

About all we can see unaided by the microscope are the barbs;
the rest of the links are finer than the senses of either sight or touch.
In fact, the network is fitted together so closely and so perfectly that
air cannot force its way through the feather.

The wonder of nature does not stop here. She deposits color pig-
ment in these numberless parts of the feather with a definite regu-
larity and percision that beggars description. We see the barring of
white and dark, sharply defined, or a white feather with a black band
around its outer border, or a red feather marked with three distinct,
concentric lines of black, one hand within another. If we take the
barred feather, we find one barb has four visible bars of dark color
and ends with dark, another has four bars of dark but they are
not located the same, so the barb ends with white; and it is the exact
position of one barb to another that makes the dark bar extend
straight across the feather. These lines of barring that we admire
are therefore "not continuous, not organically complete, but formed
by the exact relation, one to another, of a series of minute spots of
pigment, each lodged in a separate filament, so that the several spots
in each filament, when ranged side by side, form the several series
of lines or bars."

84 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Male plumage. If we take a saddle feather which grows from
the hip of a cock we find that there is a web in the center of it,
and the outer portion is composed of barbs not hooked together.
The hooklets on the barbs are absent and the barbules are reduced
and the bare barbs extend. If this feather is from a Partridge Wyan-
dotte, the black stripe is confined to the webbed portion.

If the feather is from a Barred Rock, we find the barring goes
straight across the web and then becomes irregular. This may be
due to the way the feather grows. Probably there is a mechanical
process which runs to putting a straight bar across the feather, but
due to the structure of the feather, there may be a difference in the
growth of the individual barbs at different times, based on a differ-
ence in nutritional factors, and the feather grows unevenly. This
is a matter of concern. Straight barring is one of the prime requisites

Long Male Saddle Feather, Showing Web in Center.

of a good Barred Rock. Clear cut barring, that is, the white stopping
short and the black beginning sharply, affording a strength of color
that comes from contrast, is not more important than straight-across-
the-feather barring, for the ringy effect is due to straight barring,
and if the sharp bars are to appear in bands around the bird, they
must be straight. It is not enough to breed a bird that displays its
feather pattern when you handle it; a chicken must show its quality
when it is in its environment on the green of the farm. For a view
of barring as it may appear to advantage in the poultry yard, see
page 29.

One of the features of masculinity is the character of plumage
common to the male sex. The male has the greater wealth of
plumage. He carries long, pointed feathers on his neck and back,
and they have a firm web only in the middle portion; the outer half

COLOR AND STRUCTURE OF PLUMAGE 85

of the barbs, not being hooked together, present a frayed appearance.
This is called the top plumage and since it covers so large an area
and is so showy in the male, it is of capital importance.

The neck is the only section of the female which has plumage of
similar structure, and in this section the female feather is rounder and
the web is relatively broader than the neck plumage of the male.
However, in picking a female to produce the desired top color of
neck and back in her male offspring, look carefully to the neck color
that the females possess. A strong colored Rhode Island Red cock-
erel cannot be expected from a dam whose hackle runs light in color.

On the other hand, the breast of the male is the one principal
section in which the structure of the feathers is the same as that
found in the body plumage of the females. It has become common
practice in at least one color, the buff varieties, to match the breast
of the male for the desired color in pullets. The breast of the male
is also a major consideration in mating to produce well barred, laced
and penciled females.

Thus the structure of the feathers indicates that the breast of the
male, and the neck of the female, are determining factors in breed-
ing; the male's breast for body color in pullets; the female's head and
neck for top color in cockerels.

Texture of the plumage. The plumage of some males, particularly
the iiat of the back and wing bows of Rhode Island Red males, may
be found to be so frayed on the outer edges that the feathers curl.
Such birds have breast plumage that is not hard-surfaced and per-
fectly webbed to the outer edge. The females of such a line will
have back plumage that likewise is frizzled or frayed. A deeper tone
of red is associated with this rough plumage. The mahogany hued
birds invariably have this character of plumage. With it is usually
found the deepest red under color. The hard-surfaced females are
apt to have a lighter tone to the under color. However, the life and
finish of the brilliant red plumage is always associated with the harder
feather.

Firm webbing to the feather, or hard feather, is much desired
by breeders of the white varieties for it is the only type that will
wash and web out to good advantage. Some buff breeders have
lately been washing their females and it is amusing to see the hens
that never did possess the proper character of feather at end of back
and over base of tail, come into the show room the worse for having
been soaped and drenched.

This matter of texture of feather is as important as the texture
of any woven fabric. If you go into a store to buy a rug or a shirt
you are not only observant of the size, the shape, the pattern and
the colors in that pattern, but also of the weave and the texture.
Observant poultrymen and judges likewise take notice of the quality
of feather. It is getting harder year by year for the rough plumaged
bird to win at such shows as Chicago, New York and Boston.

86 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Size of feathers. The size of the individual feather has much to do
with the effect of the color-type when viewed at a distance. A Silver
Wyandotte hen, for instance, may have excellent lacing, clear white
centers, and sound black edging, but the individual feathers may be
so small that the lacing is relatively small, and the white centers
are largely overlapped by other feathers; whereas if the individual
feathers are comparatively large, the open centers are correspondingly
large, the overlapping is not so heavy and the whole color scheme
stands out and shows off.

Colors found in the plumage. It is generally believed that all of
the colors in chickens are derived from the black and red of the
jungle fowl. It would appear true that the only primary colors
which poultrymen have had to work with have been black and red;
there is no blue in chickens and no green. I once stood in Kensing-
ton Gardens in London and saw a peacock with his lustrous, deep
blue breast and at once anticipated what a beautiful fowl the Blue
Wyandotte might be bred to be, but that was before I had fully
grasped the fact that blue in the Wyandotte is not due to blue pig-
ment. W. A. Lippincott has pointed out that blue in chickens is due
to the arrangement of the pigment granules in the feather structure,
for the pigment itself is black, and the fact that the granules are
round, instead of rod shaped as in black colored fowls, leaves a pig-
mentless space around the border of each cell, giving a bluish-gray
cast. In other words the blue chicken is a minute black and white
mosaic.

As blue in chickens is a modified black, buff is a modified red.
It is a red toned with white. I have seen a Rhode Island Red male
crossed on White Orpington females and there were thus produced
acceptable buff pullets in all save tail where black dominated.

Red is not found alone but always in combination with black as
in the Rhode Island Red which has a black tail, black in wing1
flights and not uncommonly in hackle and under plumage.

Black is found alone, a melanic condition. It is, however, as
remarkable that it should be found pure as that pure white spots
should appear in chickens. C. B. Davenport found that if you intro-
duce black-red of the jungle fowl as carried by the black-red game,
into the Black Cochin, the hybrids are of a "prevailing black but
about half of them show red lacing on the hackle feathers or a red
peppering in those places where red is displayed by the game."
Davenport then states: "Black is dominant over red but imper-
fectly so."

White plumage. White generally is considered by poultrymen as
an absence of color. However, recent studies have shown that there
is more than one kind of white in chickens, at least from a hereditary
standpoint..

The white of White Plymouth Rocks and White Wyandottes is
recessive. When used in crossbreeding with colored fowls it does

COLOR AND STRUCTURE OF PLUMAGE 87

not dominate, but has color imposed on it. There is another kind
of white in chickens, the white of the White Leghorn. It is a domi-
nant white, and when this variety is crossed with colored chickens
the progeny are white, or nearly so.

There is some factor in the White Leghorn which prevents the
formation of color. There is good evidence to show that there is a
tendency to black in the White Leghorn, but some factor in the
inheritance of this variety holds the color in check or in some manner
neutralizes it. This is called a restraining or prohibiting factor. The
result is that when the White Leghorn, carrying this pigment inhib-
itor, is crossed on colored fowls, the color is held in check and the
chicks produced from the cross are practically white.

The white of the White Rock and White Wyandotte, however, is
due to the dropping out of that hereditary factor which is necessary
for the development of color. In these two varieties there is an
absence of color, not only in the plumage, but in the germ cells.
These varieties are not useful for crossing, because their white will
not predominate in the offspring. "In my own breeding work," writes
Professor Lippincott, "I have found that all White Plymouth Rocks
carry a pattern for barring. In crossing them with a pigmented bird,
such as the Black Langshan or the Black Andalusian, one gets only
barred offspring if the sire is a White Plymouth Rock, while all the
males are barred and the female non-barred if the mother is the
White Plymouth Rock and the sire is the pigmented bird." The
first White Rocks appeared as sports of the original Barred Rock, and
White Wyandottes first came as sports of Silver Wyandottes. While
these early sports may be assumed to have carried the pattern for
barring and lacing, the factor for the development of color was
missing and therefore they were white. These two varieties, White
Rocks and White Wyandottes, are not useful for crossbreeding because
their white will not predominate in the offspring as will the white of
the Leghorn, the barring of the Barred Plymouth Rock, or the red
of the Rhode Island Red. How the inhibiting factor for color arose
in the White Leghorn, no one knows. We do not know how new
factors get into the germ cells.

Inheritance of white color. It is much easier to grade up the
color of a mongrel flock by the use of Barred Rock males than by
the use of White Rock males. When you look at page 88 you see
at the top a mongrel hen. When she was mated to a White Rock
male she produced a barred daughter, and it took another dose of
pure White Rock blood to produce the white pullet shown in the
third illustration. At the top in this illustration is shown the orig-
inal dam, and below are successive generations which were the result
of grading up with purebred White Plymouth Rock males.

In mating a pure Barred Rock male on a mongrel hen, the spe-
cialists on the United States Government poultry farm observed that
out of 56 chicks, 52 carried dominique or barred markings, and

only 4 were of some other color.
But when a White Rock male was
used, of 37 chicks observed and
recorded, only 3 possessed white
plumage, and 34 had poor to fair
dominique markings. The domi-
nique is an old-fashioned sort of
barring which preceded the mod-
ern barring of the present-day
Barred Plymouth Rock.

The second generation of Bar-
red Rock grades showed 54 bar-
red out of 55; and in the third
generation 44 were barred out of
45; but of the White Rocks in
the second generation, 40 were
white out of 68, and in the third
generation 42 were white out of
50. The white of the White
Plymouth Rock, therefore, can-
not be said to be a dominant
color as is the barring of the
Barred Plymouth Rocks.

Color patterns. There are de-
signs such as barring, lacing and
penciling which are found on the
individual feathers. Thus, a
feather of a Silver Penciled
Wyandotte female may carry the
crescentic black lines and be
called a penciled feather. The
designs exhibited by the indi-
vidual feathers are called feather
markings. Then there is the
color-type of the whole bird, in
which the markings and color of
each feather play their part. The
color-type of the Silver Penciled
Wyandotte male produces a
strong contrasting effect when
the bird is viewed as a whole.

It is commonly stated that
color distinguishes one variety
from another, and that shape gives
individuality to each breed. The
one exception to this rule among
the American breeds is the Rhode
Island Red, of which there are
two varieties, which are distin-

COLOR AND STRUCTURE OF PLUMAGE

89

guished not by difference in color, but by single and rose combs.

Many people believe that the color types of fowls are very com-
plex and intricate. The fact is that the colors of chickens are rela-
tively simple, and the different patterns are not as numerous as
some suppose. There are red and black and their deviations, buff
and blue, also white with which to work. We therefore have red,
black, white, buff, and so-called blue varieties.

There also are combinations of two colors in the individual
feathers, giving rise to barred, laced, penciled and Columbian feather
markings. If lacing is formed by a black edge on a white feather
it is called silver; if it is black edging on a reddish ground it is
called golden. If the penciling is formed by about three concentric

Lacing.

Barring.

Penciling.

bands of black lacing on a white ground it is called silver penciled;
if it is formed by black penciling on a reddish ground it is called
partridge. These feather patterns are not difficult to understand; it
is the nomenclature that is confusing.

For instance, in the Wyandotte breed, a silver is a Silver (laced)
VVyandotte; in Rocks, a silver is a Silver (penciled) Plymouth Rock;
in both breeds a golden penciled specimen is a Partridge Plymouth
Rock or Wyandotte. The American Poultry Association virtually is
obliged to accept the name that is uppermost in popularity, for there
are few instances where a name has been changed successfully. St.
Petersburg was changed to Petrograd; but once it has become popular,
a name usually sticks, no matter how absurd that name may be. For
instance, the Cochin is truly the Shanghai, and probably never saw

90

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Cochin-China; the Holstein cow is truly a Friesian from Holland
and not from the duchy of Holstein, which once belonged to Den-
mark a*nd later was annexed to the Germanic confederation. So the
student who really wants to understand the varieties may find it
easier to study the color patterns first and apply the name afterward.
In observing color types the student will note that often the male
is marked differently from the female. The illustration below shows

Silver Penciled color type as carried by the Dark Brahma. The Dark Brahma
was the parent variety from which the Silver Penciled Plymouth Rock and Silver
Penciled Wyandotte derived their color.

a silver penciled male and female. Why should the male be so
differently colored than the female? We do not know. It appears
that it is as natural for this male to be a strong contrasting black
and white as it is for the female to present a subdued effect; and the
one is the natural consort of the other.

It will be noticed that the markings of the male's neck feathers

COLOR AND STRUCTURE OF PLUMAGE 91

and the saddle feathers of his back differ from that of the rest of
his plumage. This peculiarity of striped neck and saddle feathers is
an old characteristic and is exhibited by the jungle fowl. The neck
of the Silver Penciled Wyandotte female is also striped, as is the
female bankiva.

Although the Silver Penciled is a comparatively new variety of the
Wyandotte breed, the pencil character is an old characteristic, arising,
undoubtedly, from coarse stippling in the bankiva.

In the wild fowl, lacing does not appear, and the details of its
production are not known. Spangling certainly preceded it, in which
event lacing may be believed to have arisen from crossbreeding
spangling and penciling. (See illustrations of early laced and span-
gled feathers, Chapter XIII.)

The Columbian color type has been produced by crossing white
fowls on Rhode Island Reds, by crossing white fowls on Silver Pen-
ciled, white on Light Brahmas, and white on Barred Rocks. It
appears that the lacing in neck and saddle, and the black in wing
flights and tail, are black points of the bankiva which often are
dominant in breeding; and when a cross is made that eliminates the
bulk of the body plumage color, making the general color of the bird
white, the exclusion of color is not complete and expression is still
given to these black points which make the Columbian color type.
Black is inherited in tail by the Rhode Island Red and by those
buff offshoots of white crossed on red.

It is known that the Plymouth Rock owes its barring to that older
variety, the Dominique. The barred pattern is carried in hereditary
form, and, unlike the Mottled Java, it is not merely an intermediate
condition between black and white birds. The inheritance of barring
illustrates that there is a factor for this color pattern as well as the
presence of pigment to give expression to the pattern.

Breeding color and markings. Whether we find the color of a
variety easy to breed or not will depend upon the success with which
we simplify that color type in our mind and master the breeding
tendencies of the variety. That means that we familiarize ourselves
with the history of the race and the way its different characters
behave in transmission. "To know the constitution of the race, to
know the factors that lie hidden in the germ plasm, as well as those
characters that are on parade, enables the intelligent poultryman to
make use of desirable characters to best advantage and, at the same
time, to avoid those errors in breeding which result from insufficient
knowledge of the fundamental constitution of the race involved,"
writes Dr. P. H. Hadley, of the Rhode Island Agricultural Station.

It is not uncommon to meet a man who expresses the desire to
own sufficient ground and equipment to enable him to go into "fancy"
poultry, and then devote his best thought and effort to building up
a fine flock. But fine flocks exist only because they represent an
aggregation of a lot of fine individual birds on one plant, and they

92 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

are built up not by flock breeding, but by the breeding of selected
individuals; just as a good bird is good not because of a glowing
generality of "goodness," but because the bird is an aggregation of
units that are in themselves good; and the judge who would fully
appreciate such a bird, or the breeder who would mate it so as to
make it yield improvement in the next generation, must be a man
who can examine the units, i.e., the comb, the eye, the back shape,
feather and color, and so on, and thus know not only why the bird as
a whole is good, but in what particulars it is good and in what par-
ticulars it is deficient.

The color patterns run in grooves or ruts, so to speak. When a
man speaks of the tendencies in his line he means the natural tend-
ency of the birds to breed in certain directions.

Inheritance of barred color. If we examine the Barred Rocks, we
find an inherent tendency for the males to come lighter than the
females. This has been attributed to a Black Cochin hen that was
used in the original cross, and the question has been asked why the
breed could not have been made by using a black male on Dominique
hens instead of vice versa. Of course, the early breeders had to use
what was available, which consisted of a Dominique or cuckoo
barred male. He was mated to a Black Cochin or, as then called, a
Black Java female.

Later study has shown that this is the way the barred color
pattern is inherited, i.e., from the male. The female can add strength
of color, but barring itself is a character that is linked with the male,
a sex-linked character, and the male can be pure for barring and
transmit it to his progeny. Thus, if a barred male is mated to females
of a heavily pigmented variety, like the Dark Cornish, the chicks
are relatively dark, but barred; whereas if the cross is reversed and
a Dark Cornish male is crossed on Barred Plymouth Rock females,
the cockerels alone have barred plumage and the pullets are black.

Barring behaves in transmission like the factor for high winter egg
production (Chapter III); the pattern is from the male, the color
from the females. A properly bred male will therefore grade up a
flock of females in a single generation, and a properly bred female
will transmit her quality of barring to her sons.

Let us inquire further into this inheritance of color. Herewith
is illustrated a sample of the grading-up work with purebred sires
that has been carried on at the U. S. Department of Agriculture
poultry farm. There is shown a black mongrel and a barred daugh-
ter, also a tawny red mongrel and a barred daughter. That is because
these mongrel hens were mated to a Plymouth Rock male that was
pure for the factor of barring. The barred color type is inherited
from the male. The female can transmit strength of color, but bar-
ring itself is a character that is linked with the male, a sex-linked
character. A purebred Barred Plymouth Rock male will stamp his
color type on a flock of mongrel pullets in a single generation.

COLOR AND STRUCTURE OF PLUMAGE

If the cross is made the other way and barred females are mated
to mongrel males, the purebred Barred Rock female will transmit
barring to her sons but not to her daughters. The character of
barring is always linked with the male.

Now here are the salient points for the fancier-breeder of Barred
Rocks to grasp: If you want to breed better exhibition pullets, put
your money in a pullet-bred male. He will transmit barring to his

A Black Mongrel and Her Barred Daughter. A Red Mongrel and Her Barred
Daughter. Result of Grading Up With a Pure Barred Plymouth Rock Male.

daughters, and if highly bred will improve his daughters in the first
generation. If you want to produce better exhibition males, spend
your money for a good cockerel-bred female, for she can transmit
barring to her male chicks. Of course, a good exhibition male can
do the same, but he is more costly than a good cockerel-bred female.
The Barred Plymouth Rock male has been described as being

94 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

"more barred" than the female. It is easy to observe this difference
in ordinary farm-bred Plymouth Rock chicks that are two months
old. The pullets, on first notice, appear darker than their brothers,
and close inspection reveals the fact that the white bar in the cockerels
in much cleaner, much purer, and the black bar much sharper than
in the pullets, whose black bar runs into the white and whose white
bar is not a clean-cut white." When these males mature they are of
a lighter color than the pullets,.

If a farmer does not know this natural tendency in the Barred
Rocks, he may buy a male as dark as his females and mate them
together; but if he is informed, he does not commit this blunder;
he accepts a male of lighter color if he desires to produce Standard
colored, clear, beautiful colored females; and he knows that if he is
to produce males that will be dark enough to match those Standard
colored females, he must have another pen and breed them from still
darker females. He therefore has two matings.

Double mating. Double mating sounds formidable and intricate,
and while it is complex in theory, it is in practice the simpler kind
of mating. If you are to produce the highest type of male and the
highest type of female from the same pair, you must strike and
hold a balance like a boy on a teter-totter from whose center extend
the end of the plank in both directions.

In double mating you mate a pen to produce pullets. This pen
contains females of Standard color to which you mate a male whose
dam was a fine female and whose sisters are fine females. It is
relatively easy to produce good pullets from such a pen.

For cockerel breeding you use a male of Standard quality mated
to females whose sire was a good male and whose brothers are good
males. The pullets from such a pen are not expected to equal the
pullets from the pullet mating, but will prove to be good cockerel
breeders, and they are recognized and sold as "cockerel breeders" or
"cockerel breeding females." The males from the pullet mating are
pullet breeders, not that they will produce more pullets than cock-
erels, but because they will breed better pullets than cockerels.

It is more difficult to produce good males and females from one
mating than it is to produce only good males or only good females
from a single mating. It is doubtful if the highest type specimens
of both sexes ever can be produced by the same pair in any kind of
livestock. Where a sex-limited factor enters in, as in the inheritance
of barring in the Barred Rock, the difficulty is beyond immediate
solution.

To show what appears to be a natural tendency of lines to run to
males or females, the case may be cited of a breeder of a buff variety.
Here both the male and female are buff and there is not that pro-
nounced diversity of color type that one sees in the male and female
of many particolored varieties.

It might appear that buff color could be single mated, that is,

COLOR AND STRUCTURE OF PLUMAGE 95

equally good buff cockerels and pullets produced from a single pen.
Yet there are instances of buff breeders winning well year after year
on their males and rarely having a top quality female, and vice versa.

A certain exhibitor won at the Quincy (Illinois) show, November,
1918, on her hens and pullets, as she had done over a series of years.
She came to the writer and asked him how she could produce some
good cockerels. Here, in substance, was the reply: "You will have
10 get a good male, madam, before you can breed good cockerels.
If you are to have the kind of cockerels you want, you will have to
have that kind of a sire close up in the ancestry."

Later she returned and said: "I have bought a cockerel from

Mr. , who is showing here. He always wins on males, has

done so for a number of years, and the judge says that his first
cockerel this year is good enough for Madison Square Garden. He
always shows good males just as I show the winning females. I
wish you would come over and look at the bird I have bought and
tell me how you would mate him. Would you mate him to the females
in my first pen?"

The answer was "No." Then we said: "Breeding is not as simple
as mating the best to the best. You must take into account the tend-
encies in your line. You propose a union of two lines — one with a
tendency to males and the other to females."

Our advice was: "Take your best females and breed them to a
cockerel of your own line, and thus make certain that you can come
back next year and win on pullets. You know your own blood will
knick and your line will breed that way. Mate your purchased male
to some good big females to make sure of size and substance —
females that are left from your first mating — and if you do not pro-
duce a single cockerel the equal of its sire, do not be discouraged, but
remember that you are starting a new line. Take the biggest, strong-
est pullets that the purchased male sires and mate them back to him,
and two years from now you will come to Quincy and win on
cockerels."

The growth of plumage. We have been considering color and
markings and how they behave in transmission. Now let us give some
thought to the growth and development of all the good and beautiful
that we have bred into the plumage.

The feathers grow from the under layer of the skin, there being
three layers. All of the material of which they are made, including
the pigment, must be supplied by the blood through the skin. As
the new feathers grow, they are sheathed with a horny substance
which serves to protect the great mass of detail which the new
feather is to comprise, and this horny covering probably aids also
in the growth of the feather. This pin feather is conical in shape, and
as it grows it splits up, the sheath falls off, and the feathers open out.

It requires a minimum of about six weeks for a feather to grow

96 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

after a bird has molted on old feathers or a feather has been pulled
Tt takes somewhat longer to grow a main tail or wing feather.

Growing chickens produce about three sets of plumage in their
growing year. To meet the needs of their enlarging bodies, they
constantly are losing feathers and growing new ones which are built
on a larger scale and are firmer and more durable.

The second crop of feathers is stronger and better webbed. The
structure of the adult crop differs considerably in the sexes. It
appears that the male character of plumage is closely associated
with the development of the reproductive organs. This opinion is
borne out by the fact that hens have been known to molt into male
plumage as a result of a degenerate and pathological condition of
the ovaries.

A hen that assumed male plumage is described and illustrated in
a bulletin by Cole and Lippincott, Wisconsin and Kansas agricultural
colleges. This hen had a large ovarian tumor. Female plumage wa?
again grown after an implantation of ovarian tissue from a healthy,
normal pullet.

The chick feathers may be quite differently colored from what one
would expect from seeing pictures of adult birds, but the beginner
should not be discouraged and he should not trust himself to cull out
the birds until they are at least six months old, when he may judge
their quality with some accuracy and satisfaction. Even the Partridge
cockerels may then show red in the breast; the Columbian pullets
also may show gray or black in the back. Before rejecting these
birds as faulty colored, look under the surface at the young, fresh
new feathers that are coming; judge the merit of the bird's plumage
by adult feathers that he eventually is to carry on the surface as
indicated by the quality of the last crop of feathers coming in.

The Barred Plymouth Rock carries barring as a chick as well as
when mature. It is not uncommon to find very straight bars in the
second-growth feathers of the cockerels. Some amateurs make it a
point to exhibit Barred Rock cockerels that are full of such "chick
feathers" and then emphasize the wonderful quality of their birds.
Occasionally one sees in print an attractive feather chart of straight-
barred cockerel feathers which are nothing more than reproductions
of chick feathers.

A chicken grows two crops of feathers before it receives its final
adult plumage. At first the structure of the cockerel's feathers is
precisely like those of the chick pullet.

Since the very young1 cockerels and pullets are feathered alike to
a marked degree, some breeders have selected the best colored male
chicks to be the sires of their pullets, and then bred them regardless
of what objectionable features their color may have exhibited when
they were mature. The point is worth noting, for the practice of
picking pullet breeders in this way is becoming more general.

The Molt. It is generally conceded, and borne out by many trap-

COLOR AND STRUCTURE OK PLUMAGE

97

nest records, that good layers are late molters. Such hens may molt
quickly, once they start, because they are birds of unusual vigor. In
molting and coming out fresh and new and beautiful again, every bird
somewhat resembles the fairy form in the legend of the phoenix, that
mythical bird of Egypt that arose with renewed youth from its
ashes. Nature's plan seems to be that the world shall be ever young
and fresh, and in the new green grass, the new foliage of the trees

Early molter. Silver Wyandotte that began molting in June. Her
egg record for the year was 85 eggs at Missouri Poultry Experiment
Station. The lacing of this hen's plumage is* defective. She has what
are termed "mossy centers."

and the new plumage of the birds, we embrace fresh youth and beauty
from year to year to the very end of life.

The process of molting is that of shedding the old feathers and
growing new ones. It is done in the late summer and fall, perhaps
to provide a new suit of warm clothing for winter. The average hen
does not lay while she is molting, and it is common practice to put

98 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

the hens on light feed, oftentimes whole oats, and give them "a rest."
Every effort should be made, however, to prevent the vitality of
the birds from becoming lowered. This is especially important in
show stock, for, through lowered vitality, the bird may molt in some
white feathers where black, red or buff originally prevailed. Our own
notion is that birds in the molt should receive easily digested food
such as ground oats mixed with sour milk, and be given the range
of an orchard or creek flat, if possible.

The opinion was somewhat general a few years ago that it paid
to throw the hens into a molt by a radical change in feed, cutting out
the mash and putting the birds on a light grain feed. The poultry
department at Cornell University carried on an experiment to deter-
mine the advisability of forcing fowls to shed their feathers early in
the season, with the hope of inducing them to lay earlier in the winter.
The findings indicated that

It does not pay to "force a molt" by starvation methods and that apparently it
is good policy to encourage hens, by good care and feeding, to lay during late
summer and fall, rather than to resort to unusual means to stop laying in order to
induce an early molt, with the hope of increasing productiveness during the early
winter, a season which naturally is unfavorable for egg production. In short, it
appears wise, when hens want to lay, to let them lay.

Some further data on the molt were published by the Poultry
Department, Cornell University, in Bulletin No. 258, September, 1908.
This bulletin is out of print now, but the data presented in it are as
applicable today as in the beginning, for the nature of hens has not
changed. We quote:

The first mature molt comes at the end of the first year of laying. It seems to
be a necessary renewal of the worn-out plumage. Feathers, like clothes, wear out.
In the mature molt it was found that the molt seldom began while the hen was
laying. Quite a few feathers might be shed earlier in the season and during produc-
tion, but in most cases the shedding of feathers ceased for a week or two, often for
a much longer period, then the entire plumage was renewed. For convenience, this
latter part of the molt is termed the "general molt." During this molt some hens
shed only a few feathers at a time in the different feather tracts, looking we'll
clothed throughout the molt, while others shed almost the entire plumage at once.

It is variously asserted that the time required for the growth of a body feather
on a healthy fowl is approximately forty-two days, while the time needed to develop
the tail is somewhat longer. This refers to pluclked feathers. The usual molting
period of a hen cannot, however, be calculated accurately from this estimate. The
molting process continues much longer than is usually supposed, and there is con-
siderable variation in the time of beginning the molt between different individuals and
between flocks of different ages ; also a wide variation in the length of time it
requires individuals to complete the molt.

The fact that hens, though well fed, lost weight in the process of molt would
indicate something of the strain imposed on them by the production of new feathers.
It is apparent that as molting increased egg production decreased. Almost without
exception this was true with both starved and fed flocks during each period : it was
strikingly true during the starvation period. While some of the hens continued -to
lay after beginning to molt, and a few began laying before completing their new
coat, no hen continued to lay during the entire molting period.

Persistent layers, unless broody, appeared to begin the molt within a week after
the last egg, and usually were in heavy molt in less than two weeks. Those begin-
ning to molt after October first shed more quickly and refeather more rapidly than

COLOR AND STRUCTURE OF PLUMAGE 99

those molting earlier, especially to the stage of advanced molt, when their bodies
were well protected. Hen No. 61 was a good example. It was fifty-six days from
the time she began to shed until she had grown a complete coat of feathers.

In these observations it was found that from all pens the hens which began to
molt before September 15 averaged 108 days molting, while those which began after
that date molted in 81 days. The hens molting before September 15 began to lay 39
days after the completion of the individual molt; those molting after September 15
began to lay in 43 days after they were completely refeathered. Although the early
molting hens laid more winter eggs, they did not lay more eggs during the year.
Those beginning to molt before September 15 averaged 103 eggs and those molting
later average 126 eggs.

Secondary molt of pullets. A common objection to early hatched
pullets is that they are apt to go into a "secondary" molt late in the
fall. This is especially true if they are forced for eggs early in the fall.
Some breeders hold back their early pullets during August and Sep-
tember, feeding them largely on oats and providing no rich mash,
and then put a mash containing a protein supplement before the birds
in time to bring them into heavy October and November lay. The
egg market usually is high the latter part of November, and it is a
disappointment to have early pullets go into a molt. Sometimes the
pullet molt is only slight and for a short time, and again it is of such
a nature as seriously to reduce egg production throughout the remain-
der of the winter. The commonly accepted advantage of a pullet that
molts is her better breeding value the coming spring. Breeders for
commercial egg production frequently endeavor to time their hatch-
ing so that the pullets will start to laying early in the winter, for
those beginning production before September 1 nearly always molt.

Effect of late hatching on color. It often happens that late hatched
birds make the best colored ones the next season. The late bird does
not have time to mature its plumage before cold weather sets in,
which apparently arrests the normal course of its feather develop-
ment, so the bird goes through the winter with a part of its chick
plumage intact. The following summer it molts into what practically
amounts to a mature cockerel or pullet plumage. Such a male goes
into the show as a cock, but with the advantage of a cockerel's feather,
and such a hen has the soundness of color of a pullet, lacking only
the pullet's life and bloom to her feather. It is hard to beat such
birds, provided their development was not arrested by early winter
before they were mature, and provided they have sufficient size of
body. Some of the leading exhibitors make it a point to hatch a
number of late chicks.

The later bird often has greater intensity of color. Whether the
early bird grows a larger feather in which the color is not so concen-
trated, we do not know. We have noticed that a Columbian hen, for
instance, may have an especially strong colored hackle at an early
show, but after the feather is completely grown and extended to the
full limits of its size, the color is not so intense.

Nutrition has a large influence on these matters. If you want to
see the gray, washed-out, weak-colored specimens, look over into the

100 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

hen yard of some careless poultrykeeper and see the underfed chickens
there. Then picture the full feeder who knows that growing plumage
requires food, and that weakened vitality of a check in growth will
show in the feather.

In fact, a famous winning male or female chicken one year is not
so sure to return and repeat the triumph the following year as is a
purebred horse, or bull, or boar, because there is not the same cer-
tainty of a fowl returning to its best quality of plumage.

Easily digested food, containing some sulphur, saccarated car-
bonate of iron, and linseed meal are often fed, except to white birds,
during the molt, and also to growing chickens after they are fourteen
weeks of age. The story has been told of the Hamburg breeders of
the west of England not being able to compete with those of York-
shire, and it was found that the growing birds in Yorkshire drank
water which sprang from the iron rock. Thereupon, after their chicks
reached fourteen weeks of age they began to color-feed by adding iron.

The color of this plumage with which we work probably is due
both to pigment and structure. The sheen probably is superficial
and due to refraction of light. Oil probably helps the blood supply
in the nutritional processes, and it has been suggested that the sheen —
which is especially important in a black feather and hardly less so in
a red one, since it bestows life to the whole plumage — is due to the
oil hardening into minute crystals and refracting the light.

Color of lobes, eyes and shanks. In a chapter in which is dis-
cussed color of plumage, perhaps we may mention additional features
whose colors give distinctiveness to our fowls.

The color of the skin of all American breeds is yellow, and this
leads to a yellow shank in all save the Black Wyandotte and the
Black Java, the bottoms of whose feet should be yellow. Effort is
being made to breed Black Wyandottes with yellow shank, as will be
outlined in the chapter on this variety. Dusky yellow shanks are
particularly common in the Partridge varieties.

The color of the ear lobe should be red, and as is characteristic of
red-lobed breeds, the American breeds lay brown eggs. Of course,
the eggs are not of a uniform brown. It seems easy enough to get
a uniform white-shelled egg — but here there is an absence of color
pigment. When it comes to depositing color, scarcely no two hens
deposit the same amount, and the tints of brown eggs vary.

The ear lobes should be red. Positive enamel white disqualifies a
Plymouth Rock, Java or Dominique, male or female, no matter how
small the spot of unquestionable white may be. In Wyandottes,
Rhode Island Reds and Buckeyes, ear lobes more than one-quarter
positive enamel white disqualify. Enamel white should not be con-
fused with paleness. The latter may be due to worms, especially if
redness is frequently followed by paleness. In judging, a bird should
be given the benefit of the doubt, and it is recommended that he be

COLOR AND STRUCTURE. OF , PLGMAGE, ' 101

held for a minute, head down, giving the blood an opportunity to rush
to the head and flush the ear lobe.

The eyes of all the American varieties should be reddish-bay,
except in the Black Java, which should approach black. Probably
there never is a pure black eye in a chicken. Some specimens have
gray or fish-coloned eyes. It is a mean ^defect, more serious than
formerly, for whereas the Standard that was in force in 1900 specified
a cut of one-half point for off-colored eyes, the present requirement
is a maximum cut of one and one-half points. In thus drawing
attention to eye color with some emphasis, gray eyes have become
quite objectionable. Fortunately, the defect is easily corrected, red
being dominant to gray, and a good red-eyed bird introduced into a
flock will make a big improvement in the first generation. It should
be understood that it is the iris that carries the color, not the pupil
of the eye. The comb should be red. A tinge of blue in the blade
of the comb usually indicates liver trouble, and a level teaspoonful
of epsom salt to the specimen so affected will commonly correct the
trouble. More green food or roughage should then be added to the
ration.

102

•THE AMERICAN- BREEDS OF POULTRY

Barred Plymouth Rock Male as Bred by E. B. Thompson, Amenia, New York.

CHAPTER VI.
BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS.

The First Barred Plymouth Rocks — Early constructive breeders —
Early history enlivened by controversy — Influence of the American
Dominique — Barring comes lighter in the male than the female — First
instructions on breeding — A new generation of breeders — Influence
and success of Hawkins, Bradley, Latham, Wells and Thompson —
Pedigrees of the Ringlets — Mating Barred Plymouth Rocks for color
— Double mating — How to start.

The first so-called Plymouth Rock fowl was originated py Dr.
John C. Bennett of Plymouth, Mass., about 1849. It proved to be a
somewhat superior layer than the large Asiatics and it reached ma-
turity somewhat earlier. This new fowl of Dr. Bennett's carried
Shanghai, Malay, Dorking and Game blood; and the specimens lacked
distinctive breed character and were, in other words, purely cross-
breds. The males carried considerable red in their hackles and sad-
dles, many of the pullets had green colored shanks and nearly half of
them were five toed. It was then that John Giles, one of the early
American fanciers, wrote: "Could you not cross so as to have one
distinct color of leg and plumage?" Although Mr. Giles proceeded
to breed the new Plymouth Rock fowl, and set for himself a Stan-
dard of "dark color, dark legs and four toes only," the cross at last
became extinct or was absorbed into the common stock of the coun-
try, and there is no further record of it.

First Barred Plymouth Rocks. For a time no Plymouth Rocks
existed; but the shadow that had passed had been given a name which
endured, and when D. A. Upham of Wilsonville, Conn., exhibited at
Worcester, Mass., in March, 1869, a trio of fowls that were in color
bluish gray, crossed by darker bars, giving what would today be
called an indistinct barring to their plumage — they were christened
"Improved Plymouth Rocks." They were the first fowls of the name
to become thoroughly established as to size, shape and color mark-
ings. They were the American fanciers' first great creation; and
their good qualities have been handed on and commended to each
succeeding year. As tradition has carried in her hand the story of
that little granite bowlder, Plymouth Rock, on which the Pilgrims
stepped as they came ashore in wild New England four centuries ago,
tradition hands on down the prestige of the Plymouth Rock, good as
the Puritan fathers, strong as the Puritan hearts, productive as was
virgin New England.

Upham had secured in the fall of 1866 a trio of birds from a
farmer by the name of Spaulding, who lived near Putnam, Conn.,

103

104 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

and who grew poultry for market purposes and bred strong, vigor-
ous, early-maturing stock. Spaulding had all sorts of barn yard
fowls, and a friend told Upham of the dominique colored ones in
the fall of 1866, and Upham had gone to see them.

Spaulding had crossed the year before, according to Upham's own
account, published in Poultry Argus, Polo, Illinois, May, 1874,

A fine, large, old-fashioned hawk-colored cock to very large Black Cochin
hens, witn legs heavily feathered, producing many black pullets and a few black
and white puliets, some with legs clear from feathers, others more or less feathered ;
but the cockerels were invariably steel grey in color, a few without feathers on
legs, many of them heavily feathered, with body plumage very handsome. I selected
the best trio, to my idea of what I wanted to produce, and bred from them, and
one-half or more of the chicks were anything but what I wanted to breed from;
many of the pullets came black, a few were black and white, very handsomely marked
and legs minus feathers; but the cockerels invariably came steel grey in color,
with fine single combs, some of them free from feathers on legs, but the majority
of them heavily feathered on their legs.

Spaulding had only bred the birds a year when Upham made his
original purchase. Each of the three birds that comprised his original
trio had been produced by Spaulding from "a cross between a large
common hawk-colored, single comb dunghill cock with pure Black
Cochin hens." The trio as purchased by Upham had feathers on the
shanks, indicating unmistakably their Asiatic blood. Mr. Upham then
bred the trio, and the stock produced satisfactory results; most of the
chicks were of the desired color in both sexes, there were some black
pullets as he relates, but he was able to select both cockerels and
pullets with shanks which were yellow in color and reasonably free
from feathers.

Upham introduced additional Asiatic blood into his strain, and
in three years between 1871 and 1874, he made such progress in
breeding the variety true to "feather and points" that, in 1874, he wrote
that he was able to get "a greater number of fine exhibition birds
from a clutch of eggs than from any other variety I ever bred." How-
ever, from his first Spaulding purchase he bred birds of such a quality
as enabled him to make his historic exhibit at Worcester, 1869, where
the new variety created such a sensation that he took orders for one
hundred sittings of eggs for hatching at the then remunerative price
of $2 a sitting. At Worcester, Upham sold a trio to C. Carol Loring,
a man who remained well known in poultry breeding circles well up
into the twentieth century. This Loring purchase was the source of
Mark Pitman's original stock, a breeder who was soon to become
prominent in the variety.

Early constructive breeders. Pitman was one of the first great
improvers of the breed. He was perhaps the first breeder to look at
the individual feathers on a Barred Plymouth Rock and not accept
the color pattern as a whole. As a result of analyzing the plumage,
he saw the value of contrast between the light and dark bars.

Pitman, at his home in Salem. Mass., developed a flock of Plym-
outh Rocks known as the Essex Country Strain, and the birds of

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 105

this family were distinguished in their day by what was then, in com-
parison with the common run of Barred Rocks, distinct, strong color.
He continued to breed the stock until 1876, when the flock passed into
the hands of 1. K. Felch of Natick, Mass. Felch furnished eight of
the best birds to H. B. May, also of Natick. While Pitman was one
of the most experienced and capable fanciers of his generation, the
late Messrs. Felch and May were among the most prominent judges
and breeders of their day; the result was that the Essex strain con-
tinued in good hands, and became the most popular family of the
breed.

May was an experimenter. He tried to clear up the color of his
birds by infusing Light Brahma blood, and later employed Game
blood to add constitutional vigor and robustness. He also continued
that close observation and study that had brought success to Pitman
as a breeder of barred color; and May is credited with first hitting
upon the double mating system of breeding Barred Plymouth Rocks
for color.

The Essex strain was. the leader for more than ten years, its fame
spread, its best specimens were the leading winners, and other fami-
lies were founded upon it.

Other principal stocks in the early history of the breed were
the flock which Spaulding continued to breed; the flock of Upham
which held the foremost position in the variety prior to the forging
ahead of Pitman, and later of Felch, May, and the flock of A. H.
Drake of Stoughton, Mass., known as the Drake strain. While the
L'pham, Pitman and May stock trace in a direct line to the Spauid-
ing source, the Drake strain is of different origin.

Drake was engaged in the business of picking up fowls about the
country for market purposes. One day, as he traveled along the
countryside, a flock of hawk-colored fowls caught his eye. He pur-
chased them for market purposes but upon getting them home, he
was so attracted to them that he decided not to butcher them. This
was about 1867.

The Drake strain, like Spaulding's. "was founded in part on hawk-
colored barn-door fowls." Dark Brahma blood was used by Drake
to reinforce the size of his birds, and his stock carried more or less
of the Brahma type and his birds are recorded as having been some-
what "darker in color."

Drake went into the poultry huckstering business as a result of
poor health, and later he was dependent for a livelihood upon the
sale of his Plymouth Rocks. Necessarily he had to be a good breeder.
He improved his stock by the Dark Brahma cross and then by a Pit-
man male. He produced several birds of outstanding quality, and
upon his death several of his best specimens went into the hands of
the late Philander Williams of Taunton. Mass., who was contem-
poraneous with Felch and May as one of America's greatest breeders.

Felch claims to have used some of the Drake blood between 1876

106 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

and 1878, although May has been credited with having made the mat-
ings at his home place in Natick. Felch and May had the Pitman
stock, and it had been so well bred that it controlled the color in
their flocks, and by amalgamating the Drake blood with the Upham-
Pitman line, they produced such phenomenal birds that the appellation
"Essex Country Strain" by which Pitman had designated this stock,
was dropped, and Felch took the title "Essex strain."
From 1876 to 1878, according to Felch, was:

The most notable time from the transformation from the crude to phenomenal
perfection, since which time the Plymouth Rock has received the homage of Ameri-
can breeders and has been accepted by them as a breed strictly first class in merit
and having all the characteristics of a pure breed. The fanciers of America builded
better than they Iknew when they took up the crossbred denizens of New England
farms and by their skill and perseverance secured the results to be seen in the
Plymouth Rock.

Other sources of origin. A great many other breeders participated
in the breeding of Barred Plymouth Rocks. Some claimed to be
originators, and the fact of the matter was, that both the fundamental
hawk-colored stock and Asiatic stock existed in many communities.
Felch records that the gray-blue color of the Barred Plymouth Rocks
of different breeders "came through several different sources, but its
fixed color came through the blood of the old New England Domi-
nique males in nearly all families and strains." He then states that
facts gleaned by him in 1870, at the time of the advent of the breed,
indicate different elements figuring in the make-up of the breed, which
were combined somewhat as follows:

1. Black Spanish — the old Minorca red-faced Spanish — on Buff
Cochins or Shanghais.

2. Black Spanish on English Gray Dorking, top crossed with Ameri-
can Dominiques.

3. Black Spanish on White Cochins, top crossed with American
Dominiques.

4. American Dominiques mated to Buff Cochins, the progeny in-
bred.

5. White Birminghams, a name given by Felch to White Brahmas
on Black Javas of 1850, top crossed with American Dominiques.
These Javas, says Felch, were "an Asiatic product with feathered
shanks. They were swallowed up in the Black Cochins at the time
our first Standard was made and their identity lost."

6. White Birmingham on Black Javas, the females mated to males
from group 5.

These numerous crosses suggest many centers of origin. It is
plain that all of the early Plymouth Rocks were crossbreds, but the
stock so originated had qualities of usefulness that overcame all
prejudice and the new breed gained favor on its merits. In the fancy
today, the Plymouth Rock is no longer looked upon as a mongrel,
but as a high-type, productive thoroughbred. Condemned by some
as a mongrel on the start, yet the breed has triumphed. As the

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 107

cream rises in the milk and is skimmed, that which is worthy rises,
and the hand of time separates it.

Early history enlivened by controversy. As the pleasing and prac-
tical form of the Plymouth Rock became established in the minds of
breeders, and as its qualities of usefulness became understood among
them, it began to be the subject of close study and wide discussion.
Controversies arose over its early origin, and were carried on with
vigor in the poultry press. One particular point in debate was the
influence of the Black Cochin versus the Black Java on the first
crosses from which the variety had sprung. The argument centered
on the question of whether Black Javas were a separate and distinct
variety of clean-legged fowls or whether they were in reality Black
Cochins. As we now examine the evidence it points to the fact that
"Black Java" was a term used to identify the big, black plumaged
fowls of Asiatic origin which were later generally known as Cochins;
that the term "Black Java" was interchangeable with "Black Cochin";
and that the "Black Javas" that entered into the origin of the Plym-
outh Rock are not the Standard Black Java of today.

In the early disputations, Upham held that the Asiatic blood
was Cochin, while H. S. Ramsdell of Connecticut, as stoutly main-
tained that John Giles had introduced a Black Java breed into Con-
necticut about 1843, and that these Javas were the forerunner of the
Plymouth Rock. On this question of origin, F. H. Corbin, in a mono-
graph on "Plymouth Rocks," published in Hartford, Conn., 1879,
says:

The theories advanced were various, and were urged pro and con by many of
the leading fanciers of the country. It is a true saying, and one well worthy of
acceptance, that all men like to father a success and disown a failure. It proved to
he true indeed in this case, for while little was heard or written in regard to them
previous to their being exhibited in 1869, and while, in fact, for some years after-
wards, they were but little known except to a few prominent breeders, and found
only in their yards, no sooner was it generally understood that the most successful
cross of the century had been made, and that its characteristics had been suffi-
ciently fixed to allow its being admitted into the Standard as a fixed and permanent
breed, than numbers of articles from fanciers of well known ability began to appear
in poultry papers and journals in regard to them. Most of these writers wielded
a trenchant pen, and, for a time, the fate of the subject matter seemed in doubt.
The fact that there were apparently several different origins only confounded the
discussion and added fuel to the flames.

The Upham-Ramsdell controversy was conducted with both vigor and bitterness.
The conceded ability of these gentlemen, together with their readiness of pen, only
magnified the contest, diffused a knowledge of the question among the poultry
fraternity and caused others to take up the pen, both as principals and advocates.
After a time, it began to be uncertain whether any such breed ever existed and
if there was any, where or from whence it sprang.

Another question intensified the controversy. While all were agreed as to the
Plymouth Rock being a "cross-breed," scarcely any two were agreed as to what
the cross was. The Black Java, Cochin, Dominique, dunghill, Gray Chittagongs,
and English Gray Dorkings, were all named as entering into the cross.

In the agitation of contrary opinions, a "regular battle of rocks"
raged in New England between 1872 and 1875, and as the fight began

108 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

to wane, the editor of Poultry World, Hartford, Conn., issue of
March, 1876, commented on the controversial situation in the fol-
lowing words:

When the smdke has cleared away it will be found that this breed (Plymouth
Rocks), has had several independent origins. As oil and potash may be united and
soap made anywhere, so hawk-colored barn-yard fowls may be amalgamated with
some Asiatic variety in any state in the Union and Plymouth Rocks formed.

Mr. A. H. Drake of Stoughton, Mass., has a strain of Plymouth Rocks whicli
lie has bred for nineteen years, which has not a drop of the Spaulding blood, nor
the slightest admixture from any other strain. We have word from a Pennsylvania
correspondent that on farms in Bucks county, that state, fowls have been found
almost from time immemorial, that were identical with Plymouth Rocks, and were
produced, incidentally, by the introduction of Asiatic blood into the common hawk-
colored stock of the county. It must be kept in mind that upon many farms in
all parts of the land, twenty, fifty, or one hundred years ago, hawlk-colored fowls
were numerous and common. The modern Dominique fowl is nothing more or less
than a hawk-colored dunghill bird, improved by cultivation. For that matter the
Leghorn is a genuine Italian dunghill fowl, improved.

Rev. D. D. Bishop sums up the whole question of origin by stat-
ing that it was "inevitable" that the Plymouth Rock should make its
appearance about 1866 to 1870. He continues:

The conditions were favorable. It was at the time of reaction from the furore
for simply big birds, when farmer folk were discussing among themselves the
failure of the mammoth Asiatics to fill the bill for both eggs and marketing. They
failed as foragers for want of activity. They were the reverse of precocious in their
development. The old-fashioned dunghill was too small. There was equal dissatis-
faction with both.

The first result was the throwing of whatever Asiatic came to hand, Shanghais,
Brahmas, Cochins — what not — at random into the barnyard flocks, to mix indis-
criminately with a lot of birds that had suffered that kind of breeding, if that
could be called breeding, for a generation or more.

The next step in the process was that the more thoughtful or fanciful began to
pick out the colors that suited their individual notions. Various farmers had local
reputations for the excellence of their white hens, or red hens, or whatever color
they might have chosen.

Perhaps the most widely diffused of what might have been called a native
stock was even then known as "old-fashioned, hawk-colored" fowls. Their disper-
sion over a wide extent of country was brought about by two causes. First, their
makings were much more distinct and uniform than any of the mixed colors, so that
by original vital strength the color was carried wherever a drop of the blood found
its way. Secondly, they proved to be hardy, matured rapidly and so came quickly
to usefulness as broilers, egg producers or for marketing purposes. They were
not so much exposed to the ravages of hawks, and farmers thought much of that.
The hawk could not see them so plainly, and the mother hen was almost as sharp
of eye as her enemy in the air.

Another point should not be overlooked, namely, the facility which was mani-
fested by this stock to assimilate the dash of Asiatic blood so as to make it a
genuine infusion. In other words, the cross by Asiatics made "a hit" upon the
said old-fashioned, hawk-colored Hrds, so that they reproduced themselves, throw-
ing comparatively few reverts, and furnishing at once the basis upon which to
build a breed.

Influence of the Dominique in transmitting barring to the breed.

The old cuckoo colored Dominique played a dominant role in the
prigin of the Plymouth Rock, All of the crosses include the hawk-

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS

109

colored Dominique fowl. This is in line with the now known inheri-
tance of the factor for barring.

While the barred bird is black and white — so are the mottled bird,
the silver-laced and the silver penciled primarily black and white; and
when black and white are crossed together, the plumage of the
progeny does not develop the barred color pattern unless the birds
have inherited a factor for this pattern.

With the hawk-colored fowl as an ancestor of the breed, the tend-
ency to barring was present. It is impossible to go beyond this and

Well proportioned Barred Plymouth Rock male with even, clear-
cut, straight-across the feather barring. Bred by E. B. Thompson,
Amenia, New York.

110 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

trace the specific origin of this color type. There is no record as to
when barring first appeared in domestic fowl, or how it came to hap-
pen. While a barred bird may today be made by certain crosses of
whites and blacks, it is the result of one of the parent birds carrying
the barred pattern in hereditary form without it being somatically
visible.

Unquestionably the early Dominiques were largely of English
Dorking origin, perhaps with some Scotch Gray blood in them. The
birds were very wide barred, the bars were not straight nor the dark
bar a sharp contrast to the light bar. When a male of this color type
was crossed onto Black Cochin females, the result was a number of
barred cockerels, some barred pullets and some black ones. The
black of the Cochin added intensity to the color, and the inheritance
of pattern from the male determined the position that that color was
to take up on the feather.

Barring comes lighter in the male than in the female. As years
have passed, and the Barred Plymouth Rock has been carefully
selected and bred, the factor for barring has become fixed. In 1912.
Dr. Raymond Pearl wrote: "Such a thing as a completely non-barred
bird appearing in any 'pure strain' of Barred Plymouth Rocks no
longer occurs and has not for a number of years."

The tendency persists, however, for Barred Plymouth Rock males
to come lighter than the females. This has been attributed to the
early crosses in which the male Dominique was crossed on Black
Cochins. The biggest problem in the history of the variety has been
how to overcome this natural tendency. After the World's Fair in
Chicago, 1893, 'Sid Conger of Shelbyville, Ind., who had been the
leading winner, discussed with his friend, B. N. Pierce of Indian-
apolis, who was the leading western poultry judge at that time, how
to remake the variety and produce a line of Barred Rocks that would
yield cockerels and pullets of the same shade of color. Mr. Pierce
took up the matter with Henry Turck of Middletown, Ohio, a lead-
ing Black Java breeder of the day. By this time, the modern Black
Java, with its clean legs, was an established fact.

Mr. Turck, acting on the suggestion, made a cross just opposite
to the original crosses, using a Black Java male on a bare-foot Light
Brahma female. A cockerel and pullet of this cross were then bred
together; and the pullets produced were bred back to their grand-
sire, the original Black Java male. The result was a dark barred male.
However, no permanent results accrued.

The fact of the matter is that no matter how dark you get a
Barred Rock male, his mother and sisters are darker. The male is
always "more barred" than the female and this strong dose of barring
takes the form of wide open white bars. In the female the barring is
of less degree, almost down to no space at all in some individuals,
and, in the early days, black pullets altogether devoid of white bar-
ring were more or less common. The greater barring of white in

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 111

the male makes him appear the lighter of the two sexes in color; and
the female, being less barred, is more colored, more strongly pig-
mented with black, with the result that her black bar is wider than
the black bar found in her sons and brothers. Examine a farmer's
flock of 6 to 8-week-old Plymouth Rock chicks and you will find that
the cockerels are infinitely "more barred" than the pullets, and the
cockerels are, therefore, cleaner and lighter in color.

The insistent demand has been for black and white bars of equal
width in both sexes, and in order to produce cockerels of this kind it
has been necessary to use dark females. The extent of the black
bar, its color, is largely inherited from the female parent, but the
pattern for barring is linked with the male sex, making the male the
more prepotent parent for the factor of barring; the female for the
degree and intensity of that black color which is carried in each
dark bar.

First instructions on breeding. The early breeders soon learned
the breeding tendency in the variety. Each breeder, whether a novice
or experienced, had been left to his own devices, and while many
ma tings resulted in failure to produce what was wanted, it seems
remarkable that as early as 1879 so much specific information should
have been collected on mating for color. In this year F. H. Corbin
wrote:

Five different matings have been advocated and practiced as follows:
Xo. 1. A male light in color mated to dark females.
Xo. 2. A male dark in color mated to light females.
XTo. 3. A male dark in color mated to dark females.
XTo. 4. Birds matching in the show pen.

Xo. 5. A female medium in color mated with a male two points or shades
lighter in color.

Corbin preferred mating No. 5 as "the best mating for breeding
purposes."

He described mating No. 2, which is the reverse of No. 5, as
"Objectionable, and it should not be practiced, except as a necessity
to utilize stock, and even then it seldom proves satisfactory." The
beginner of today should get the full significance of this statement,
to-wit: in breeding Barred Plymouth Rocks, one of the longest estab-
lished and most elementary rules is not to make a mating in which
the male is dark and the females are light in color.

Mating No. 3, which consisted of a dark male to dark females,
was described by Corbin as one that "should never be made use of."
He pointed out that by this mating it was impossible to produce any
number of chicks having desired yellow legs and beaks. "They will
invariably have legs either dark or spotted." Again his knowledge
of the inheritance of color in the plumage was accurate for he spoke
of such a mating producing pullets that would run very dark, while a
few cockerels could be obtained fit for exhibition. However, his
objection to cockerels produced in this way was strong, for it necessi-

112 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

tated the making of another mating to produce exhibition pullets. On
this double mating he wrote: "the trouble and annoyance of being-
obliged to have two different styles of mating is obvious to anyone,
and it utterly befogs amateurs."

Corbin believed that mating No. 5 was correct and that it should
be the same as No. 4, that is, No. 4, which consisted of "birds match-
ing in the show pen," should mean medium colored females matched
with a male two shades lighter in color. He maintained that judges
should be liberal in their construction of the Standard color and allow
that latitude in shade of color between the two sexes necessary for
breeding purposes. However, he did not recommend a light male
mated to dark females, mating No. 1, for although he said that it
was urged by many as the proper one, it should be resorted to only
in case of necessity.

Corbin was a single mater. He wanted the judges not only to
recognize the medium colored female as Standard but the male two
shades lighter which was required to produce her. However, the
tendency persisted that exhibition Barred Plymouth Rocks should be
of the same shade of color.

In 1880, H. H. Stoddard, editor of the Poultry World, wrote:

That the breed will ever arrive at that stage where the males will naturally be
produced as dark as the females, we very much doubt. At present and ever since
the breed was known, the males have run light and the liens dark. Can the Plymouth
Rocks be so changed by breeding as to approximate, and finally draw together?

Stoddard then proceeded to outline a system of breeding by defin-
ing a mating to produce exhibition cockerels, and another mating to
produce exhibition pullets. He also held to an intermediate mating
to produce both Standard cockerels and pullets.

A new generation of great breeders appear upon the scene. Such
was the state of knowledge when what were to become the greatest
breeders of America, began to take their first interest in Barred
Plymouth Rocks. Among this illustrious group of breeders stands the
name of Edward B. Thompson, Amenia, New York, who, in the
early days of February, 1879, while yet a schoolboy, made his first
purchase from Virgil Oilman, and began his career as a breeder of
Barred Plymouth Rocks. Seven years before Oilman had paid Drake
$20 for a pair, and later, to get away from the Drake tendency to
very large, coarse birds, had bought into Mark Pitman's line which
was producing more of a medium type of fowl.

In 1879, the year in which Thompson made his start, A. C. Haw-
kins, proprietor of Riverview Poultry Yards, Lancaster, Mass., issued
his first mating list. He listed one select mating from which eggs
were offered at $5 per 13; two matings at $3 per 13 eggs; and a fourth
yard from which eggs were quoted at $2 per sitting. Hawkins had
dipped strongly into the Pitman, Drake and Oilman strains. His
yard No. 2 was headed by a cockerel, "Mark Pitman II, sired by

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 113

Felch's old Mark Pitman, and fine in every way." He was mated to
"12 nice hens and pullets." In describing his females, Hawkins said:

I would say that my breeding hens were of the Drake and Oilman strains, and
selected with great care as to their fine breeding qualities. My cockerels have been
selected for their clean, distinct plumage, yellow legs, low combs and fine symmetry.
Will warrant them not to show brassy plumage.

In 1883, A. C. Hawkins won all firsts and specials at the old Madi-
son Square Garden, New York City; and Hawkins' ad occupied the
entire back cover of the April, 1883, issue of American Poultry Jour-
nal. In this same year E. B. Thompson made his hrst exhibit at New
York, and four years later, 1887, won four firsts on Barred Plymouth
Rocks at the old wooden Garden in New York City.

Later on appeared C. H. Welles of Stafford, Conn., C. H. Latham
of Lancaster, Mass., and Bradley Bros, of Lee, Mass. With Thomp-
son and Hawkins, they formed the great quintet of breeders who
occupied the center of the stage for a generation. Other prominent
breeders "arrived," particularly Wm. Ellery Bright of Waltham,
Mass., and in all America no other men or group of men exerted one
iota of influence upon the variety in comparison with the permanent
advances made by these great improvers of one of the most valuable
races of domesticated animals.

In 1899, C. H. WTelles won the president's cup, value $100, also
the silver challenge trophy cup, value $100, for the best cock, hen
cockerel and pullet, at the Garden, and the gold special for the best
bird in the show. His complete winnings were 1-2 cocks; 1-2 hens;
2-3-4-5 cockerels; 1-2-3 pullets; 1-2-4 pens.

Bradley Bros, who had secured their start from Hawkins, had
come into prominence about 1893 by winning four firsts, four seconds
and three thirds at Madison Square Garden, which was the premier
I Jarred Rock show of America and the battleground of every pre-
tender to the glory of a crown in Barred Rock paradise.

C. H,. Latham of Lancaster, Mass., was a wood engraver by pro-
fession, and, with an eye for detail, took up the breeding of Barred
Plymouth Rocks in the early nineties. He specialized in the produc-
tion of females. His line was started with th-e 1st prize pullet at the
Boston show of 1898, a bird that Latham had bred. This female was
the mother of his strain, and with her line of blood, more or less
reinforced as time went on, Latham went down the years, improving
the quality of his stock as the years passed, and winning 1st hen
Philadelphia, 1900; 1st pullet, Philadelphia, 1901; 1st pullet, Boston,
1902; 1st pullet, Madison Square, 1903; 1st hen and 1st pullet, Madison
Square Garden, 1905; 1st pullet, Madison Square, 1906; 1st hen, Bos-
ton, 1907; 1st pullet, Madison Square Garden, 1908; 1st hen and 1st
pullet, Boston, 1908; 1st hen and 1st pullet, Boston, 1909; 1st hen and
1st pullet, Boston, 1910; 1st hen, Madison Square Garden, 1910; 1st
pullet, Madison Square Garden, 1911; 1st pullet, Madison Square
Garden, December, 1913, and on the same pullet 1st at Boston. Janu-

114 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

ary, 1914. Such continuous victories made the Latham female line
the most sensational in America and it was looked upon by many
breeders as the most valuable one into which to purchase.

Persistent and close study made master breeders and the popu-
larity of the variety resulted in national reputations. No breed of
fowl in the history of the world ever had as much thorough and hard
work spent upon it as the Barred Plymouth Rock. No prizes in the
history of purebred poultry were ever as hotly contended for as the
prizes in the Barred Rock class at the annual exhibition of the New
York Poultry Association held in Madison Square Garden. To win
at New York was the height of the Barred Rock breeder's ambition.
The fact, however, that certain of the leading New England breeders
would show one year, and stay out the next, gave rise to an impres-
sion throughout the West that there was some form of collusion
among these breeders and by pre-arrangement the entries at New
York were restricted to some one or two breeders who would show
all the good birds that the entire group had been able to produce
during the year.

This impression, however, was dispelled at the New York show of
December, 1907, when four of the giants of the Barred Rock fancy
met in competition. Thompson, Latham and Welles were there; also
Grove Hill Poultry Farm of Waltham, Mass., owned by Wm. Ellery
Bright and under the management of Arthur C. Smith.

Being a December show and coming the week before Christmas,
the attendance at this Garden show was small. The wreather was
broken; some days good, and then, again, rainy. The classes of all
varieties were well filled, and considering the time of year, the birds
were well finished and in good show condition.

No display in any breed was of as much importance or attracted
as much attention as that of the Barred Rocks. While the New York
show is reputed to be a show of masters of the breeder's art in which
each presents for inspection and approval of the judge and interested
public, only his most brilliant stars, the strongest of the strong lined
up for battle in the Barred Rock aisle. Four hundred and eighteen
Barred Plymouth Rocks were cooped. Henry P. Schwab officiating
as judge, placed the ribbons, and exceedingly careful he was.

In cocks, first honor went to E. B. Thompson, and again 1st place
on cockerel went to Thompson. At the time we wrote:

This winning cockerel was a wonderful bird ; his type could hardly be improved
and his barring was truly "Ringlet," while his color was as clean and clear cut on
his back and tail as on his breast. He stood up straight and strong in his coop,
and was shown in the pink of condition. Other than the blue ribbon there was a
sign on his coop like this: "King of the Garden, Worth His Weight in Solid Gold."
But this was not the only sign. C. H. Welles put up a card on the coop
of his first prize hen: "The Queen of the Garden. Worth her weight in diamonds."
The joy of winning is great and Mr. Welles in his enthusiasm tied up the second
sign: "Fluffy Ruffles. Ten years ahead of the times."

But Mr. Welles' signs were only suggestive. He could say nothing that would
describe the worth of his hen to a breeder of the strain, nor could he express his

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 115

satisfaction in having produced her. She was the most remarkable Barred Rock
hen we have ever seen ; there is no excess from which we would deduct ; there is
nothing we would add to make her more complete; she stands in a class by herself,
"Ten Years Ahead of the Times."

"Worth his weight in radium," we read from the coop of an unfinished cockerel,
but one of the most promising in the class. He was a dark and very clean-cut
bird and was shown by the genial M. S. Gardner. Indeed, the birds Mr. Schwab
preferred were dark in color, bordering on black and white, and this in both
sexes. The day of light pullet breeding males is gone in the east, and western
breeders that continue to head their pullet yards with exceedingly light males will
find their pullets further and further from the desired color as the eastern style
goes west, and go it will, for it is the east that sets the styles in fancy poultry.
That which wins at New York is studied by judges and inquired into by the pro-
gressive breeders of the west and north and south.

Another sign, "First Attempt," was placed on the cage of the fourth prize
pullet. We looked in our catalog to see to whom this bird belonged and it made
us glad to read, George W. Hillson, Amenia, New York. Air. Hillson having
resigned his position of poultryman for E. B. Thompson, has gone into the breed-
ing of Barred Plymouth Rodks for himself. He came down to the Garden, the
first year, and had this pullet placed. That is enough. To win is the desire of
every breeder, but to win at New York is the height of the showman's ambition — it
is an ultra smart distinction.

There was one other sign in the Barred Rock alley: "Cackling Giglay's. Worth
her weight in smiles, sunbeams and egg orders." It was tied on the 1st prize
pullet coop, and the bird was shown by C. H. Latham.

There were 37 exhibition yards of Barred Rocks. 1st on pen went to Grove
Hill.

Improvement in Barred Rocks. The Garden show of 1907 was
epoch-making in Barred Rock history. Writing of the fine quality
there shown and of the rapid and encouraging changes that had been
made to date, M. S. Gardner said:

No breeder who visited the recent Madison Square Garden show and saw the
wonderful exhibit of Barred Plymouth Rocks there will contradict me, I am sure,
when I say that no other breed or variety has shown greater improvement in the
last ten years. The average quality at New York was marvelous. The eight winning
birls could have been taken from each class and removed from the Garden, and
there would have remained a collection equal to any ever seen before in any show
room in the east. A prominent New England breeder had in his possession some
feathers taken from a first prize male at Madison Square — I think in 1896. A com-
parison of these feathers with those of the winning birds at New York this winter
is interesting. The feathers from the 1896 winner show brdken bars, irregular
spacing, poor undercolor and smutty surface. Yet the bird from which they were
taken was considered a wonderful good one ten years ago. A bird of that quality
could not now win a 20th place at New York. Ten to fifteen years ago the females
of this variety, even in the best shows, were very coarse in barring, and showed but
little of that ringy effect, now so noticeable in the winning birds. In the male
birds, the hackles were very irregular and poor; now the best males show hackles
that are beautiful in the extreme — so ringy and clear cut is the surface and so regu-
lar and straight the under-barring. To one who knows how hard it is to produce
birds of a parti-colored variety, this great improvement tells of the amount of hard,
painstaking work done by the breeders who have contributed most to the develop-
ment of the Barred Rock.

However, there were still improvements to be made, and E. B.
Thompson, with his face set to the future — never satisfied, always
aspiring — pointed out this fact in the following words:

However, these present-day winners fascinate and are admired no more than

116 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

the fanciers of twenty years ago admired the winners of that time. Every period
has its limit of perfection for that period, but energy and ambition always declare
there shall be improvement. The Standard of Perfection must from time to time
be subject to change along with the growth of our ideas of the beautiful and our
ability to reproduce these ideas in the living bird. Barred Rocks can be brought
by fine graduations to a feather that will make the present-day winners no more
to l)e compared with those of ten years hence than the tidal wave of Mount Pelee
to a ripple against the Statue of Liberty in New Yorfc harbor.

The following year at the New York show of Dec. 29, 1908, to
Jan. 2, 1909, the battle broke anew, and the thunder of the giants'
cannon planted along the Barred Rock trench in the vast arena re-
sounded not only within the walls of the historic Garden, but was
heard by breeders of all varieties of Standardbred poultry throughout
America. The attention of every breeder was focused upon New
York. This year Thompson, Bradley, Welles, Hawkins, Grove Hill
and Gardner came into combat. There was a score of lesser lights
hoping for even a minor prize in the hotly contested classes. When
the smoke of battle had cleared away it was found that Judge Schwab
had given 1st cock to Grove Hill; 2d cock, 2d cockerel and 1st pen
to Thompson. Welles won 1st on the same hen, "Fluffy Ruffles,"
which had carried him to victory the year before. She was not in such
good condition this year, but was still the wonder of the hen class.
Gardner won 1st pullet, Hawkins won 1st cockerel, and Bradley had
to leave the field with 2d pen and several lower prizes. While Thomp-
son did not win either 1st place on cock or 1st on cockerel, he empha-
sized the value of his birds by going out of the Garden, buying log
chains and padlocks, coming back and fastening his cages with them,
and as we shall hereafter see, Thompson's estimate of the value of
his male line was amply justified.

Constructive breeding of the big five. Of the five great breeders.
Hawkins, Bradley, Latham, Welles and Thompson, it can be said
that each had his own strain, and each had his own following among
the buyers of Barred Plymouth Rocks who fancied certain established
qualities that were characteristic of the strain into which they bought
winners or new blood to reinforce their own flocks.

At this time we can look backward and see more clearly in a review
of the past, the aims, the opinions, the influences of these masters of
the Barred Rock fancy, than was possible when the day and hour
brought us close to the details and the struggles of their work.

Influence of Hawkins. The business of Hawkins was perhaps the
largest over a longer series of years than any other poultryman of
his day. In the twenty years, from the early eighties up into the
dawn of the twentieth century. Hawkins probably sold a quarter of
a million dollars worth of stock and eggs for hatching. Considering
the fact that the best eggs sold for five dollars a sitting in those days,
and poultry papers, which are the breeders medium for reaching
buyers, had only a quarter to a third of the circulation that is held
by the leading publications today. Hawkins' success was phenomenal
— and he was pointed to as the big man in Standardbred poultry.

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS

117

Hawkins wanted a bunch of Barred Rock cockerels to look good in
the field. He did not want a bird that handled according to rule
that did not look good in the open, as he stood on the ground. One
time, as we stood back of his barn, in the creek fiat along the Nassau
River, with a bunch of well grown Barred Rock cockerels called up
for our inspection, Hawkins said: "I do not say: Do they handle well.''
I say: Do they look good? 1 would not give $5 for a bird that did not
look good on the run."

After all what you see when you look at a chicken is 90 percent.
When you take the bird into your hands you may find bad under-
color, a crooked breast or stubs, but if these points were perfect and
the bird was not a real chicken when he stood on his feet in the
coop, he would not be worth a fig.

Feathers from the wing bow of an exhibition Barred Plymouth
Rock pullet, owned by E. B. Thompson.

In other words, what you find by digging into a bird is only 10
percent, enough to spoil an otherwise good bird, but not in itself
sufficient to make a good specimen. Give us perfect undercolor, a
perfectly straight breastbone and perfectly clean shanks and we
haven't anything. We must first have the 90 percent which includes
size, typical shape and surface color — the features you see when you
look at a bird. Then add the perfect undercolor, the perfectly straight
breast, perfectly clean shanks, and other points which you find by
digging in, and we have a truly wonderful specimen.

Hawkins put this philosophy into practice, and the result was a
well feathered, well balanced type of Barred Rock males in Haw-

118

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

kins' yards; and the surface color was clean and pretty. He called
his strain the "Royal Blue Barred Rocks." In justifying his type
of bird, he wrote:

Many of the judges have become so thoroughly carried away with the under-
barring that they pay little attention to the beauty of the surface color. They begin
to score from the skin and cut more severely for lack of undercolor than for an
inferior surface. The beauty of a fowl is what we see, and while I am a believer
in distinct, even barring under the surface, I do not want the bars so strong and
heavy underneath that they destroy the beautiful blue on the surface, and it Is a
fact that most of the specimens that are very strong in under-color have a muddy
black bar on the surface.

Now, breeders, which will you have? What I want, and what any real fancier
wants, is perfection in surface color and all the under-barring that nature will sup-
ply with it, and not what some judges I know require, namely, perfection in under
barring and as good surface as we can get with it.

Feathers from the neck of an exhibition Barred Plymouth Rock
pullet, owned by E. B. Thompson.

Bradley Bros.' intense barring. Victor Bradley of Bradley Bros,
bred an intense color in his male line. The barring was narrow, there
were many bars to a feather, and the barring was heavy down through
the undercolor, clear to the ^skin. With narrow barring came a long,
narrow feather with which* was associated slower feathering. This
slower feathering resulted in cockerels that did not feather early but
remained naked until their wings and hips were sunburned, and cock
birds that were not through the molt until mid-winter, and it was
an objectionable feature.

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 119

Nevertheless the Bradley male line was very popular. Because
of the intensity and strength of its dark, narrow, clear-to-the-skin
barring, the average breeder could buy and use a Bradley bird to
great advantage. These rich blood lines were always to be counted
upon to strengthen the barring of any average breeder's flock and the
effect lasted and did not run out for several generations. The well
known integrity of Victor Bradley and the strength of his male line,
gave him a tremendous hold on the Barred Rock business. M. S.
Gardner was an advocate of the Bradley line, as were other leading
breeders and judges throughout the country.

Latham's pullet line. Latham specialized in females; and like the
others of this illustrious group of Barred Rock specialists, he was a
breeder of his birds. It was some years before he got his blood lines
to producing, and during this time it is related that some of his com-
petitors joshed him by asking: "Charlie, wThy don't you buy a bird to
win." However, the workman plodded on, he served his apprentice-
ship amid the laughs and free advice of the journeymen of the day
and at last at Boston, 1898, won 1st on a pullet that became the mother
of a line of winning females that lifted their breeder to the forefront
for a span of fifteen years.

Latham specialized in the production of females, breeding them,
as other breeders of this enlightened period, by the double mating
system, a system that included the breeding of a light male to exhibi-
tion colored females to produce good females. This was called the
"pullet line" and birds so bred was called "pulletbred." The best
cockerels of same period, as at the present time, were being produced
by mating an exhibition colored cockerel to narrow-barred hens
whose dark bar was so heavy that it showed metallic sheen. This
system of running two separate lines, one to produce Standard colored
females and the other to produce Standard colored males, was double
mating.

Latham did not bother with the cockerel line, devoting all his
energies to the pullet line. He grew twice as many of this one line
as though he had been handling both the cockerel and pullet lines.
His thought was not divided, but his business was, for he had none
of the cockerel line to sell. Moreover, Latham's ambition, like his
trustworthiness, was beyond the dollar. He was an intelligent, deep-
thinking, earnest, enthusiastic breeder. Although his business was
limited to the female side of the Barred Plymouth Rock breed, and
he had an invalid wife and no source of income other than his poultry
business, he declined to sell eggs for hatching one year, giving as his
reason that when he sold eggs he had to enlarge his matings, and
that he thought he could breed better birds by limiting his matings
to only his finest females. Many a breeder would have taken his best
females, put them in a separate pen and reserved their eggs for his
own hatching, while he sold from the remaining flock. But Latham
was too earnest, too conservative, too high-spirited for that.

120 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

He had set his mind and his heart on breeding a feather in which
the black bar was soft black and the white bar was white, and in
which the black bar cut off sharply and did not fade to gray before
the white bar was laid on. This is a vital consideration in a Barred
Rock feather today. In Latham's words, which are as vital today
as when he penned them:

We must have contrast between the two colors of the bird — a wide difference
between the colors. The edges of each bar must end abruptly and the contrasting
color begin sharply, not softening or blending one into the other.

Latham took up the Barred Rock when the barring was weak, the
dark bar was blue black and the light bar was grayish white. The
barring was wide, making the white bar wide; and as summer advanced
the females presented a faded-brown appearance, and the pullet breed-
ing males looked washy. He put more bars on the feather, got them
straighter, and by widening the dark bar, got the bars of nearer equal
width; he improved the distinctiveness of the bars and brought the
color of each bar into itself.

He did not breed a big type of female, and the old defect, "broken-
down behind," due to the females of the variety laying on too rriuch
fat around the intestines in their abdomen, became absent in his
strain.

The work and success of Welles. Welles carried on his breeding
operations in a more limited way than any one of the big five. It
was always a disadvantage under which Welles worked, for in selling
his trade, he often sold himself short, and the sudden sickness or acci-
dental death of a bird would occasionally cripple a year's hatching
and rearing operations.

While Welles was prominent in the variety and formidable as a
competitor, his greatest stroke was in producing "Fluffy Ruffles," the
famous 1st prize hen at the New York show of December, 1907.

Welles was a careful breeder. After he produced old Fluffy, he
began to use her, and wrote of his plans as follows:

I have her with a large, fine blue-barred cockerel and will at the end of the
season have about fifty chicks from her. She is a wonde'rful hen, and I do not
expect many as good as she and I may not get any quite as good, but I will get
tome good ones. Next season this blood will be diffused throughout my whole
flock, where it will work to advantage, and as it is all the same family, good results
are bound to come.

The great popularity of this line of breeding can be at once under-
stood when it is stated that that old breeder of champions, A. C. Haw-
kins, began to advertise in his catalog "Fluffy Ruffles" blood.

This famous hen was of fair type and good size, but most of all
she was the proud possessor of exceptional barring and color. She
had a rich, velvety, very clean, dark bar, somewhat wider in propor-
tion than the light bar; and this light bar was very clean, approach-
ing v/hite. Withal the bird was darker, somewhat larger, and had
heavier bone in her shanks than the general run of strictly pulletbred

BARRED PLYMOUTH 'ROCKS

121

Barred Rock females, and strongly suggested the presence of cockerel
blood in her veins.

"Fluffy Ruffles" was the climax. With this strong, intense colored
female winning at New York, the day was now gone for the old,
wide-barred, bluish pulletbred hens and pullets. In 1900, Latham had
crossed cockerelbred blood in his Boston hen line, and had won for
himself the distinction of being "the man who had put color into
the exhibition Barred Rock females." Welles now clinched the argu-
ment of stronger color. For several years after "Fluffy Ruffles" made

Feathers from the back of a male used in the breeding of exhi-
bition females. Such a male is termed "pullet-bred." The male
from which these feathers were plucked is owned by W. D. Holter-
man, Fort Wayne, Ind.

her debut at New York, Judge Schwab continued to give the prefer-
ence to the darker females; and in 1910 and 1911, Riley won 1st hen
at New York on very strong colored birds.

Thompson as a master breeder. E. B. Thompson, with the greater
resources, and a better organization in his son, Valentine, and nepnew,
John, to carry on the breeding business, at last outdistanced all com-
petitors. From 1887 down to the present time, his "Imperial Ring-
lets" have won largely at the Garden shows. It probably is with-
out precedent in any breed or variety of livestock for one breeder to

122

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

have won so continuously over so long a period at a pie-eminent
American show.

Thompson's greatest achievement in breeding has been in produc-
ing straight-across-the-feather barring. This straightness of barring
results in the bars on the individual feathers linking up with one
another and producing rings around the birds. The result is the ring-
let effect which is characteristic of his strain and makes them in fact
as well as in name "Ringlets." And, in getting straight bars, he
has been equally successful in producing light and dark bars of equal
width. Added to straight, evenly spaced barring, he has a bright,
clean surface color and an underbarring that is consistent with this
surface color. If the beginner will study this one paragraph, he will

Feathers from an exhibition Barred Plymouth Rock, owned by
W. D. Holterman, Fort Wayne, Ind.

acquire the fundamentals of a liberal knowledge of correct Barred
Plymouth Rock color.

The Thompson business of selling high-grade Barred Plymouth
Rock fowls and eggs for hatching has been built up from a small
beginning. The visitor to th'e farm today may sit in the palatial
residence and look across the valley to the hills on yonder side. Back
in those hills was the first Thompson farm, and it was from there,
in the early eighties, that this breeder shipped his first pair of Barred
Plymouth Rocks to the New York show. He didn't have money
enough to go down himself, and the pair of birds were lost and never
got back home. In the light of present-day quality, they were not
worth returning home.

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 123

History of the Thompson pullet line. Latham and Welles were
both great pullet breeders. Charles Welles' famous hen "Fluffy Ruf-
fles" won at the Garden in 1907, and she was dark and strong-colored.
Charles Latham's females excelled in cleanness of the white bar,
sharpness with which the dark bar was denned and the decisiveness
with which the dark bar left off and the white bar began. These
two breeders held sway until Edward B. Thompson started in to
breed females in earnest, when he outdistanced both of them.

Now, all these breeders agree that the dark line has influenced the
light line. Why not be frank about this thing? What breeder hasn't
admired the beauty of a cockerelbred pullet; what breeder of any
variety but what has learned that color works out from generation to
generation, and you get what you want on its way out? Surely every
breeder knows the value of excess color. It is, therefore, not damag-
ing to say that Thompson's female line dates back to the cockerel
line. The result is an entire flock containing hundreds of representa-
tives of double mated Barred Rocks that for evenness of color, simi-
larity in character of barring and blending of the whole flock, is unsur-
passed.

In females we find the blood of one female running through the
flock. Some may call this inbreeding, and that is right, but you will
find more of her blood in some families of E. B. Thompson's pullet
line than in some of his other families. The birds are not closely
inbred. But, if they were totally unrelated, the Ringlets would not
represent a strain of Barred Rocks and no buyer in the flock would
have any assurance of the blood nicking and producing quality equal
to the purchased stock. Linebreeding is the proper term to apply to
this kind of constructive flock building. "Linebred" means that the
individual so bred traces back in a direct line to famous sires and
dams.

History of the Thompson cockerel line. The history of E. B.
Thompson's bright, clean-colored male line will be of interest to
breeders, for this line has influenced the ideals of breeders and judges
of the east, west, north and south, and made it impossible for any-
one anywhere to sell for a long price anything other than a straight
barred, clean barred, bright clear colored bird. Even in England the
old color-type "black as a derby hat" has gone, and in its place we
find the winning hen at the Royal show (Agricultural Society's Show,
1919) possessing a straight dark bar and a clean white bar.

The pedigree of the present Thompson male line of Barred Rocks
run back through two principal arteries of blood. Both of these tribu-
taries of the present stream may be traced, but we shall go back only
as far as the water is deep. In December, 1907, Mr. Thompson showed
a cockerel at New York that was big, fully feathered indicating strong
masculinity, finished in tail, big faced and his eye was as bright as a
shoe button. Henry P. Schwab who judged the class that year, said:
'There is something about that bird which is hard to describe," In

124 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

writing up the class, we said: "This winning cockerel is a wonderful
bird; his type could hardly be improved, and his barring was truly
ringlet in effect, while his color was as clean cut on his back and tail
as on his breast."

This 1907 cockerel sired a cockerel late in 1909 that was too young
to show at New York that winter. However, he was bred in 1910,
being mated to his own blood line, for Mr. Thompson, like all great
breeders of all livestock, has always appreciated the importance of
intensifying the blood of fine individuals. A cockerel was raised from
this mating in 1910 that won 1st and champion male at the Garden
show of 1910-11. This cockerel in turn sired the 2d cock of 1913.
The 1913 cock was not only a wonder as he stood in the garden, but
proved to be a great producer.

The other line of blood which we shall trace was prominent in
the winning at the New York show of Dec. 28, 1908, to Jan. 2, 1909,
when Mr. Thompson won second on a wonderful cock. In writing
up the show that year, we said: "The second cock was a big bird,
strong in color and of good appearance; third, another good bird,
but not as good in comb or as well finished in tail as second." Of
the first cock, all we said was: "First, about Standard size." It is
plain to understand from this old report that it was the second cock-
that filled our eye. Mr. Thompson exhibited another cock of similar
quality, a brother of the second cock, but unplaced because hens had
picked off some of his comb while he was yet a cockerel. Roth birds
were clear blue in color and finely barred.

This second line of males goes back to the cock that won at the
Pan-American Exposition. October. 1901. The Pan-American cock
again won 1st at the Garden in 1902. He sired the first prize cock
at the Garden in 1903. That was the bird of which Mr. Scudder, who
judged the Barred Rocks at the Garden for many years, said: "He Is
a bright colored fellow. If you pull out a feather and lay it on a piece
of paper, you observe that the white bar is white and dark bar Is
snappy, yet the plumage as a whole is very even and very blue in tone,
one section blending into another, leaving an even color."

A Thompson cockerel can usually be picked out by his big face.
A chicken has a face although many fanciers have failed to get the
full significance and value of the point. There are features in these
birds that their breeder would never think of mentioning because
they have become second nature to him. He has secured them, he
has established them, and he has passed on to other more intricate
problems.

Some buyers want a neat five-point comb. Such a comb, like
bright, yellow legs and beak, does not add anything to a $3 chicken,
but it is a fine thing to have in a $200 bird. Some buyers want under
color: it is of no value and no prominent breeder in America wants
it; what these men want is underbarring. A silver Camoine has under-
color galore. That isn't what you want in a Barred Plymouth Rock.
You want a consistent, clean underbarring.

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS

125

A good pullet is not even one possessing a five-point comb and
barred to the skin. She must have length and type to be good. The
black bar should be of a soft tone like black velvet. There is a green
sheen in some, but that is not as good, even though it means that the
white bar will be whiter. The white bar should be clean white. "I
don't know as it ought to be pure white, like a laundered linen collar,
but there is no danger of us getting it that way anyhow," said Mr.
Thompson. "We aim for a pure white bar — aim high — and get it as
good as we can."

Mating Barred Plymouth Rocks for color or double mating. All

good Barred Rocks of today are
produced by the double mating
system. For a number of years
there were advocates of single or
Standard matings in the west
after all of the principal eastern
breeders had forsaken single mat-
ing; and the comparative value
of double mating vs. single or
Standard mating culminated in

To the left, feathers from an exhibition Barred Plymouth Rock male, owned
by E. B. Thompson. To the right, feathers from a dark or cockerel-bred female
which should be mated to the exhibition male.

126

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

a long and vigorous controversy between M. S. Gardner of New York,
who championed double mating and Theo. Hewes of Indiana, who de-
fended Standard mating. Gardnei had the winners at the great New
York show to back up his positior that the best Barred Rocks were
produced by separate cockere] and pullet matings, while Hewes was at
a disadvantage when it came to pointing out specific evidence of high
quality Barred Rocks being produced by single mating. All argument
has since been abandoned, one of the old advocates of single mating,
D. T. Heimlich of Illinois,, writing in 1919, that after having fought for

This illustration shows what appear to be feathers from a pullet-
bred Barred Plymouth Rock male. The fact is that these feathers are
from a cockerel-bred male and the photographer's plate was printed in
the negative in order to show that the pullet-bred color-type in Barred
Rock males is the exact reverse of the cockerel-bred color-type. Photo
by courtesy L. A. Stahmer.

single mating as the correct way to breed the variety, he had found,
after twenty-five years, that "the results did not measure up to what
was being done by those who practiced double mating." The fact is
that the probable value of single mating has declined since 1901, when
Gardner in making a reply to Hewes, cited the fact that the 1st pullet
at Chicago, shown by D. F. Palmer, and the l?t cockerel at Chicago,
shown by Webb, had been produced by double mating, Mr. Webb
showing no pullets equal to his cockerel, or Mr. Palmer getting a

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS

127

prize on cockerels. As cited by
Heimlich, the single or Stand-
ard mating system of breeding
Barred Rocks is today in total
eclipse.

Dark and light m a t i n g s.

Double mating in this variety
consists of two matings as fol-
lows:

No. 1. Mating the Standard
colored male to females whose
dark bar is broader than their
light bar, and whose dark bar
is so full of black pigment that
it carries a greenish, metallic
luster. The undercolor of these
females is also comparatively
dark. This mating produces
cockerels several shades lighter
than their dams, for the natural
tendency is for the male to run
lighter in color than the female.
This mating is known as the
dark or cockerel mating. The
pullets from such a mating are dark like their dams, and like their
dams are very valuable for breeding exhibition cockerels. Both
cockerels and pullets from this mating are what are known as "cock-
erelbred."

No. 2. Mating Standard colored females to light colored males.
This produces Standard or exhibition colored females. As is natural
to the variety, the cockerels from this mating come lighter in color
than their sisters, the pullets. They are valuable, however, for pro-
ducing other pullets the color of their dams and sisters. Both cock-
erels and pullets from this mating are known as "pulletbred."

The cockerels from mating No. 1 and the pullets from mating No.
2 are the Standard or exhibition colored birds. The males used to
head mating No. 1 and the females used in mating No. 2 are Standard
or exhibition colored birds.

It is true, as already stated, that on certain rare occasions cockerel
blood has been infused with good success into the pullet line to give
more snap and color to the barring of the exhibition females. It is
probably equally true that pullet blood has been used to clear up the
color of the cockerel line. This intermingling has .been possible
because the color formation of the two families is the same, the dif-
ference being that cockerelbred birds have wider dark bars and more
pigment in their plumage.

E. B. Thompson's 1st Prize Barred
Plymouth Rock Cockerel at the New York
Show, 1919. This is the kind of male to
use in mating No. 1.

128

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

It is, therefore, absurd to speak of the light and dark matings in
Barred Rocks as representing two separate and distinct varieties.
There is only one variety, the Barred Plymouth Rock, but because
of the tendency for the males to run lighter in color than the females,
two matings are made so as to produce Standard cockerels on the
one hand, and on the other hand. Standard colored pullets that will
match the Standard cockerels when placed in a show pen.

As a general proposition the two lines should be bred separately,
and when an experimenter introduces cockerels or dark blood into
the pullet line by using a cockerelbred female to a pulletbred male,
he should then use the progeny of the cross and not continue further
crossing, and go along on the double mating system. Without these
experimenters we would not have new and better types, but the begin-
ner should leave such an undertaking severely alone, and breed stock
strictly to his cockerel and pullet lines as separate units.

Under no circumstances should he mate an exhibition cockerel to
an exhibition pullet with the hope of leveling up the color in their
progeny. Such an attempt would be to resort back to the old dis-
carded system of single or Standard matings.

The future. Today we find Barred Plymouth Rocks of grand
quality; birds of true Plymouth Rock shape, with strong heads, broad
shoulders, full breasts, good length and width of back, full tails car-
ried at their proper angle, and

the entire body well balanced j
on strong, well placed legs;
birds of one even shade of
bright, sharp, contrasting color
from end to end, cleanly bar-
red tails and wings, saddle
feathers of the same color as
tail coverts and each section
blending and matching the
other sections. But, still the
work to be done on Barred
Plymouth Rocks remains un-
finished, the opportunities and
possibilities are great, and the
breed offers today a wonder-
ful repast for thought and
study.

The old school of breeders
have done much, have accom-
plished much, of which we
may avail ourselves to the -

fullest extent. It is for us to E B Thompson,s lst Prize Barred
get the right quality of birds, Plymouth Rock hen at Madison Square

have them mated light, give ,9ar,den,- Ne^Y York- I919- This is the

kind of female to use in mating No. 2.

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS

129

the best of care to the 'growing chickens and provide adequate range
for them. Failure comes from poor breeding stock and careless han-
dling.

The young breeder will do well to inquire into the merits of every
family of the breed that is today in the ascendancy. Study the claims
of each breeder, for you cannot know in advance where you will find
just what you want or what will do you the most good in the breed-
ing yard. Let your letters travel the length and breadth of the land
asking for quotations on birds of good substance and good breeding,
for you may well aspire to bring together in your own yards, birds
that possess breeding possibilities which shall culminate in a quality
of Plymouth Rock chickens that for beauty of plumage, symmetry

W. D. Holterman and His Son and Two Exhibition Barred Plymouth Rock Pullets.

of form and genuine usefulness will surpass the most lauded produc-
tions of the past.

No matter what progress has been made, the question of breeding
ever remains worthy of a man's deepest study and most, skillful efforts.

W. D. Holterman tells the secret of the true breeder's interest
and ambition in these words:

Before my eyes I see a vision which I will try to help make come true: I picture
to myself males and females so intensely sharp and contrasting in color, so sharp-
white and blue-black in color of their bars, that they will fairly sparllde and scintillate
as they move about. This is further enhanced and becomes much more beautiful
and striking on account of their sharply marked lines or "rings" of alternate blue-

130

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

black and white, which clothe the whole chicken as a perfectly fitting garment. I
do not expect to see chickens very much different in type from those we have today,
but I do look, for simply wonderful improvement in the shade of color, especially
in the intensity of both the black and the white bar, and also in the "ringy" barring
or "line" barring, from the very tip of the head down to the fluff and tail.

Holterman's own start was an humble one. Working for a drug
concern, saving a dollar at a time with which to buy his first sitting
of eggs, handicapped at times by ill health, he has succeeded in com-
bining the blood of some of the best families of this grand old breed
into what is today popularly known as the "Aristocrat strain."

.

Home of E. B. Thompson, Breeder of Imperial Ringlet Barred Plymouth

Rocks.

CHAPTER VII
WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS

First White Plymouth Rocks came as pure sports of the Barred

variety — Some other blood was probably introduced into the early

strains — Leading breeders of the past — Prominent breeders of today —

Qualities to seek when selecting birds for the breeding yard.

The origin of the White Plymouth Rock is generally credited to
Oscar F. Frost of Monmouth, Maine, who exhibited six of his birds
at the Bangor (Maine) show in 1876, and advertised and promoted
the variety for some years thereafter. The birds were white sports of
the Barred Plymouth Rock variety.

Pureblooded Plymouth Rocks. F. W. Proctor of Massachusetts,
writing of his personal knowledge of the Frost stock, has stated that
in 1884 his attention was called to the variety by an advertisement of
Mr. Frost, and he purchased two sittings of eggs. The chicks that
hatched were of a "dark color" and "their first plumage came uni-
formly of slate color"; and Mr. Proctor states that "I believe this
original stock was what it purported to be — an albino Barred Rock."

While Frost has received the full credit of origination of White
Plymouth Rocks, Wm. P. Woodward of Maine makes a prior claim.
Writing to U. R. Fishel under the date of Oct. 13, 1904, Mr. Wood-
ward stated:

I was the first one to raise and exhibit the White Plymouth Rocks. I had a
pair on exhibition at the Eastern Maine Fair held at Bangor, this state, the year
before Mr. Frost got his chicks. Mine were raised from eggs of Barred Rocks of
the Essex strain. Unfortunately my birds were both cockerels but Dr. G. W.
Twitchel and myself thought they were a pair at the fair. Mr. Frost had a few
pullets the next year, and the White Plymouth Rocks were bred from them.

Sports or Albinos. Mr. Woodward credits the origin of his white
sports to the Essex strain. According to T. F. McGrew, who wrote
a bulletin on "The Plymouth Rock" for the U. S. Department of
Agriculture, 1901, many of the white sports that appeared in flocks of
Barred Rock breeders in the early history of the breed, seemed to
come from the Essex strain. As related in the chapter on Barred
Rocks, the originator of the Essex strain had injected a dash of Light
Brahma blood into his line of breeding to clear up the barred
color. Now, when white sports occurred they were said to be the
result of "throwing back" to this white blood.

The words "reversion" and "atavism" are used to indicate "throw-
ing back." Perhaps "reversion" is the proper word to use in explain-
ing the appearance of White Plymouth Rocks for it indicates resem-
blance to a nearby ancestor, wrhile "atavism" means the reappearance
of a character possessed by some very remote ancestor.

131

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 133

White Rocks have also been spoken of as albinos, that is, pure
Barred Plymouth Rocks in which the color has failed, due to pigment
not being secreted in a normal way. There is therefore, a difference
between an albino and a white sport, the latter indicating, in this
case, that the visible barred character of the Essex strain was not
their total possession, and that inheritance was not limited to this
somatically visible barring alone; and that some of the descendants
inherited the white plumage which had been introduced into the family
of which they were a member.

At the Bangor (Maine) show of 1876 at which Frost exhibited his
White Plymouth Rocks, I. K. Felch officiated as judge. He states
that:

A trio of these White Rocks were offered to me, but I foolishly declined to
accept them. However, I advised Mr. Frost to continue to breed them, for, as I
told him, he would have no trouble with the color. These are the fowls which waded
through deep mire in subsequent years, before they were admitted to the Standard
and their good qualities became known, and the variety accepted by fanciers. The
Barred and the Whites are the only Plymouth Rocks of absolute purity of Plymouth
Rock blood.

Other sources of origin. Rev. John Hughes of Table Grove, Illi-
nois, who was a prominent breeder of the variety from 1890 to about
1900, claimed superiority for the White Plymouth Rock as a separate
variety and not because of its relationship to the Barred Rock. From
a close study of his own stock he had come to the conclusion that the
birds were not direct in line from sports of the barred variety, and
that alien blood had been introduced. On this point he wrote in the
summer of 1901, as follows:

I do not doubt their relationship to the Barred variety, but question their full
relationship. The faulty combs which have taken so many years to bring to full
perfection testify very plainly of a mixture of White Leghorn blood, and of the
origin of their superior laying qualities. The feathers on their legs, equally hard
to eradicate, speak also of a mixture of the Light Brahma or White Cochin blood
for size. This happily has been accomplished, and they breed as true to require-
ments now as any other breed, and they are substantially fixed as to type.

This is telling the truth, as I view it, as to their origin, and as I believe It
ought to be told. It is a made breed and must stand on its own merit or go down
as unworthy of its place. Tt cannot rest on borrowed plunies, nor maintain popu-
larity because it is a "sport" of another breed. In what is a "sport" better than
the original?

This view of origin was not held by John Landis of Edinburg,
Indiana, who took up the variety in 1894, and brecl many winners at
Chicago and Indianapolis, entering some of his birds as recently as
the Chicago show of December, 1919. Landis wrote in 1904 that
while much had been written in regard to the origin of the variety,
and different breeds named as having been used in a cross to bring
about the desired results, the fact was that "the Simon-pure White
Rocks of today are albino-sports of the Barred variety," and "the
birds that have made names and fame for their owners are pure
Plymouth Rocks and owe their origin to some of the extreme matings
in the Barred variety."

134

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

White sports continued to appear in the best families of Barred
Rocks for a period of twenty years after the White Rock had made its
debut in Woodward's and Frost's initial exhibits. A. C. Smith states
that a certain mating of Barred Plymouth Rocks that he made at
Grove Hill Poultry Yards in 1895, produced five white chicks, four
cockerels and one pullet; and the year previous he had seen three
white sports in the yards of D. J. Lambert, prominent breeder of
Barred Rocks in Rhode Island.

A. C. Hawkins has told of introducing into his yards in 1886, a
Barred Rock male from a successful breeder in the West, and in

White Plymouth Rock winners at New York, owned by Wilburtha Poultry Farms,
M. L. Chapman, General Manager, Trenton Junction, New Jersey.

nearly every brood of chicks that were hatched from this male dur-
ing the season, there was one or more pure white sports. These chicks
developed into typical Plymouth Rocks, had yellow legs and beaks,
were pure white and possessed large size. The following season he
mated the white sports together and from the mating every chick that
matured was "pure white with the exception of an occasional barred
feather in the plumage."

Such was the foundation of Hawkins' strain of White Plymouth
Rocks. On birds of this breeding he won a number of prizes at the

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 135

New York show for several years, and upon this foundation was
builded the most successful strain of a generation.

Success of Bailey and Graves. Some of Hawkins' stock found its
way into the hands of A. H. Bailey of Middletown, Conn., the first
great improver of the variety. In Bailey's yards outstanding birds of
superior quality were produced and eventually they began to appear
in the White Rock classes of the great eastern shows. Bailey was a
constructive breeder whose influence on the type, color and general
quality of the variety was greater than that of any man who had
taken up the breeding of White Plymouth Rocks after they had
become established as a separate and distinct race of the Plymouth
Rock breed.

Harry Graves of Higganum, Connecticut, grew birds for Bailey,
and Bailey died before he reaped the full reward of his own efforts.
Graves got the credit because he lived longer, although he too is now
deceased. And Graves deserves much credit. He studied and grew
White Rocks for fifteen years before he ever exhibited. W'hen he did
exhibit, his birds were in a class by themselves, and their blood lines
were so established that they became the foundation source from
which descend the leading flocks of White Plymouth Rocks in the
east today.

It was the Bailey-Graves strain, scattered around Middletown,
Higganum and Hartford that produced the White Rocks of surpass-
ing quality for years. Graves never grew more than 200, sometimes
100 birds. He was a hunter and fisherman and he traveled up and
down the Connecticut valley and had a great many birds farmed out.
When Graves died in 1905, M. L. Chapman continued his breeding;
system, although the personal flock of Harry Graves was sold. Chap-
man had been schooled down where the going was fast, and he mated
many of the farm flocks that had been established by Graves, and sold
a number of birds. When Chapman moved to New Jersey, the
farmers no longer had anyone to mate their birds for them and no
outlet for the fine birds that they grew. But the Graves' blood was
already well distributed in the hands of constructive breeders.

What Bailey and Graves did could also be done by others. Per-
haps the easiest way to go about it was to get some of their blood,
although it was not necessary to acquire their best birds. It is not
always a matter of money with which to buy the highest priced win-
ners. A man does not have to have the best with which to start.
This question of producing good quality birds is largely a matter of
devotion to the birds themselves, a single standard well fixed in the
breeder's mind, and close study of individual birds so that they may
be mated to produce the better quality.

Davey, Delano and Owen. When Frank H. Davey went to Grey-
stone Farm at Yonkers, New York, it is said that his purchases were
limited to $5 for any one bird, which is equivalent to about $20 today,
considering both increased currency and increased demand for pure-

136

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 137

bred fowl. His predecessor, as manager of this farm, had spent con-
siderably more than that in buying different specimens, and the pro-
prietor of the estate clamped down the lid and hired Frank Davey.
H,e bought into the Graves line and with the best blood available
started in to breed the best birds possible. His series of victories at
the Madison Square Garden show are part of the records of that
nationally important event.

Upon the death of Harry Graves, the late Wm. Barry Owen pur-
chased the flock. He also bought the Greystone flock and hired Frank
Davey. His manager, Maurice Delano, was already breeding some
of the best White Rocks in the country and Owen Farms amalga-
mated three families of Graves' blood. Mr. Owen was a man of keen
perception, a man who saw opportunities clearly and who never lacked
that resourcefulness necessary to action. He built up a great breed-
ing establishment and added dignity and honor to the business of
breeding purebred poultry.

White Rocks in the mid-west. From the first, the White Rock
made lasting friends in the west and leading fanciers vied with one
another in the breeding of this variety. The eastern fanciers did not
enjoy all the fun or gain all the prestige. The old cock, White
Prince, as bred by B. N. Pierce of Indianapolis, was none the less a
subject of comment among breeders than the famous cock, White-
Cloud, as bred by Fishers Island Farm, Fishers Island, New York.

Grant M. Curtis has stated that the first stay-white White Plym-
outh Rock male that came to his notice, was a bird in the yards of
Rev. John Hughes, Table Grove, Illinois. This bird appeared about
1900. Prior to that time, and for some years afterwards, White Rock
males were inclined to show brassiness or straw color on the surface
of their backs, necks and wing bows. It was repeatedly stated that
because of the yellow pigment common to a yellow shanked and
golden-yellow skinned variety, brass would show in the white plumage
and it was doubtful if it could be completely eliminated. That the
theory was wrong has since been proved by the case of the White
Orpington, a variety that carries white skin and white shanks and in
whose plumage brassiness has been a most persistent fault.

Curtis opened the eyes of breeders and stimulated them in their
endeavors to produce a pure white plumage that would not show
creaminess or tarnish and show brassiness, when he reported the
Hughes male and remarked: "If nature can make one such White
Plymouth Rock cock bird, she can make ten thousand." Hughes
ranks as one of the early improvers of the variety. He saw the faults
of the early birds and was frank to comment upon them.

Recognition as a Standard variety. It was the mid-west that
accorded recognition to the White Plymouth Rocks as a distinct
variety. At a meeting of the American Poultry Association held in
Indianapolis, Jan. 25, 1888, three new white varieties with the same
breed characteristics, White Plymouth Rocks, White Dirigos and

138 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

White Javas, were presented for admission to the Standard of Per-
fection. Each of these new varieties had white plumage and yellow-
shanks, so only one of them could be admitted to the Standard
with these breed characteristics. Preference was given to the White
Plymouth Rock.

The Dirigo was virtually a strain of White Rocks of Maine origin
rather than a new breed, and the name was now speedily forgotten.
The majority of the White Java likewise disappeared by turning into
White Plymouth Rocks over night. While ''White Javas" were
admitted to the Standard at the same Indianapolis meeting, the Stand-
ard birds were required to have willow legs, a character that few of
the specimens possessed; and the "White Java" was eventually
dropped from the Standard.

U. R. Fishel a leading breeder. The career of the White Plymouth
Rock has been marked by steadiness, and while some varieties have
been boomed and suffered from over-appreciation, and, later, neglect,
the White Plymouth Rock has enjoyed a natural, healthy growth in
popularity. While as much as $500 has been paid for a single male,
and $900 for a pen, there has been a year-after-year demand for typical
females of good substance at $5 to $25. and for males of equal quality
at $10 to $50 each.

In producing fowls of this sort, the breeding of no variety of the
American class has shown greater regularity, and this fowl has been
the one on which notable business successes have been built, par-
ticularly the business success of U. R. Fishel, whose White Plymouth
Rock farm covers 120 acres of blue grass country at Hope in southern
Indiana.

It is natural that great credit should be attached to the name of
Frost for in every great movement much fame and credit are attached
to the individual who began it. The name of Columbus, the dis-
coverer, is linked with everlasting fidelity with that of America; but
when the institutions of America are reviewed, the names of those
who struggled, endured and established, are worthy of reverence also.
So it is in the varieties of poultry; the originators are remembered
and quoted, but those who "reach the goal" as breeders of the varie-
ties are worthy of the highest praise.

No mention of White Plymouth Rocks is therefore complete with-
out reference to U. R. Fishel, a breeder whose own name is synony-
mous with that of the variety he breeds, made so by him having been
that variety's greatest champion. Through bright days and dark,
through the sunshine and storms of a quarter century, U. R. Fishel
has proclaimed the merits of the White Plymouth Rock fowl. He
has distributed confidence in the variety and confidence is the life
of trade, the architect and builder of good will. Confidence, well
founded, is the guarantee of permanence.

Fishel came into prominence at the Chicago show of January,
1901, where he won every 1st prize but one. He had previously won

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS

139

largely at the Indiana State Fair of 1898; the Chicago, St. Louis and
Indianapolis shows of 1899; and the New York State 'Fair of 1900.
But at Chicago, 1901, his exhibit was a sensation, and his White
Plymouth Rocks won the American Poultry Association cup for the
best two cocks, two cockerels, two hens and two pullets, all the varie-
ties in the American class competing; the Rigg Challenge Trophy
for the best display of Plymouth Rocks; gold special for the best
display of all breeds; gold special for the best White Plymouth Rock
cock; gold special for the best White Rock cockerel; and gold special
for the best White Rock pullet. "The above record fully proves my
White Plymouth Rocks as the best in the world," wrote Mr. Fishel
at the time, and while a rather large claim that covered considerable
territory, no claim for any strain had greater justification.
At this time the Poultry Keeper said:

When a man has succeeded in producing a strain of fowls that win almost
every premium worth having that is offered by one of the largest poultry associa-
tions in the country, it is the strongest proof that can be offered of the high quality
of his stock. Such is the record made by the Fishel White Plymouth Rodks.

Modern White Rocks. The question today is hardly one of im-
proving the Standard exhibition qualities of White Rocks further, but
rather of producing more of these wonderful specimens and ever add-
ing more utility to the birds.

White Plymouth Rock Males of Good Type,
Owned by U. R. Fishel, Hope, Indiana.

H. W. Hallbach was much pleased with his first pullet at the
National show in Chicago, January, 1920. She did not have quite as
much drumstick as some other noteworthy winners have had, but she

140

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

represented to his eye a very useful type. He remarked: "Buyers
want birds that lay and we must breed that kind, and the types that
win should always be of the best utility value."

The White Rock, too, should be a bird that is in a good market-
able condition during its growing period. Cockerels that go through
an awkward stage and then develop into fine birds do not give the
same full measure of pleasure and satisfaction that is derived from
chickens that grow and blossom out like flowers, without ever having
passed through an unsymmetrical stage.

Mating. The successful mating of this variety requires a knowl-
edge of the fundamentals of breeding. The novice may mate his best
birds together, but with more study and experience he finds that
considerable corrective mating may be employed to good advantage.
The best male and female may both be short in leg, and the mating
would be much better if the short, full bodied, full fluffed female were
mated to a male of greater station.

The points that constitute a good White Rock are Standard size,
true Plymouth Rock type, a red eye, pure yellow beak and shanks,
an absolutely red ear-lobe and pure-white plumage. The whitest birds
only should be reserved for breeding and these may be mated together.
The surface of the feathers, quills and undercolor should be as white
as possible in all specimens. Some black ticking, or peppering of
black, is recognized as a fault common to many pure white birds. If
this black flecking appears in a minor feather or two, same are usually
pulled by the exhibitor, but if it is present in a main-tail or wing-
flight feather, the bird is of doubtful value and the breeder might as
well substitute some other specimen for breeding purposes. A bird
that shows any white in earlobes or greenish shanks should be sold
as market poultry and never allowed to reproduce itself in the breed-
ing yard.

White Plymouth Rocks of 1901,

CHAPTER VIII
BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS

Origin of Buff Plymouth Rocks — Important early strains of the

variety — Influence of H. S. Burdick — Buff Rocks in the west — Correct

shade of buff — How to breed buff color

Buff Plymouth Rocks came upon the stage when R. G. Buffington
and Dr. N. B. Aldrich exhibited specimens of this variety at the
Providence, Rhode Island, poultry show, 1890. At this time, buff as
a plumage color in Standard breeds was carried only by the majestic
Buff Cochin, and the Buff Cochin was one of the most popular of all
the breeds, being second only to the Light Brahma at the New York
show of 1891, when 147 Buff Cochins and 220 Light Brahmas were
entered. The new aspirant for first place, the Barred Plymouth Rock,
was third in line at that Madison Square Garden show of 1891, the
entry of Barred Rocks being two birds less than the total cooped in
the Buff Cochin aisle.

At the New York show of 1892, thirteen Buff Plymouth Rocks
made their appearance, and the variety was recognized as a Standard
variety in that year. Here were buff fowls free from the profuse
feathering and sluggish disposition of the Cochin; here were Plymouth
Rocks that were buff. The possibility of producing rich golden buff
on fowls with the economic properties of the American breeds,
enthused the poultry breeding fraternity. "When the facts as to the
new buff breeds shone upon us, all interested in fancy fo\vls, to a
greater or less extent, went, as might be said, color mad," wrote T. F.
McGrew in telling of the advent of Buff Rocks and Buff Wyandottes.

Ten years later, at the New York show of 1901, 119 Buff Plymouth
Rocks were shown as against forty-four Buff Cochins, and in 1906.
there were 130 Buff Rocks entered at the Garden and thirty-three Buff
Cochins. The new variety had made good, was established, and by its
fitness was surviving and surplanting its forbear, the Cochin.

Origin of Buff Plymouth Rocks. The first Buff Rocks as exhibited
by Buffington and Aldrich were bred up from red fowls secured in
the vicinity of Westport, Massachusetts. From Westport west
through Tiverton and Little Compton to the Sakonett river in Rhode
Island was an isolated district where the red color was uppermost in
the farm flocks and it was here that the foundation stock of the
Rhode Island Red breed was secured by the same Dr. N. B. Aldrich
in later years.

Buffington and Aldrich made numerous excursions into this dis-
trict. Buffington was working on his new Buff Wyandottes. and in

141

142

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

1889, when looking for material in the farm flocks of the district,
found some reds with single combs and good buff color excepting
that they had black tails and wing flights. Aldrich suggested calling
the single comb buffs Golden Buffs, and thus making a new breed, but
Buffmgton preferred to make a new variety of the established Plym-
outh Rock breed. To test out public sentiment, Aldrich exhibited
Golden Buffs at the Rhode Island Poultry show, Providence, 1890,
and Buffington entered his birds as Buff Plymouth Rocks. The result
was that every exhibitor and a large part of the interested public
inspected the new Buff Plymouth Rocks while scarcely anyone looked
at the Golden Buffs. That settled the question of name.

Buffington continued to breed "buff-in-ton lots" in his Buff
Plymouth Rocks well into the dawn of the twentieth century. He
called his strain the Fall River. He experimented with the early
males that he secured that were of a reddish-buff color by crossing
them on White Plymouth Rocks. The Fall River strain therefore
was not built up altogether from Rhode Island Reds of fairly good
Plymouth Rock type and buff color.

Wilson and Joslin strains. In 1888, J. D. Wilson, Worcester,
New York, upon learning of the popularity of the new Buff Leg-
horns in England, from reading a copy of the Fanciers' Gazette,
London, conceived the idea of producing a Buff Plymouth Rock.
After a futile search for foundation material in the different poultry
yards .of his vicinity, he at last found in a relative's flock a male

that had resulted from a cross
of scantily feathered Buff Cochin
on a Light Brahma.

Wilson described this bird as
possessing even, beautiful, gol-
den buff color, except his tail,
which was black. He had yel-
low shanks, free from feather-
ing, a small single comb, weighed
twelve pounds, yet was of good
Rock type. Two females of Buff
color were also selected, and
these were chosen for the
smoothest surface color and the
least feathering on shanks. This
trio formed the foundation of
what later proved to be the pop-
ular Wilson strain.

That year the trio produced
about forty chicks. The black
1st prize Buff Plymouth Rock hen, striping in the hackle of the
Kansas City, Mo., 1919. Bred by C. R.

BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS 143

the first cross, now came to the surface, and Wilson was puzzled about
this, but he was able to select two yards of creditable birds from the
forty chicks, and improvement the following season was very marked.
The line continued to improve and in 1893 the birds made a great name
for their breeder by winning at the World's Fair at Chicago, 1st
cock, 1st hen, 1st cockerel, 1st pullet and 1st pen. Several of these
birds were sold to an English breeder, and in this World's Fair
collection was a female that continued to win at Madison Square
Garden until her death in 1897.

Another prominent strain of Buff Rocks appeared in the early
nineties. It was bred by J. O. Joslin, Tiashoke, New York. Joslin
claimed that his stock was free from Buff Cochin blood. While this
was a controversial point, the fact was that Joslin was very success-
ful in breeding a pure buff bird, his stock being remarkably free
from black in tail, wing primaries and secondaries, and the birds
were of good Plymouth Rock shape.

F. C. Shepard as a breeder. Between 1890 and 1900 several strains
of prominence were started. With the foundation laid by Buffington.
W'ilson and Joslin, numerous breeders took up Buff Plymouth Rocks.
One of the best known names among these successful breeders was
that of F. C. Shepard, of Toledo, Ohio, who made his start in 1893
and for twenty years exhibited at the leading shows.

Shepard's start was made on the original foundation stock of the
variety. He purchased from Buffington in 1893 the 2d Buff Rock
cock at the New York show, and at the same time obtained two
pullets from Joslin. The color of the cock was reddish-buff with
some black in tail and wings. Shepard bred the birds as the best to
be had, and continued to linebreed throughout his career as a breeder.

There are those who claim that Shepard introduced new blood
from time to time, but he stoutly put forward the assertion that he
had but once introduced a new bird into his yards, and "she was a
pullet bred from a female I sold. Never could I have bred out the
off colors by crossing every year. It is inbreeding in its closest form,
but it is the only way I know how to breed."

Shepard was never an extensive breeder. He mated four pens
each year and raised seventy-five to one hundred chicks, selling the
surplus eggs for hatching. In 1911 he hatched eighty-two chicks
and that fall had seventy-seven head of young stock. Not one had
been culled, yet upon a visit to this breeder's yards in the fall of
that year we saw but one of the hatch that showed a trace of white
and but one that was a little dark in color. We weighed a cockerel
that day (September 12) that had been hatched May 8, and he tipped
the scales at a trifle over four pounds. He was a strongly built
youngster. A man could put his fist between his legs, he was so
broadly built. This cockerel was a living witness that there had been
no loss of vigor in the Shepard flock.

Shape was maintained. "A buff bird with a single comb must have

144 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

shape to make it a Rock," said this breeder. He of all the breeders
of America put into his daily care of the growing birds the sound
philosophy that half the culls are not bred, but are made by crowd-
ing and lack of thoughtful attention. He made it a point to develop
in every chick all of the true Plymouth Rock shape and pure buff
color that he had bred into that chick. As a result, Shepard did in
his limited way about a thousand dollars' worth of Buff Rock busi-
ness a year, and this over a series of years when a dollar was a
dollar and not fifty cents.

Shepard was called upon to judge the Buff Rock classes in a
number of leading shows, and of his own winners, perhaps his 1st
prize pullet at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901, was most
admired because of her smooth surface of correct and pleasing shade
of buff. She was pronounced by F. L. Sewell to be the finest modeled
pullet in the Plymouth Rock classes, all varieties.

The Nugget strain. Henry S. Burdick died in 1901, but "Burdick's
Nuggets" is a well known name among Buff Rock breeders of the
present day. Burdick was a man of excellent character and enjoyed
the confidence and esteem of the poultrybreeding fraternity. Born in
Connecticut, he lived in Brooklyn for some time, and removing from
thence to Rome, New York, he devoted himself to the breeding of
fine poultry, and passed away at the age of seventy-five years.

This master breeder, beyond peradventure of doubt, deserves the
distinction of having been the greatest improver of the Buff Plymouth
Rock. The leading strains of the east and west were rich in the blood
of Burdick's Nuggets. Burdick used both Buffmgton and Wilson
stock. "The Wilson strain had the better size and color; the Fall
River strain, the better form," wrote McGrew.

The plan of mating used by Burdick was based on the theory that
domestic animals as well as wild animals should mate by natural
selection. For years he followed the plan of selecting females of
the same general quality and characteristics, not varying more than
one shade in color, and putting them in three pens. He then employed
three males, either full brothers or cock and sons, one light Standard
in color, one light orange, and the third dark orange, and changed
these males in the three pens in rotation every third day.

Bennett a leading western breeder. Dr. O. P. Bennett, Mazon,
Illinois, whose Buff Rocks sent into total eclipse all other flocks of
the variety in the west, got his stock from Burdick. About 1896 he
sent to Rome, New York, for six hundred selected eggs from the
Nuggets, paying $5 a sitting, which was $2 more than Mr. Burdick's
usual price, in order to get the best. In this purchase Bennett laid
the foundation for his strain.

January 21 to 26, 1901, at the annual meet of the American Buff
Plymouth Rock Club at the Chicago Poultry Show, Bennett won
4, 5 cocks; 1, 3, 4 hens; 2, 3, 4 cockerels; 1, 3, 4 pullets; 1, 2 pens, and
the silver cup offered by the club for the best cock, hen, cockerel,

BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS 145

pullet and pen shown by one exhibitor. The subsequent year, Chicago,
January 20 to 25, 1902, Bennett came back stronger than before and
swept the deck of all first prizes, winning on his Buff Plymouth Rocks
1, 2, 3, 5 cocks; 1, 2, 3, 4 hens; 1, 2, 3 cockerels; 1, 4, 5 pullets; 1, 2, 4
pen, and the $100 silver cup for the best display of any variety in
the show.

Bennett's reputation had permeated the outer rim of Buff Rock
circles as a result of his big win at the club show in Chicago, 1901,
and he was engaged to judge the class at Boston, January, 1902.
There were lined up 172 of the best Buff Rocks that the country
could produce. W. H. Higgins, Orange, Massachusetts, won 1st
cockerel on a bird that was a marvel for color and a worthy suc-
cessor to his famous cockerel Wonder, which won 1st at Boston,
January, 1900. Frank G. Bean, Collegeville, Pennsylvania, won 1st
and gold special on pullet in a class of sixty-five at this Boston show
under Bennett.

Delano and Denny. Other breeders have come into prominence in
the east, including C. L. Pensyl, W. H. Overbaugh, George Fox,
E. H. Litchenwalter, John W. Poley, Sam Harter and Vierheller
Brothers of Pennsylvania; F. J. Nutting, Charles E. Coffin, Maurice F.
Delano and A. C. Hawkins of New England; and H. E. Benedict,
D. S. Riker and W. C. Denny of New York.

Delano made his reputation as a Buff Rock breeder. Leaving
Connecticut as a young man, he took the position of poultryman
at Millville Farm in southern New Jersey. At the Boston show,
January, 1903, Millville won on Buff Plymouth Rocks 1, 2, 3 cocks;
1, 3 hens; 1 cockerel, and 2, 3 pullets. During the show Delano sold
the 1st prize cockerel to Edgar A. Weimer, proprietor of Exmoor
Farms, Lebanon, Pennsylvania, for $300, probably the highest price
ever received for a Standardised fowl up to that time. Delano's
reputation was now made, and his experience in breeding buff color
was a big asset to him when William Barry Owen established Owen
Farms, brought over the Buff Orpingtons from England, and put
Delano in charge.

W. C. Denny grew up with Buff Plymouth Rocks. As a mere
lad he made his start with them in 1892. He helped to organize the
American Buff Plymouth Rock Club and was its first secretary. At
the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904, he judged the
Buff Rock classes. For ten successive years, up until about 1915, he
judged the class at the Madison Square Garden Show, New York.
Denny became one of the tfalf dozen best known poultry judges in
the United States, traveling as far as the Pacific slope to officiate at
exhibitions; his popularity was universal, and a kid's hobby developed
into a man's size job.

Baker's Buff Plymouth Rocks. Several western breeders have
come into the limelight since 1900, including I. M. Ashjeld, George
Hamm, C. A. Morton, C. H. Barnes and S. D. -Lapham; but C. R.

146

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Baker, of Kansas, has gone further than any of these in establishing
a family of Buff Rocks and building up a great breeding establishment.
Baker has shown himself to be one of the most constructive breeders
in this country; he has had the hardihood to show in New York and
Chicago, as well as Kansas City, and he has been sportsman enough
to show under good judges and poor.

Baker has had the foresight to keep the utility quality of his birds
paramount, and has been capable enough to do this and still develop
all Standard points. While some breeders have been faddists on a
five-point comb regardless of the shape of head, and others have
bred a lemon color regardless of the fact that such a color runs
out in the first generation of the customer's breeding, and still others
have bred a long back, even though the body was so deficient in
substance that there scarcely was room enough for the wing shoul-
ders, and again others have produced an elongated profile even
though the shanks bent together at the hock joints, we can point
with pride to this breeder who has seen the whole chicken and each
section in its true proportion to the whole, and has produced a well
balanced type of Buff Plymouth Rock.

Baker made his start in 1903 by buying into the Dr. O. P. Bennett
flock, so he is today breeding Burdick's Nuggets in a straight line
of descent. After five years of breeding he brought out the first and
color special cockerel at the Kansas City show, and since has won
largely at important shows east and west.

Correct shade of buff. No
color has aroused greater en-
thusiasm than buff. No subject
has given rise to greater differ-
ences of opinion than the cor-
rect shade of buff, and breeders
of today, as of yore, compare
birds together and carry sample
feathers to the shows to illus-
trate and make plain their con-
ception of true Standard buff
color.

The Standard calls for "an
even shade of rich golden buff."
"Golden" means like unto the
shade of color found in the
twenty-dollar gold pieces that
were coined in 1896 or 1897,
when T. F. McGrew first wrote
the description. "Since then,"
1st prize Buff Plymouth Rock cock, and says Mr. McGrew, "the shade of
grand champion of entire show, all varieties color of these coins has been
competing, Kansas City, Mo., 1919. Photo ,-,, ,,p. , „ , ™^«

competing,

by courtesy, C. R. Baker.

changed." "Rich" does not mean

BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS

147

a greater intensity of color or a stronger shade of buff; "rich golden"
means brilliant, lustrous golden.

Buff color has passed through different stages. The cinnamon
color is gone. There has been considerable seen of the lemon shade

Buff Plymouth Rocks as drawn by the great American poultry
artist, F. L. Sewelll, in 1896. The hen in the forefront reflects
the true character of the Plymouth Rock breed as desirable
now as then.

in recent years. This lighter tone of color shows to advantage in
the light of some show rooms, but the general popularity of buff
varieties diminishes when a lemon color is bred and sold. All perma-
nently successful breeders of buff color have bred a rich golden buff.
Advertisers of buff, as a rule, breed what the Standard calls for.

148 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Those whose fancy runs to a lemon color produce few more good
birds than they themselves require, and instead of their breeding
carrying a strength of color that enables it to reinforce the flocks of
customers and prove beneficial and popular in the hands of buyers,
they themselves must secure reinforcement from rich golden buff birds.

The condition once existed when the, eastern breeders had buffs
and the western breeders had reddish-buffs, and the early western
breeders of Rhode Island Reds had to explain that their Reds were
not Buff Rocks or Buff Wyandottes. The west held to the hot
colored buffs for a long time, tolerating black in tail in preference
to white, and hoped to get an intensity of color that would be fade-
proof, so that the buff female would not present a washed-out appear-
ance in every section save neck.

A few constructive breeders, however, laid emphasis on a sound
buff under-color that would feed and reinforce the true buff surface
color; and in picking males that would produce good females they
examined the breast feathers very carefully and rejected any male
that did not have an even sheet of buff color the entire length of his
breast, free from white shafts in the feathers and free from whitish
lacing around the breast feathers. The all-buff females have resulted
from the continued use of such males.

Breeding buff color. The beginner today can start with birds that
are infinitely superior to what the early breeders had to work with,
and such chickens can be hatched from a single setting of eggs or
purchased at reasonable prices. With such foundation stock available,
the beginner can follow the advice of C. R. Baker when he says:

The foundation stock with which the beginning is to be made should possess
evenness of color, no sharp contrasts either in surface color, under color or between
the two, good colored quills and all sections harmonizing. Remember that our
males have a tendency to breed lighter and our females darker in reproducing. Do
not try to work contrary to nature's laws. As rapidly as possible get your breed-
ing lines established and in hand with quite a considerable knowledge regarding
them.

Only strong, well grown birds have luster and life to their plumage
color. The vigorous and strong may be depended upon to produce the
right kind of chicks. For this reason, it is well to use cocks and hens
for breeding in preference to cockerels and pullets. Cocks and hens
have come through the molt, are fully mature, and any weakness has
had time to show. If a cock or hen is broken in color, mealy in
appearance, do not accept any excuse other than bad color. In no
other color is it as important to know what sort of color the cocks
and hens carry. Cockerels and pullets that fade are not valuable for
reproduction purposes.

CHAPTER IX
SILVER PENCILED PLYMOUTH ROCKS

This variety had its birth in the Boston Poultry Show, 1900 — Different
breeders at work producing it — The crosses that were made — Wonder-
ful quality is shown at the New York Show — Popularity begins to
decline and quality suffers — How to start and breed good Silver
Penciled Plymouth Rocks.

Silver Penciled Plymouth Rocks were recognized as a Standard
variety in 1907. Silver Penciled Wyandottes were already an
accepted variety, and their existence not only suggested the possi-
bility of transferring the beautiful color type of the grand old Dark
Brahma to the Plymouth Rock, but single comb sports from flocks
of Silver Penciled Wyandottes were material available for use in the
production of a Silver Penciled Plymouth Rock.

The first strain. One of the earliest breeders of this new variety
of Rock was W. C. Crocker of Foxboro, Mass. Along in the 1870"s
when Breeding Partridge Cochins, he conceived a fowl that would
be his ideal of beauty and utility. In writing of this conception in
later years, he said:

It was one with the beautiful penciled plumage of the Partridge Cochin, but
without feathers on the shanks to be dragged in the mud and filth ; and, .second,
my ideal fowl must be an active, up-to-date, wide-awake American fowl, and not so
lazy or stupid it had to be put to bed or on the roost every night. I see breeders
of Cochins do not attempt to have them roost at all.

Dr. Crocker, however, dropped the poultry subject for some years,
but in 1899 again took up the matter determined to make what he
wanted. He visited the Boston Poultry Show in 1900 and was sur-
prised to find that his plan had been anticipated and that Ezra Cornell
of Ithaca, New York, and George H. Brackenbury of Auburn,
New York, were exhibiting Golden Penciled, now known as Part-
ridge, Wyandottes. Crocker was greatly enthused. Cornell and
Brackenbury were also breeding Silver Penciled Wyandottes, on
which they had been at work since 1894. Brackenbury suggested the
breeding of a Silver Penciled Plymouth Rock, or as Crocker later
called his birds, Silver Plymouth Rocks.

Crocker laid the foundation by securing single comb sports from
the Cornell-Brackenbury Silver Penciled Wyandottes. These were
bred in 1900 to a single comb sport of the fine old line of Dark
Brahmas as bred by Newton Adams, Utica, New York. The cross
was then assisted by Partridge Plymouth Rock blood, in the same
way that the Dark Brahma was bred with Partridge Cochins thirty
years earlier and that the Silver Penciled Wyandotte was helped at
its origin with Partridge Wyandotte blood.

149

150 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

By 1904, Crocker had bred his stock so that it was one-fourth the
blood of the Adams Dark Brahma male, free from feathers on shanks,
and his best cockerel that year produced specimens that showed no
conspicuous trace of the Partridge tendency to red in the plumage.

Others had taken up the breeding of Silver Penciled Rocks by this
time, and Crocker in the October, 1904, issue of Poultry Tribune
stated that his was "the lirst and original strain bred in connection
with the Cornell and Brackenbury stock, and 1 know of no strains
today of Partridge or Silver Plymouth Rocks but what received help,
either directly or indirectly from the Cornell-Brackenbury stock."

Other breeders at work. Cornell presented some of his Silver
Penciled Wyandottes to T. F. McGrew and they were kept at Elm-
wood Farm, Weston, N. J. From this stock, McGrew bred Elmwood
Queen in 1901. She was a big Wyandotte female of excellent pencil-
ing and plainly showed the Brahma shape (page 226). Some of the
other pullets from the same breeding carried single combs which is a
breed characteristic of the Plymouth Rock.

McGrew held on to these single comb sports, and later secured
from Dennis Shey who was pouitryman for E. G. Wyckoff, Ithaca,
New York, into whose hands the Cornell stock had passed upon the
death of Ezra Cornell in 1902, a trio of single comb Silver Penciled
Wyandottes. These with the pullets McGrew had made a pen of
eight or ten birds and were bred by him for three years.

This stock as bred, culled and developed by McGrew then passed
into the hands of James Forsyth, Oswego, New York, and when
F. E. Corey, who was pouitryman for Forsyth left that position to
assume management of Gen. McAlpine's Rock Hill Poultry Farm.
Ossining, New York, he took the entire flock of Silver Penciled Rocks
with him.

At the New York show of December, 1907, there was a splendid
class of forty-five Silver Rocks and Rock Flill Farm won 1-4 cock;
1-2 hen; 1-2 cockerel; 1-3 pullet; 1 pen. The following year at New
York this farm again won all the firsts and in commenting on the
Madison Square Garden exhibition of that year, we wrote:

Silver Rocks. This, to us, was the most pleasing new breed in the show. The
first cock had good striping in hackle and saddle, black breast, white wing bows,
good head, excellent wing, strong undercolor. There was less yellow (less Partridge
influence) in the surface color of the 2d hen than in the surface color of the 1st,
but 1st had a good breast and throat. First cockerel a jim-dandy in every way, with
laced coverts over his tail like a Light Brahma.

A third cross. In addition to the Crocker and McGrew sources
of origin, there was a third, and the Rock Hill birds had certain out-
ward signs of possessing some of this third foundation blood in their
veins. It is well authenticated that a third party worked along origi-
nal lines and made Silver Penciled Plymouth Rocks by combining
the blood of the Dark Brahma, Silver Grey Dorking and Mottled
Java. Stock of this breeding was secured by W. Theo. Wittman,
Allentown, Pennsylvania, when Wittman of his own volition gave

SILVER PENCILED PLYMOUTH ROCKS

up his position as America's premier breeder of Brown Leghorn
females and took up Silver Penciled Rocks in earnest.

This cross, on the face of it, would be accepted by any experienced
poultry breeder as likely to produce just about what was wanted; and
after visiting Rock Hill Poultry Farm in the fall of 1907, the year the
variety was admitted to the Standard, and seeing the birds as they
grew there, as well as inspecting selected specimens of this flock as
exhibited in the shows, we are firmly of the opinion that Dorking

Silver Penciled Plymouth Rocks, by A. O. Schilling.

blood existed in this fine strain, and believe that Corey must have
amalgamated some blood of the so-called third line of breeding with
the original McGrew-Forsyth stock which he purchased.

Quality of the Rock Hill stock. Corey had at Rock Hill Farm, on
the Hudson, in 1907, several pens of big, strong hens that were the
equal in every way of big, husky Barred Rock females. In writing
of the stock at that time, we said:

Rock Hill Poultry Farm comes down the hill to meet the road. The fowl and
buildings are scattered over the rocky slope of the hill. The youngsters (White
Leghorns, White Rocks, White Wyandottes and Silver Plymouth Rocks) were
wild, for they had roamed through the brush and over the rocks all summer. The
Silver Rocks seemed to be the tamest. We took quite a fancy to the youngsters,
and the old birds, too, for they seemed to us the prettiest of all the sorts of fowl
bred there. We are glad that the American Poultry Association has accepted the
Silver Plymouth Rock as a thoroughbred. No variety of the Plymouth Rock race
that has been admitted to the Standard has been more finished at the time of its

152 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

acceptance. It has size, penciling and form that make it worthy of the name
Silver Penciled Plymouth Rock.

In some of the Rock Mill males we noticed the Dorking comb, but we did not
see one that was not solid black in breast and body. In all, we liked the
variety, and we speak for it a strong and sure place among the breeds worth while.

/

An early decline. Alas, our prediction has not come true. The
last really good exhibit of the variety was made at the New York
show, December, 1911, when Frank Davey entered a few good Silver
Rocks and won four firsts. These were of the Rock Hill strain, Davey
when living at Yonkers, New York, having been intimately acquainted
with Corey.

This wonderful variety is now represented in the leading shows
by inferior specimens that look like mere sports of Silver Penciled
Wyandottes, whereas so short a time back, the hens weighed eight
pounds, the cocks ten pounds, the birds had long bodies, the hens were
marvelously penciled and the males wore a top coat of silvery-white
color sharply contrasting with a greenish-black breast and tail. Beau-
tiful birds they were, in the hands of some of the best breeders of
the country, but customers who bought their best blood evidently
wasted it.

It is for these beginners who buy good fowls that this book is
written, and to them it is dedicated. If it serves to inspire them with
the possibilities of breeding, makes plain that work with Standardbred
poultry is a breeding proposition, and helps them to study their birds
and think out matings for themselves, it will fulfill its mission. Rules
for mating are of little value unless there is first instilled the pride
of craftsmanship, and the beginner begins to see his birds, to study
them and to use them. The beginner must be taught that to succeed
he must put into his work the best that is in .him.

Breeding good quality. While the present status of the variety
makes it harder to secure foundation stock, it need not necessarily
discourage any one from taking up the breeding of these fowls, for
it is undoubtedly true that a man who cannot build a strain cannot,
after buying good birds, maintain their original quality as he breeds
them on from year to year. All breeders worthy of the name are
constructive, forward-looking, building breeders. Give them birds
of health and vigor and they will breed the shape and color.

An illustrious example of constructive breeding is the case of W.
Theo. Wittman, who had only three years with Silver Penciled Plym-
outh Rocks, yet in that time bred wonderful fowls from a start with
mediocre specimens. The first thing he did was to double mate, and
he is frank to confess that the first season's matings were mostly
guesswork for as far as he could learn there was no such breeding
back of any bird that he secured as foundation material upon which
to build.

The beginner today must duplicate this experience, and by follow-
ing Wittman's system of trapnesting each female, toe-marking each
chick and carefully watching and studying the development of each

SILVER PENCILED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 153

specimen from the day it is hatched until it reaches maturity, he can
make an analysis of breeding tendencies that will enable him to
make good molds for his second season's chicks. Wittman did this
"and it helped me to find my way for the second season's mating."

While he bred the variety for only three years, at the end of
that time his birds were running very uniform, and his flock, con-
sisting of about ten cockerels and forty pullets, had such good size,
clear-cut markings, and good Plymouth Rock type that the manager
of a large poultry farm was so attracted to them that he bought the
entire lot.

Mating Silver Penciled Plymouth Rocks. There is but one simple
way to breed this variety. That is to mate together the first year
the best birds that you can acquire. Be sure that the male is free
from red, that he is silvery white on wing-bows, of good size and in
robust health. Find three or four females that are large and long
bodied with their backs as free from yellow-tinge as possible. Mate
these birds together. This is mating A.

Set all the eggs from this mating, pedigree the chicks and grow
them out successfully. The second season, select two to four pullets
produced by mating A, that have striped, not penciled hackles, and
whose back feathers are dotted with black in the penciling'. Their
shanks and toes should be a dusky yellow; tail, black to the roots,
and wing primaries and secondaries of strong color. Mate these pul-
lets to the finest exhibition cockerel produced by mating A. This
mating now forms pen I and is a foundation on which you can produce
very superior cockerels.

Also select from the pullets produced by mating A, the two best
colored pullets, birds that are big and the most distinctly penciled
with black or white in their wing bows and back plumage of all the
pullets that you grew. Select to mate to them a cockerel whose dam
was the best penciled hen in mating A, and a cockerel that as a chick-
showed some penciling in his first crop of feathers, commonly called
chick feathers. This mating is a foundation on which to proceed in
the breeding of fine females. This is mating No. 2.

From matings 1 and 2 you are able to produce in the third genera-
tion cockerels from the first and pullets from the second that arc so
far superior to those that you started with and which formed mating
A, that you will astound yourself and your friends who are watching
your work.

It is commonly held, and unfortunately for progress in breeding,
that the easiest way to mate is to make mating A and then proceed
by breeding the best to the best. This single or Standard mating is
the most difficult way to breed. The easy way to breed, and the one
way certain to make rapid improvement, is to split the line into two
parts, one for the production of cockerels, the other for the produc-
tion of pullets. We believe in the theory of single or Standard mat-
ing; we wish that all breeders who sell stock produced them by the

154 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

single mating system because their customers who are novices would
be able to use purchased birds to better advantage; but improvements
of both sexes by single mating requires a higher order of skill on the
part of the breeder than improvement in males on the one hand and
improvement in females on the other, as is the order when the double
mating system of breeding is employed.

Mating 1 as outlined will not produce exhibition pullets but the
females will be valuable for cockerel breeding and the longer the line
is continued the more valuable will the pullets that are produced by
this line become as cockerel breeders. The males from mating 2 may
show some white flecking in breast and body but they are valuable
for use in siring high-class exhibition pullets. The pullets from
mating 2 will be even better penciled when they molt into hens than
they were as pullets. If as pullets their throats are light in color,
lacking penciling, the feathers in this section may be plucked and the
better colored adult crop of feathers will grow in.

Silver Penciled Plymouth Rocks at the New York State Fair, Sept.,
1920, were the best seen in some years. The winning pullet was
nicely penciled and the males were quite sound in coloring. We
fancy that some Partridge Plymouth Rock blood has been used to
reinforce the Silver Penciled. There certainly can be no objection
to this. Years ago the Dark Brahma breeders went back to the
Partridge Cochin.

CHAPTER X
PARTRIDGE PLYMOUTH ROCKS

How typical Plymouth Rocks richly colored and beautifully penciled
have been produced — Eastern and western breeders who have taken
an active part in the development of the variety — How the birds are
. today being bred.

To Geo. H. Brackenbury, Auburn, New York, Joseph McKeen,
Ormo, Wisconsin, and E. O. Thiem, Denison, Iowa, belongs the credit
of having conceived a fowl that would be intermediate between the
Cochin and the Leghorn and carry the beautiful golden penciling of
the Partridge Cochin, and each of them made their dreams come true
by producing Partridge Wyandottes. The work was started in the
80's by these different, breeders, and while Theim and McKeen co-
operated and secured some stock from Brackenbury, two rather dis-
tinct strains of Partridge Wyandottes were developed, one in the
east, the other in the west.

The variety is started. The idea of a Partridge Plymouth Rock
came later. It originated with Dr. W. C. Crocker of Foxboro, Massa-
chusetts, who, after a lapse of more than thirty years, again took up
the breeding of poultry in 1899, determined to make what he had
visualized as a young breeder of Partridge Cochins, namely: a fowl
with the beautiful plumage of the Partridge Cochin but without its
sluggish disposition and excessive leg and toe feathering. He inspected
the flock of a Richard Hooper who was breeding a cross of Partridge
Cochins and Brown Leghorns. He then attended the Boston Poultry
Show, January, 1900, and while there found that Brackenbury and his
co-worker, Ezra Cornell, were showing the new Partridge Wyandottes
which were derived from Partridge Cochin stock.

Brackenbury was in attendance at the Boston show and Crocker
revealed to him his ambition to make a Partridge Plymouth Rock,
and later secured from Brackenbury and Cornell all the single comb
sports from their Partridge Wyandottes. Crocker also secured a half-
blood Partridge Cochin male that Brackenbury had produced in some
of this -experimental work, and he secured, a male from Hooper's
flock, which was three parts Partridge Cochin and one part Brown
Leghorn. On the results of breeding these birds, Crocker wrote in
1904:

From these matings I have bred some very fine specimens of a Partridge'
Plymouth Rock — an American type of fowl, with clear shanks and the beautiful
Partridge Cochin plumage.

Crocker also developed a family of the variety in connection with
Hooper, using largely Partridge Cochin blood and introducing into it

155

156 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

the double lacing and mahogany bay of the Cornish Indian Game.
From this strain "some line specimens of very rich plumage" were
produced. Although Hooper was merely a cross-breeder, when a man
of vision cast his eyes upon the crossbred flock and pointed out the
possibilities, Hooper became enthused; a goal was set and he began
to proceed toward it, mating so as to produce in actuality his mental
image of a beautiful Partridge Plymouth Rock.

Uther eastern breeders active. Ten years elapsed before recogni-
tion was given the Partridge Plymouth Rock as a Standard variety,
and when in 1910, the variety was admitted to the Standard of Per-
fection, the originators of Partridge Plymouth Rocks were almost as
numerous as the flocks that existed. The Partridge Wyandotte was
not as well settled into Wyandotte form as at the present time, and
breeders were able to employ the single comb sports to excellent
advantage in revamping the stock into Partridge Plymouth Rocks.
The Partridge Wyandotte was quite well distributed, having been
recognized as a Standard variety in 1901, and the existence of the
variety not only suggested the possibility of a Partridge Plymouth
Rock but afforded the ground work upon which to build a new variety
to be added to the Plymouth Rock breed.

Among the early New England breeders of Partridge Rocks were
John Lowe, Swansea, Massachusetts, and R. G. Buffington and Dr.
N. B. Aldrich, Fall River, Massachusetts. Wm. F. Fotterall, who
made several original crosses on his Hillcrest Farm, Oakford, Penn-
sylvania, and who was an early and enhusiastic breeder of the variety
and originator of the Hillcrest strain, stated that the first Partridge
Rocks that he ever saw were in the yards of Rowland G. Buffington
in 1902, although to Dr. Crocker he accorded due credit for being
"the first one to bring this beautiful breed before the public."

Development in the west. In the west, two principal strains were
developed, one by John A. Hageman of Charlotte, Michigan, and one
by Sam F. Noftzger, North Manchester, Indiana.

Hageman was a pit game breeder of twenty years' experience, and
as he lived in town, he had for many years farmed out his young
stock among farmers in the country, bringing in the birds after they
were grown. Upon being attracted to some Partridge Wyandottes
and inquiring if they produced some single comb sports, he learned
of "a choice lot of so-called Partridge Plymouth Rocks." Upon going
to Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, and examining the flock, it was plain to
Hageman that the birds were pure single comb sports. He bought
ten or a dozen of them, however, and later obtained some nicely
penciled birds from a Michigan breeder who had crossed Partridge
Cochins and Brown Leghorns, and he also secured some additional
birds, both males and females, from another Michigan breeder who
had crossed Partridge Cochins with Cornish Indian Games. He then
mated three breeding yards, and from this Michigan stock produced
what he called the Wolverine strain of Partridge Rocks, Wolverine
being a nickname for the state of Michigan,

PARTRIDGE PLYMOUTH ROCKS

157

Hageman's stock had a minor influence on the variety, while Noftz-
ger of Indiana was an extensive breeder, a heavy advertiser, a fre-
quent exhibitor, and had the advantage of an established reputation
as a breeder of Partridge Cochins. His yards became a fertile source
of supply of this new variety for breeders all over the country.

Noftzger gives up Partridge Cochins. When the profusely feath-
ered English Cochin was attracting so much attention at the leading
American poultry shows in the 1890's, and American breeders began
to ape the English hobbiests in breeding the longest, loosest feather-

A Pair of Partridge Cochins, drawn by Sewell in 1899, about which time
the variety was at its height. The Partridge Cochin was a parent of the"
modern Partridge Plymouth Rock.

ing possible in their Cochins, Noftzger found that he would either
have to cross English blood into his Partridge Cochins or sell his
birds at market prices. Along with the other fanciers of the day, he
infused the English blood into his flock and began to breed a full
feathered type. The decline of the Cochin now set in; the generous
proportions of that type which had given the breed the name of the
grand Cochin, were sacrificed for adbundance and length of feather.
A short leg was bred and the bone in the remainder of the frame work
decreased in proportion. The birds became more dependent upon

158 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

excessive feathering for the appearance of size than upon bone and
substance of body. The knell for the Cochin was rung.

Noftzger now went back to the old American Partridge Cochin
and in 1898 began to work in the opposite direction. Instead of
employing English blood to produce more feathering, he crossed an
American Partridge Cochin hen that had been hatched April 1, 1896,
and which had laid twenty-seven eggs in twenty-seven consecutive
days, to a Cornish Indian Game cockerel. He also selected a full
sister and two half sisters of the above hen "Georgine," and made pair
matings of each of the four females with four Cornish cockerels.

The Cornish has a yellow shank free from feathers, pea comb and
light colored eyes. The Cochin has a single comb and a bay eye.
This experienced breeder selected Cornish cockerels with as much
bay in the iris of their eyes as possible and also picked those that
had rather high combs-. The progeny of the cross were not altogether
satisfactory, the pullets carrying the double penciling of the Cornish
instead of the triple penciling of a Partridge and the cockerels were
almost solid black in hackle and saddle instead of black edged with
red as in an ideal Partridge.

Noftzger as a student and experimenter. The next season's mat-
ing was a problem. Partridge Wyandotte males were heavily striped
in hackle and deficient in bright red color, so after considerable
thought, Noftzger decided to use Golden Wyandotte males, the Golden
Wyandotte having more or less golden bay color throughout its
entire breast as well as being open-striped on back. In order not to
complicate the comb section, Golden Wyandotte cockerels that were
single comb sports were largely used.

It was difficult, however, to select birds with good combs from the
third mating, the influence of the pea comb of the Cornish and the
rose comb of the Wyandotte showing in side sprigs in the flock that
Noftzger was building. At last nine matings were made for the third
year, six of which were reasonably successful but the progeny of the
other three matings were consigned as market poultry.

Being a farmer with plenty of grain and enjoying the low prices
of the time, Noftzger was able to make a number of matings and
carry on his experimental operations in an extensive way. In 1901,
he made ten matings. He was now able to use cocks and hens for the
first time, instead of cockerels and pullets; and having color and mark-
ings fairly well obtained, he paid more attention to selecting his
breeders for Plymouth Rock shape.

Noftzger's second start. At this point discouragement overcame
the breeder, and having had some correspondence with a breeder in
Wisconsin relative to the stock, Noftzger sold his entire flock, but
re-entered into the breeding of the variety with new enthusiasm three
years later. He secured several birds from old customers in 1904,
and made six matings in 1905. The following year found him able to
select typical specimens both in respect to Plymouth Rock type and

PARTRIDGE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 159

Partridge penciling and eight matings were formed. In 1907, ten pens
were mated and sixty females employed and the new variety had
reached the point where it was made.

Noftzger, working on such a broad foundation, became prominent
in the variety and his breeding establishment did probably as much
business as all the rest of the Partridge Rock breeders combined.
Noftzger had verily set sail and reached his destination, Plymouth
Rock, but it proved to be a granite bowlder on a bleek and rocky coast
and the winter of 1911-1912 blighted his hopes and he rapidly disap-
peared as a leading breeder.

New breeders come to the front. At the New York show of Dec.
19 to 23, 1911, the Partridge Plymouth Rock club held its annual
meet. There were 102 birds shown and the class was not only the
largest but the very best that had been brought together in the entire
country. J. H. Drevenstedt, a veteran judge and acknowledged au-
thority, placed the ribbons. Noftzger came on from Indiana with
four cocks, four hens, four cockerels, four pullets and one pen of
birds. Charles and Cyrus Bird of Meyersdale, Pennsylvania, who had
been breeding the variety for only three years, also exhibited. When
the awards were up, Noftzger had won 5th cock, 3d hen, 3d and 5th
pullets and 1st pen. Bird Bros, were the proud exhibitors of 1st cock,
1st hen, 1st cockerel and 1st pullet.

The giants had come together and Noftzger with his bright yellow
shanks and orange toned Partridge Cochin color, had gone down to
defeat before Bird Bros.' bright red ground color and shanks as
good as they would come. Noftzger had made a fatal mistake; instead
of first visiting the Madison Square Garden show and seeing what
was winning in New York, then going home and producing exactly
what the eastern breeders and judges would call "good," he plunged
into the Garden with everything at stake — and lost.

In the west a new star was already looming on the horizon. F. N.
Perkins of Freeport, Illinois, who was breeding the Noftzger strain
had won at the Chicago show of December, 1911, 1-2-3-4 cocks, 2-3-4-5
hens, 2-4-5 cockerels, 2-3-4-5 pullets and 1 pen. Noftzger now had
formidable competition in the west; and the show reports of the New
York show gave Bird Bros, an ascendancy that made them the con-
trolling power in the east. They had won all the firsts at New York
in 1910, and now met all comers at the club show of 1911 and won
four out of the five firsts.

In commenting on the class at the New York show of December.
1911, H. P. Schwab said:

Tn Partridge Plymouth "Rocks the largest class known was seen. This variety
surely is making wonderful headway. Their beauty is to attract and admire, and
we find particularly in the east that several of our well known breeders are interest-
ing themselves in this variety. Here in this large and strong class Bird Bros,
made a phenomenal winning, taking all first prizes excepting one, and several other
places. To describe this class bird by bird would be repeating. Type was the
general feature, with color and markings close up. Head points also deserve special
mention, as does color of eye. The general character of the birds found here was

160 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

a pleasure to see. First cock was, to our mind, the richest colored male we have
ever seen. Besides their regular winnings, Bird Bros, won special for display and
cup for the best cock, hen, cockerel and pullet.

in writing of the Partridge Rocks at New York, we said:

Bird Bros.' 1st cock had as good a head and as fine a comb as a high grade
exhibition Barred Rock. The writer said to Mr. Bird, "I want to see the stripes
in that bird." He replied, "I'll give you one," and he handed me a saddle feather
with as clean cut a stripe as ever is seen in a Partridge Cochin, with, of course,
the red of the deeper shade preferred in Partridge Rocks. The stripe went into the
undercolor without a break. Messrs. Bird's 1st hen was a paragon of penciling
and Partridge Rock coloring. One thing particularly noticeable about her and her
mates was that they had the type. If there was any Cochin or Wyandotte about
Messrs. Bird's females, we were unable to point it out.

Of their 1st cockerel, J. H. Drevenstedt, who judged the class, exclaimed:
"Richest colored bird on the outside that I ever saw !" His tail was as green
as velvet. The 2d cockerel had splendid markings, quite equal to those of the 1st
bird, but was a shade lighter in color. You should have seen the combs of the
1st and 2d pullets shown by Bird Bros. Their heads were like the models seen in
the Barred and White Rock classes. The 1st pullet's breast was marked to the
perfection of a wild fowl and her wing bows were fine. Her fluff was so full ol
penciled feathers that it would have been too much trouble to count them. And,
while a pullet, mind you, she was as cleanly penciled on her back away out toward
her tail or down on the sides as a hen.

History of Bird Bros.' strain. These breeders started with Par-
tridge Rocks in 1909 by purchasing some eggs for hatching from
J. H. Lewis of West Virginia. Lewis was something of an experi-
menter. He had originated so-called Golden Barred Plymouth Rocks;
.and there is no record as to what strain of Partridge Rocks he was
breeding.

The following year, Bird secured from a breeder by the name of
Luce in Maryland, a pair of Partridge Rocks that won 1st cockerel
and 1st pullet for them at the New York show that year. The origin
of the Luce flock is unknown. From these two obscure sources, a
great family was to be produced.

Bird Bros, are breeders. They breed turkeys and they breed
potatoes. They haven't much in the way of coops. Situated in south-
ern Pennsylvania, along the route of the Baltimore & Ohio R. R.,
near the Maryland border, they have a late fall, an early season and
a not severe winter. Their breeding house is rough and unpainted.
Their brood coops, twenty inches deep by thirty inches long, arc a
box with tar paper on the roof. There are some colony houses buiit
of two piano boxes joined back to back.

The young -stock on range is housed out in the piano box houses.
The young birds run on the blue grass under sugar trees and chest-
nuts. Their rations are wheat and cracked corn, open hopper fed.
In the morning they get bran, middlings, corn and oats chop, a little
beef scrap and charcoal and sour milk.

The birds show wealth of plumage and finish of feather around
tail. They have length of body, and this is important for a Partridge
Rock should not be a single comb Partridge Wyandotte, short in

PARTRIDGE PLYMOUTH ROCKS

161

body and of round type. The Birds got length by breeding size. Some
of the cockerels four months of age looked dark, but since growing
chickens develop three crops of plumage to meet the needs of their
enlarging bodies, and each crop is different in shape and color than
the preceding one, it is easy to understand why these dark appearing
cockerels should not be discounted too soon. Fact is that cockerels
of this strain show a much lighter ground color with their adult
plumage. What prove to be the best colored pullets of this line show
barring or straight penciling at first.

How the matings are made. Bird Bros, have found little difficulty
in getting good females. They follow the old plan of W. Theo. Witt-
man in breeding females, i. e., they pick out the best penciled cockerel

A Pair of Partridge Plymouth Rocks as Depicted by I. W. Burgess.

when a chick, making sure that he is out of a good colored hen. Cock-
erels and pullets are feathered and colored pretty much alike when
they develop their first chick plumage. The best colored cockerel as
a chick is then bred irrespective of his adult plumage.

Messrs. Bird state that there is a difference of opinion among Par-
tridge Rock breeders as to whether a breast on the male that is mot-
tled with red indicates good ability to produce highly penciled females.
They prefer to trust to the trapnest, and all of their females are
trapped in the spring, and in addition to selecting a cockerel from a
good dam, they want him to show strong tendency to good markings
as a chick, as indicated above. Bird Bros, attribute patchly colored
females, showing light and dark red patches, to the condition of the

162 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

bird during its molting period. "We learned that in our turkeys,"
remarked Charles Bird, "if one gets droopy, it is very apt to molt in
some white feathers."

Comb and shanks are not highly important with these breeders.
If shanks are a little dusky, they let it go. Their males have made a
reputation for bright color. It has not been due to tolerating or
employing white in the under color for these breeders find that in
their strain the birds that show cotton underneath are usually dark
surface colored specimens.

They use big, long females to breed cockerels. These matrons are
also chosen for heavy, coarse markings and striped hackles. A bright
male, showing red in breast, can be used with such hens, and the
cockerels so bred will inherit clearness and brightness of ground
color from their sire, and soundly striped necks and backs from their
dam. Females to produce good cockerels should be striped in the
neck, and the ground color of neck should be orange red, neither
lemon nor edged with black smut.

If a breeder cannot afford to get the best, these breeders state that
light pullets may be mated to a dark male, and if the birds carry
good breeding in their blood, this will prove a cheap mating that will
produce a few good ones.

They have found it a little harder to get sound black striping on a
bright colored male than on a dark one, but they do not want a dark
chestnut red in their males, nor will they tolerate a black shawl around
the lower hackle of the male. They find that breeding a bright male
to strongly marked and pigmented hens as above described, produces
superior cockerels that molt into splendid cocks.

Beauty and utility combined. The Partridge is one of the most
beautiful and useful varieties of the Plymouth Rock breed. The race
is abundantly furnished with plumage, and anyone who has experi-
enced slow feathering in his Barred Rocks should see a flock of big-
boned Partridges growing, and note in particular their tails coming
out with an abundance of coverts and lesser sickles, greenish black
in color and ribbon-like in effect.

The plumage of the male is handsome indeed; greenish black in
breast, body and tail, with this rich, glossy black color placed in con-
trast and made conspicuous by comparison with a red neck and back;
while through the long, flowing, richly colored neck and back feathers
there runs a greenish black stripe. The females are red, each feather
of all the body except the neck, being magnificently marked with
crescentic pencilings of black. The neck may be penciled in the
lower feathers, balance of the hackle striped with black. Birds of
this breed are plump at all ages, the carcasses are well rounded and
the skin of no fowl is more deeply pigmented, making a golden yellow
carcass when the fowl is dressed.

All black and red varieties are at a decided disadvantage for the
reason that it is with the greatest difficulty that they can be properly

PARTRIDGE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 163

presented by means of illustrations. Word pictures fail when it comes
to delineating chickens. Even in describing the shape of a bird,
the average fancier talks with his hands. Nothing tells the story of
a bird more completely, more truly, more forcibly, than a good
picture. Especially is this true of the detailed markings of the plum-
age, but in those varieties which have a red ground color on which
black is imposed, the camera fails its purpose, for both red and black-
print black in the negative and the beautiful contrast is lost.

Any day some unknown breeder, perhaps with stock from some
other obscure source, may come into the limelight as a foremost
fancier of this fine variety. No one has a patent on the breeding
of fine poultry.

CHAPTER XI
COLUMBIAN PLYMOUTH ROCKS

A color-type of surpassing beauty — Pure white bodies offer a fine contrast

to the black-striped hackles, black-centered tail coverts and greenish-black

tail — Origin of the variety — Developments made by prominent breeders —

How to mate for best results.

The color type of the Light Brahma was first bred in the Colum-
bian Wyandotte. This variety was named in 1893, the year that the
Columbian Exposition or World's Fair was held in Chicago. It was
a decade later before work was started on the Columbian Plymouth
Rocks. The variety was first called the Light Plymouth Rock, but
in 1910, when it was accorded recognition as a Standard variety, it
was known as the Columbian Plymouth Rock.

There was some discussion on the desirability of making a new
breed of the two Columbians and, instead of calling the new varieties
Columbian Wyandottes and Columbian Rocks, naming them Rose and
Single Comb Columbians. The difference in the varieties, however,
was so distinct, even in the early days, that no action resulted from
the discussion to breed the two races to the same shape standard.

The Columbian Rock was a distinctly larger fowl than the Colum-
bian Wyandotte. The Light Brahma, the largest of all the breeds
of domesticated chickens, was close up in the ancestry of the Colum-
bian Rock, and the breeders of this new variety were insistent on
bone, size, length of body, broad skulls and big heads — features that
did not characterize the Columbian Wyandotte.

The Columbian Wyandotte had the greater intensity of black
markings, the Columbian Rock being weak in black points, but of
all things the Rock was big.

In the early days of the Columbian Wyandotte there was less
opportunity for a larger type fowl which would carry the markings
of the Light Brahma, for the Light Brahma completely covered the
big-breed field. But at last the clean-legged breeds of the American
class began to reduce the new recruits to the ranks cf breeders of
the majestic old Brahma, and its wonderful color scheme of a pure
white body with greenish black contrasts was not in itself sufficient
to maintain the premier position of the old Asiatic breed, and at the
ten Madison Square Garden (New York) show^s from 1901 to 1910
the Light Brahmas averaged ninety-seven birds at each exhibition,
as against an average of 164 Light Brahmas at each New York show
from 1891 to 1900, inclusive. It now became practical to transfer the
plumage of the Light Brahma to that large, typical American race,
the Plymouth Rock, and there appeared to be a big opportunity for
the progressive breeder who should perform the work successfully.

164

COLUMBIAN PLYMOUTH ROCKS

165

The originator. The idea of making a Light Plymouth Rock first
occurred to F. M. Clemens, Mechanicsburg, Ohio, an experienced
breeder who in the eighties had been prominently identified with the
origin and early development of the Black Wyandotte.

It was in 1902 that Clemens found a male that was a Light Brahma
colored, good sized bird, of good Rock shape with a fine type of
Plymouth Rock comb. This male was mated to two Bradley Brothers
Barred Rock pullets, two Philander Williams Light Brahma pullets
and two U. R. Fishel White Rock pullets.

The following year a cockerel and four pullets that were single
comb sports from Columbian Wyandottes were secured from an
eastern breeder. To this sport cockerel were mated the pullets from

Typical Columbian Plymouth Rock Male and Female.

the first cross, for that first mating, having produced results that
were various, gave from each cross that had been represented in the
pen a few birds that were of value.

The single comb sport Columbian Wyandotte pullets from the
eastern breeder were mated to a cockerel obtained from the 1902
crosses. "That fall," writes Clemens, "I was able to pick out some
good ones." He then proceeded on this foundation, and later on, in
commenting on his work, said that it was remarkable how soon
distinct type had been secured by selective breeding.

Clemens always advertised his strain as possessing Light Brahma
color, true Rock type, and extra good size, bone and vigor, and
emphasized the fact that his strain traced largely to the cream of

166 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Light Brahma, Barred and White Rock blood, with other crosses
added. He had no use for a single comb Columbian Wyandotte
masquerading in the showroom as a Columbian Rock, and on this
vital matter of the day wrote in 1911:

Some strains are of Columbian Wyandotte extraction and are light-boned and
small. I prefer the stock I have secured by use of Brahma and Rock blood largely.
While I think that Columbian Wyandotte blood has played a part, and a not
unimportant part, in the foundation of our breed, Columbian Rocks and Columbian
Wyandottes as properly bred today are distinct and separate breeds in type. And
this separation is important and should be strictly insisted upon. The penalty of
showing a sport Wyandotte as a Columbian Rock should be to disbar the bird.
No matter how good a bird of that type might be in color, he should never be
allowed by any judge to be considered alongside of the upstanding, heavy boned
Rock type of bird, even if the latter were off in color.

Sweet also originates a strain. Although Clemens was the first to
produce the variety and the first to advertise it, modesty did not
permit him to claim to be the sole originator. George H. Sweet, of
East Aurora, New York, had worked on the variety at about the
same time.

Sweet had become interested in Light Brahmas as a boy. His
father had been a Dark Brahma breeder, but young Sweet could
never forget such specimens of the grand old Light Brahma as
Philander Williams used to show. Charles A. Sweet, father, was a
well known judge and breeder, helped to found the American Poultry
Association, served as president of that organization from 1875 to
1881, and was chairman of the committee that wrote the instructions
to judges in the first Standard of Excellence, as it was then called.
Sweet senior was proud that he had one son who took a deep personal
interest in purebred fowl, and George Sweet's poultry career began
when as quite a small boy his father took him to the poultry shows,
where he made himself useful in selling catalogs or serving as clerk
for the old-time judges and marking score cards as they would call
off the cuts.

In 1905 George H. Sweet happened to see a magnificent Light
Brahma cock that was almost a clean-legged fellow. He purchased
the bird at once and procured some White Plymouth Rock hens as
mates. Several of the chickens that were produced by this mating
proved to be about what was wanted, although the crossing with a
pure white variety had resulted in a weakening of the Light Brahma
markings, and the cockerels and pullets that he bred were deficient
in black color in hackle striping, wings and tail.

Sweet then was able to secure some eggs from another eastern breeder
who was working along the same lines, and from these eggs he raised
two quite good specimens. Rapid strides were made from year to year,
and in 1909 he exhibited some of his best specimens at the Madison Square
Garden (New York) show, where M. S. Gardner officiated as judge and
spoke in terms of praise of the newcomers.

Sweet's aim was to produce birds of Rock type and maintain as

COLUMBIAN PLYMOUTH ROCKS 167

much of the Light Brahma color as possible. He realized that he
was breeding and showing in the Plymouth Rock class, and he desired
birds that were fundamentally Plymouth Rocks. When he came in
contact with Columbian Wyandotte sports in the showroom and was
beaten by them because they had better color of hackle, wings and
tails, he became disgusted and wrote:

It is no honor to a judge to disregard the type of the variety and place the
premium solely on color, for the first thing that establishes a variety is type. In
case a Wyandotte, Leghorn or any other breed should be shown in the Rock class,
the same should be disqualified as out of place, no matter how perfect the
plumage may be.

The Royal strain. D. M. Green, Syracuse, New York, produced
a strain of birds by crossing Light Brahmas and White Plymouth
Rocks. He named this strain the Royal strain and, upon forming
a partnership with Dr. E. B. Kaple, of Elbridge, New York, adver-
tised it extensively.

Green was the most influential friend that the variety had. He
organized the American Columbian Plymouth Rock Club, was instru-
mental in securing recognition of the variety as a Standard fowl,
stimulated breeders to write on the variety and thus secured much
valuable publicity for the Columbian Plymouth Rock.

F. G. Bean's success. The first Columbian Rocks were exhibited
at the Jamestown Exposition, 1907. The first illustration of the
variety appeared in the American Poultry Journal of that year. By
1910 several breeders had come forward, and the class at the Phila-
delphia show, December 12 to 17, 1910, consisted of eighty-nine birds.
Size, type and color of these birds were a surprise. Among the
important exhibitors was Frank G. Bean, Collegeville, Pennsylvania,
who won 1, 2, 3, cockerels; 2, 4 pullets; shape and color specials.

It was not easy to judge the class. One breeder, in order to elimi-
nate the brass that showed on the surface of his males, had attempted
to bleach their backs with peroxide of hydrogen. It had turned to
brown the bluish-white under-color, and his males had to be dis-
qualified. There were Columbian Wyandotte sports of excellent color
in the class. Green showed some of his White Rock-Light Brahma
cross, and his star male which had not been defeated before was
beaten in this strong competition because he was deficient in black
markings. Breeders were in a turmoil. No two agreed. The variety
had been admitted to the Standard that year, the future was bright
with promise, but who was going to be the champion among these
breeders?

The next show season settled the matter and the crown went to
Bean. At Philadelphia, December, 1910, his 1st cockerel was the
star bird of the cockerel class, in our opinion; and his 2d pullet was
much the better colored and lost to 1st only in the matter of size.
The variety had reached the point where an interchange of birds
was possible, an4 Bean had developed a flock that blossomed forth

168 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

the next season with such splendor as had never before been known
in any new variety.

Starting at the New York State Fair in September, 1911, and
including such shows as Hagerstown, Philadelphia, Grand Central
Palace, Madison Square Garden (New York), where only sterling
quality could win, Bean exhibited fifteen times under fifteen different
and well informed judges, and won eighty-three out of a possible
eighty-five first prizes, forty-nine out of a possible fifty-five second
prizes, and seventeen club ribbons out of twenty offered. At the
Philadelphia show of December, 1911, he won all cups and show
specials offered on the variety. The sweepstakes special for the best
pullet in the American classes was awarded to his first prize Colum-
bian Plymouth Rock pullet, indicating that this strain had been bred
to a very high standard in order to enable it to beat all the older
established varieties of Rocks, Wyandottes and Rhode Island Reds,
all of which competed for this special in the American class. Bean
missed only one big eastern show that season, and that was Boston,
where the club meet was held and where he was engaged to judge
the class.

Unfortunately for Bean's own financial success and for the future
of the variety, this breeder was not a business man in any sense of
the term, and after beating all comers and hanging them on the fence,
he was unable to follow up his showroom success in a business way,
and during the period of Bean's leadership the variety stood still.

Other prominent breeders. New life was injected when the large
breeding establishment of Wilburtha Poultry Farms, Trenton Junction,
New Jersey, took up the variety; and later, when they sold their entire
flock to Henry L. Wilbur, of Rhode Island, the stock passed into
the hands of a breeder who was able to breed the birds in numbers
and who exhibited large strings at the Boston and New York shows.

New England long has been ^known as the home of the Light
Brahma, and Light Brahmas, White Rocks, Barred Rocks and
Light Brahma-Rock crosses have been favorites with Yankee poultry-
keepers for many years. It was to be expected that some of the
best Columbian Rocks should be bred in New England. Among
the early breeders, Samuel Bradley, of Lime Rock, Connecticut;
Howard M. Munroe, of Lexington, Massachusetts, and George H.
Dexter, of Everett, Massachusetts, were the leaders. Munroe resorted
to Light Brahma blood after the variety was established, and as a
result had the finest color markings of any breeder of his day. The
hackle striping in his males was of a greenish-black color, thus
presenting the life and luster so desirable in the plumage. Munroe
produced a number of winners at Boston, and the course that he
pursued in going back to the Brahma could be repeated with advan-
tage today.

Mating Columbian Plymouth Rocks. The strength of this color
type lies in the strong contrasts of black on white. The back, breast

COLUMBIAN PLYMOUTH ROCKS

169

and body of the bird should be pure white on the surface, against
which appears a solid black, greenish-black tail, and a neck striped
with this same lustrous black. This laced neck is one of the crown-
ing glories of the bird, rivaled only by the big black tail coverts
edged with white, which join the back and tail together. These are
beauty features of this plumage, and the secret of their beauty lies
in sound black centers and clean white edging in each individual
feather.

The saddle plumage of the male should be striped with black.
The striping, however, is more open than in the neck hackle; and
the saddle striping should not run all the way from the under-color
to the tip of feather, but should be more open and show more white.
If you get solid black stripes in the saddle, you have a bird from
which you cannot get clean white backs on the pullets he sires.

The back of the female should be white. Tail coverts, which
serve to join the white back to the tail, should be black laced about
with white. A white back and body plumage with two or perhaps
three rows of tail coverts that are considerably larger than the hackle
feathers, tail coverts that are broad and in which there is a full round
black center which is clearly laced with pure white, forms a most
beautiful combination.

The color of the wings is of vital importance both for the show
pen and for breeding.- Flights or primaries of both males and females
must be black; lower edge of feathers white. Secondaries, lower por-
tion white; upper portion black, the greater part of it black.

In order to produce these
black points it is necessary to
mate birds that are strongly
colored. The tendency of the
variety has been to run to pure
white bodies and weak black
points. In order to counteract
this tendency it is desirable to
save for breeding purposes fe-
males that have a heavy slate
under-color, even though they
show some black ticking in
backs. (See Mating, chapter XX.)
Pullets may show black tick-
ing in backs and molt out clean
when six or seven months old.
These are valuable for breeding.
The tendency in all black and
white varieties is for the color
to run out from generation to

generation You do not get Light Brahmas. A Parent Variety of the
strength of color by breeding Columbian Plymouth Rock,

170 THE AMERICAN BREEDS O'F POULTRY

weak, washy birds. You get what you want by putting color in;
by having an excess of color and producing the ideal bird as it
works its way out.

Brassiness is a characteristic fault of males. Young cockerels
from a brassy sire will not show the defect at once, but as the show
season approaches and they get their winter coat of plumage, the old
fault will appear, and it will become accentuated in the spring and
summer, when sunshine and rain working alternately on the feathers
cause the plumage to rust. The way to get rid of brass is to quit
breeding it; to get a male that is silvery-white on top,

First Prize Blue Plymouth Rock Hen,
Chicago, December, 1919.

CHAPTER XII
BLUE PLYMOUTH ROCKS

Origin and mating of this variety

Blue Plymouth Rocks are a recent production. They were pro-
duced by F. G. Hasselman, of Waveland, Indiana. They were first
exhibited at Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1914, and the following year at
the Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, the Coliseum, Chicago,
and Madison Square Garden, New York. The variety has excellent
Plymouth Rock type.

The originator was a florist and his experience in hybridizing
plants gave him a liberal understanding of the principles underlying
breeding. His eye had also been trained to see and appreciate all
the fine gradations of color and form. His new variety, Blue Plym-
outh Rocks, were the result of crossing Blue Andalusians on Barred
Plymouth Rocks. The variety inherits strong egg-laying proclivities.
It was recognized as a standard breed by the American Poultry
Association in convention assembled, Kansas City, Mo., August, 1920.

The color of the male should be: neck, wing bows, back and tail
sickles, lustrous blue black; breast, body and main tail feathers, a
clear, even, medium shade of slaty blue with a well defined lacing
of darker blue around each feather.

The color of the female should be an even, clear shade of slaty
blue, each feather laced with a distinct edging of darker blue.

Mating. A medium colored male, well laced in breast and laced
somewhat in hackle and saddle, when mated to fine exhibition colored
females, produces excellent pullets. 'For fine cockerels, se-ect females
that are dark in hackle, with as good lacing on breast and throat as
possible, but it is not necessary that their backs should be of a medium,
clear color. Mate these females to a sound colored male.

Standard colored birds may also be bred together with satisfac-
tion. If birds too dark in both sexes are bred together, however,
some red may show in the offspring. If birds that are too light are
bred together, the offspring will be deficient in lacing.

It is natural for all blue varieties of chickens to produce some
black and some splashed-white chickens. When these are bred together
they in turn produce blues; however, a cockerel so produced should
not be used the following year with the expectation of him producing
pullets that are a clear, even shade of blue, distinctly laced.

(See illustration on page 170)

171

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CHAPTER XIII
SILVER LACED WYANDOTTES

The Silver was the original Wyandotte — Its early origin is unrecorded
— Brahma and Hamburg blood entered into its makeup — The first
Wyandotte boom — English breeders improve the lacing — Infusion of
English blood in American flocks — How to mate Silver Wyandottes

The Wyandotte, of which the Silver was the oirginal fowl, is a
strictly American production and reflects great credit on the American
breeder. The word "\Vyandotte" has been supposed to have been
adapted from "W'yandot," the name of a tribe of North American
Indians; but the late Fred A. Houdlette, who suggested the name
of Wyandotte for this new American breed, has stated that the word
suggested itself to his mind because of his familiarity with a coasting
vessel which had been christened Wyandotte and which had belonged
to his father.

Naming the new breed. The breed was originally known by
various names, such as Sebright Cochins, Mooneys, Hambletonians.
Eurekas, Excelsiors, Columbias, Ambrights, American Sebrights, and
recognition was asked for it as the American Sebright in 1877, but
the breed was not admitted to the Standard until 1883, when it went
in as the W3^andotte.

Before the meeting of the American Poultry Association in Worces-
ter, Massachueetts, in 1883, there were no "Wyandottes." Since
the early seventies there had been breeders in different parts of the
country working on a laced fowl that would prove to be as popular
as the Plymouth Rock. Some of the birds had single combs like
the Rock, while others had scantily feathered shanks which was
evidence of their Asiatic parentage. It was L. H. Whittaker of
North Adams, Michigan, who developed definite ideals for the breed.
He purchased birds that came as near his ideal as possible; he bred
consistently to that ideal; and in 1883 the breed had progressed to a
point where its distinctiveness, as marked by its rose comb, laced
plumage, clean shanks and substantial size, won for it recognition
as a Standardised from the American Poultry Association.

In recognizing the fowl, all the old names were rejected, even
"Sebright," which in those days was the one word that was synony-
mous with lacing, for the Sebright Bantam as originated by Sir John
Sebright was the fancier's true exemplification of lacing. A new
name was given to the new breed, but the name selected met with
general dissatisfaction all over the country. In commenting on the
new Standard of 1883, C. J. Ward, then edior of American Poultry
Journal, said: "Some new breeds were admitted. American Sebrights

173

174 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

were christened Wyandottes, which we think absurd and nonsense, as
it means nothing and will cause confusion, but it is done and so we
will all say 'let it go.' "

In a later issue of American Poultry Journal (December, 1883)
Joseph Wallace wrote:

Then I with those will take common lot,

Who try to swallow Wyandotte.

Eureka ! pride of the black laced tribe, farewell,

You have gone beyond the great river.

Many braves will curse the spirit of Wyandotte,

As they did when they struck the lodge at Worcester.

They will ask, "Where is our Hambletonian now?"

He is gone to the bunting grounds beyond the great river,

Where the warriors of the Oneidas and Wyandottes meet.

They will smoke the pipe of peace beyond the broad river.

Time has proved, however, that ''Wyandotte" has been a most
appropriate name and no one would today have it changed. An
attempt was made to change the spelling to "Wyandot" at Indian-
apolis, 1888, but the motion was promptly defeated.

Early origin. It seems strange that the oldest breeders of Wyan-
dottes were unable to trace with certainty the early origin of the
fowl. L. Whittaker found his first Wyandottes at Honeoye, New
York, in 1872, and the birds were then known as Sebright Cochins.
He made a diligent search for records bearing on their origin during
the following three years "and each inquiry brought only a different
theory, and on following up these theories I would find them to be
mere guesses."

On this question of origin, D. W. Hooker, another old-time
breeder, wrote:

I think no man living knows when or how Wyandottes originated. When Kidder
of Northampton and myself were breeding them, then known as Sebright Cochins,
I wrote wherever I could hear of them, in order to trace them back, but the lines
diverged instead of converging, and I at last gave it up as hopeless.

In 1877, Mr. Kidder, who is above referred to, wanted the birds
recognized as Eurekas, and bred with pea combs and feathered legs.
At the same time, Whittaker was presenting the birds to the Ameri-
can Poultry Association as American Sebrights. Others were
breeding them as Sebright Cochins. The American Poultry Asso-
ciation, at its meeting in Buffalo in 1877, failed to agree on a name.
A committee was appointed to settle on a name and a type for the
breed, but the committee failed to report during the convention, and
the matter had to go over. The breeders now saw the necessity of
coming together and agreeing on a type. They were spurred to new
efforts.

Theories of origin. Inasmuch as the early breeders were unable
to trace out the exact origin of this breed, all writers of Wyandotte

SILVER LACED WYANDOTTES

175

history have been careful to point out that they can do little more
than repeat the traditions and probable facts as told by the earliest
authorities.

It is supposed that the foundation crosses were made as early as
1864 to 1866. Little attention was paid to them prior to 1870. It
was in that year that John P. Ray, Hemlock, New York, secured a
setting of eggs from Edward Bronson, also of New York state. Bron-
son, according to Ray, had crossed Silver Seabrights, which were
not bantams, but large laced fowls, with large black and yellow

Silver Wyandottes as Portrayed by F. L. Sewell About 1900.

Asiatics. H. M. Doubleday of New York was also breeding the large
Silver Seabrights at that time.

Doubleday's birds were both silver-laced and golden-laced. They
were clean legged and feather legged. Some had single combs and
others rose combs. He preferred those that were silver-laced and
carried rose combs, and for some little time bred those with feathers
on their legs, "for they were the best birds as to shape and color."

In a bulletin on "The Wyandotte" written by T. F. McGrew and
published by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Ray is credited with
having crossed a Silver Sebright bantam male on a yellow Asiatic
hen, thus producing what he called Sebright Cochins. But, in 1904.

176

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Ray repudiated this theory, denied that he ever owned a Sebright
bantam, and stated that he had secured Silver Seabrights (not ban-
tams but a fowl as large as a Wyandotte) and had then infused into
this stock, by crossing, the blood of a so-called Chittagong (Asiatic)
fowl.

No one knows for sure the origin of the big Silver Seabrights
that Ray secured as foundation stock. When you look behind Ray's
time you see only confusion. There is no recorded history and the
story of the foundation crosses remains unwritten. It is undoubtedly

(Above) Spangled and (below) Penciled Feathers, the Forerunners of
Lacing, as Shown in Wright's "The Practical Poultry Keeper," 1867.

SILVER LACED WYANDOTTES 177

true that when the breed began to attract attention, new crosses
were made, and improvement came in the same way that Ray secured
improvement in the already existing stock of Silver Seabrights by
resorting to a Chittagong cross.

Hamburg-Brahma crosses. It is known that both Silver Spangled
Hamburgs and Dark Brahmas were crossed, and that these crosses
were amalgamated with the existing stock of Sebright Cochins. In
those days the spangling of the Hamburg wras not as highly devel-
oped as is seen in the pronounced pear-shaped spangling of today.
Oftentimes the spangle was only a splash of black at the end of the
feather, while in other birds the spangling showed the rudiments of
lacing. See illustration. The penciling of the Dark Brahma was
also more faintly determined and less strongly established. The
natural result was that when the mooney spangling of the Hamburg
wras crossed with the crescentic lines of penciling carried by the Dark
Brahma, there developed a strong tendency to lacing.

The matter is quite correctly summed up in the Standard of Perfec-
tion in the statement thai;:

Just what breeds entered into the first Silver Wyandottes, it is impossible to say.
That Dark Brahmas and Silver Spangled Hamburgs were two of them has been
proved, as a cross of these two breeds produces fowls that resemble Wyandottes, but
fail in shape and partly in color.

In writing of the new breed of Wyandottes in 1886, three years
after their admission to the Standard, B. N. Pierce, the most promi-
nent western poultry judge of that day, said:

That they were principally the result of a cross between Dark Brahmas and
Hamburgs is quite apparent, often indicated by reversion to white ear lobes and
to spangles in the plumage of the females, which come from the Hamburg; and to
the wing markings and other characteristics of the Dark Brahmas.

F. A. Houdlette, who named the breed, has written that he never
had any doubt about the Dark Brahma figuring largely in the make-up
of the Wyandotte, and that the first stock he had was of Dark
Brahma origin crossed with Hamburgs and White Cochins. He
adds that the White Cochin blood kept cropping out in white chicks,
which later on were bred together and became the White Wyandottes.

Whittaker develops an ideal. John P. Ray was a prominent
breeder of the early stock, and the Ray birds went under the name
of Sebright Cochins. In the spring of 1873, L. H. Whittaker, of
Michigan, learned of the Ray stock and made inquiry concerning it.
The next year Whittaker secured a cock and pullet from Ray. The
following year he secured considerable additional stock of Ray's
Sebright Cochins, and wrote to Ray that he didn't want feather-
legged birds, as he had decided to "breed them clean-legged with
the edging or lacing of black entirely around the feathers, and with
small combs." Ray evidently wanted the feather-legged type, for

178

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

he sold twelve of his best clean-legged pullets and a cockerel to
Whittaker for $25.

Whittaker went to the expense in 1874 of securing a wood cut
of a pair of Wyandottes which represented his ideal. (See illustra-
tion.) This was the first cut of the new breed that had been made.
It reflected Whittaker's original conception of the breed. It cost
him $25. He traded an electrotype of the cut to Ray for a pullet.

The First Illustration of Wyandottes. Made by B. N. Pierce
for L. H. Whittaker in 1874, when the breed was known as
American Sebrights.

The cut was later used by many breeders to illustrate their adver-
tising matter. In this illustration, Whittaker did much to bring
breeders into unison on the questions of type and color, for the
picture told the whole story of type and color, completely and fully.
Whittaker not only put forth efforts to get all breeders of the
fowl to breed to a common ideal, but he took a genuinely keen inter-

SILVER LACED WYANDOTTES 179

est in the breed and tried to trace out its early origin. He deserves
much credit; and Houdlette has openly stated that "the man who
stamped the present markings more firmly than anyone else prior
to 1883 was L. Whittaker of Michigan." Whittaker was a modest
man, and remarked to us in 1910: "I never claimed to be the
originator." Whittaker was, however, the originator of our modern
Wyandotte. He bred for "a large, round-bodied bird with Sebright
lacing, rose comb, and clean yellow shanks." He bred for rose
combs, clean shanks, and modern Wyandotte type when others
were breeding pea combs and feathered shanks and had no clear
conception of what type should be selected. He was the one man
who brought order out of chaos.

Early popularity. Two things did much to bring the Wyandotte
prominently before the public. One was the scrambling for an
appropriate name. The other was a Standard written for the breed
by I. K. Felch and offered to the poultry fraternity for criticism
and adoption. The Wyandotte, therefore, came forward as every-
body's breed; all were privileged to suggest names for their favorites
and all could participate in criticizing the proposed Standard and
shaping the ideals for their breed.

Moreover, in the words of Felch, "the breed is fortunate in the
position it holds, being with the Plymouth Rock the only two breeds
that hold the middle ground between the Asiatic and smaller breeds.
They grow two weeks quicker than the Plymouth Rocks, and fully
forty days quicker than the Brahmas and Cochins, making them
highly appreciated by both the farmer and the fancier. As show
birds they are handsome." Again, he said of the Wyandotte, in his
book, "Poultry Culture," published in 1885: "As a producer of
broilers to weigh four pounds to the pair at twelve to thirteen weeks
old, it has no equal. It is more than an average producer of eggs
of good size."

The demand for Wyandottes after the breed was admitted to
the Standard had been enormous. In 1885 I. K. Felch wrote: "The
breed is having a 'boom' — no other word expresses the wild interest
manifest in it."

Following the admission of the Wyandotte to the Standard,
excitement reigned among the entire poultrybreeding fraternity.
Those who had been breeding the fowls under various names fell
in line under the caption of "Wyandottes" to participate in the profits
and to supply the great demand. All kinds of stock was bred and
sold — good, bad and indifferent. Anything that had any semblance
to a Wyandotte was sold at a good profit. The result of the dis-
tribution of inferior specimens brought disaster, the public becoming
disappointed with the results from the stock foisted upon it, and
many beginners who would have made good future breeders were
killed in the embryo. Quite naturally, reaction then set in, and only

180

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

the courageous, sincere, constructive breeders weathered the storm
and brought out better Wyandottes at the end as a result of restricted
sales and small matings.

Important developments in Silver Wyandottes. The first Standard
for Wyandottes, as written by Mr. Felch, was evidently written for
Wyandottes as they were, and not as forward-looking breeders hoped
them to be. It is always important that the Standard should set an
ideal to be aimed at. And it is wholesome that breeders should aim
high. A Standard which merely described what is a common existing

**»* , . ^ . ^^ ~*t*ii^'7^fCa*uf3rf^E-?— :-» i-' ;v !_T-"^--- ;

The Extreme Dark Fad in Lacing as Bred by F. W. Lenker, Killinger, Pennsylvania.
The above pen was illustrated in American Poultry Journal, February issue, 1888.

type does not lead to advancement. "Without vision the people
perish."

Felch's Standard allowed the breasts of cocks to be broken black
and white in color. It was on this point that Joseph Wallace
remarked:

We may be wrong in our opinion, but we incline to the belief that the breed
was especially designed from the start to be laced; that the lacing should be as near
like that of the Silver Laced Sebright Bantam as it possibly could ; that it is the
intention of the majority of the breeders to keep them, distinctly laced; that they
should not resemble either the Dark Brahma or Silver Spangled Hamburg in plumage,

SILVER LACED WYANDOTTES 181

nor alike in the blending of penciling and spangles. Although they show a closer
resemblance to the one or the other in the silvery white color of head, hackles, breast,
saddle and tail coverts, with the objectionable light straw color that lessens the
value of one, and was an original fault with the other.

Feathers on shanks and penciled centers in the lacing continued
to be persistent faults, showing the trace of Dark Brahma blood;
while white in ear lobes and blue in shanks were unmistakable indi-
cations of the Hamburg cross.

After laced breasts became the established character of the Silver
Laced Wyandotte males, the next point to develop was the wing bar.
The wing coverts which form the wing bars were commonly span-
gled, and open-centered lacing in these feathers added a beauty fea-
ture to the birds. Largely through the efforts of the late T. E. Orr
the Standard was changed at Indianapolis (1888) to call for a laced
wing bar.

The spangling had come from the Hamburg. The Dark Brahma
had also stamped the new race with its tendency to penciling, and
what is known as mossiness — that is, irregular, dark penciling appear-
ing in the feathers and destroying the pure white open centers — was
a common fault. Instead of breeding clean centers, breeders sought
the easier plan of closing up the centers by breeding a very heavy,
broad black band of lacing on the feather. In some instances the
white center was so small that it was little more than a white shaft
in the feather. This color type was the prevailing fashion in 1888.

English blood. The centers were again opened out to "medium
centers," but it was late in the nineties before the pronounced open-
laced birds began to appear. These really open-laced birds were
imported from England. English breeders had been attracted to
the Wyandotte, and with the skill of Silver Sebright bantam breed-
ers, unhampered by predetermined opinions, the tendency of a buying
public, or the prejudice of judges, they had started in to open up
the lacing and breed for big white centers finely edged with black.
The English sacrificed other points, but produced beautiful open lacing.

A Mr. Cochran, of Long Island, who had judged at the Madison
Square Garden show, was one of the first to show this wide-open
English lacing. It was about 1900 when Cochran exhibited birds of
this kind. At about the same time, J. C. Jodrey, of Massachusetts,
and Henry Steinmesh, of St. Louis, also secured English blood.
Steinmesh and Jodrey exchanged birds and were quite prominent
in the breeding of Silver Wyandottes for a number of years.

Other breeders secured English blood, including F. A. Houdlette,
who went to England in 1899 and purchased a cockerel from Spencer
Brothers. F. L. Mattison, of South Shaftsbury, Vermont, sent to
the Rev. Comberholme in England and paid $160 for a cock. The
infusion of the English blood into the American flocks did more than
anything else to produce the big, open, clean lacing seen in the

182

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

American birds of today. It also stamped the laced wing bar as an
actuality.

Practically the only point that Steinmesh advertised for years
was that his males had laced wing bars. Breeders and buyers cen-
tered much attention on this point, for they assumed, and correctly,

First prize Silver Wyandotte cockerel and winner of shape
special, in class of 38 cockerels at the annual meet of the Silver
Wyandotte Club of America, Indianapolis, Ind. Bred by E. B.
Banta, Indiana.

that if the wing coverts were laced, the breeding power of the bird
was strong for the factor of lacing. For a time it seemed as if birds
were sold on the strength of their wing bar lacing, and there was a
scurry on the part of breeders to get laced wing bars.

The English blood, however, brought with it certain defects. The

SILVER LACED WYANDOTTES

183

English breeders had sacrificed neck color in the females, and their
best laced birds had dark, smutty necks. They had emphasized
lacing to such an extent that their males were bred with lacing from
throat down the breast to the thigh and into the small feathers
around the hock, and in judging the male was turned forward so

First Prize Silver Wyandotte Hen at Indianapolis, 1920. Bred by
A. & E. Tarbox, Illinois.

that his great sheet of lacing from throat to hocks would presenr
itself to the eye and show off. The result was that a big, long bird
\vas bred so that he would have a great length for laced feathers
between the wattles and the shanks. This threw the English Wyan-

184 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

dottes out of shape — when an American judge looked at them side-
ways, and American judges are keen on the profile view. The English
also were enabled to sacrifice back and tail, for they looked at the
lacing of their males on the front. The result was a brassy back
and little striping in many of the English males. The English blood,
therefore, had to be employed judiciously, that the American breeder
might hold the good already existent in his flock, and at the same
time amalgamate the remarkable lacing of the English birds.

Sebright lacing. American breeders as a whole have never bred
as extreme open lacing, with as narrow an edging of black, as have
the English. We are today producing a larger individual feather
than formerly, which makes the lacing larger. We are producing a
feather that is laced with a narrow, lustrous greenish-black lacing

Silver Sebright Bantams. Lacing has been their prin-
cipal point of attractiveness for more than a century. They
are the true open-laced birds, being laced in tail, whereas a
Silver Wyandotte is black in tail like a Dark Brahma.

that conforms to the edge of the feather. But the true Sebright
lacing which the English produced is not possible with us, because
of our traditions. We hold to black wing primaries that are white
only on the lower edges; we demand a tail that is black. The
Sebright's wing flights and tail are white, evenly and distinctly laced
with a narrow edging of black, just as is its breast.

In our Silver Wyandottes we also demand a silvery white neck
that has a black stripe in the center of each feather, of which the
shaft is white. The Sebright has a neck that is white, laced with
black the same as in its breast. The striped neck of our Silver Wyan-
dottes, the black flights, the lustrous, greenish-black tail, are an
inheritance from th§ Park Brahma. Unless the breeder stops short

SILVER LACED WYANDOTTES 185

of the extreme open lacing of the Sebright he will lose soundness
of color in wings and tails. A balance must therefore be found, and
an extreme reached in neither direction, for sound wings and tails
are of no value without lacing; and according to our Standard, the
most pronounced Sebright lacing does not make a perfect bird if it
fails in wing and tail.

Mossiness in the tail coverts is an old fault inherited from the
penciled Brahma. Frostiness, that is, a marginal tracing of white
outside the black lacing, is another fault all breeders should seek to
eliminate. Brass or straw color on the back and wing bows of the
males is also a defect which more commonly shows in the late summer
and fall, just before the molt. Males, not females, show brass.

Proper matings. Tt is desirable to breed from hens that have
molted sound. Sometimes an open-laced pullet will molt in mossy
feathers on her back. Sound hens are doubly valuable. Take an
oval center instead of a pointed one every time. If the back of the
female is open laced, but the centers run out a little on the breast,
the edging on the breast not being quite sound, you have reasonably
good material to work with. Now find a male that is fairly well
<triped with black in the back, and in the center of whose stripes
are open, diamond shaped, silvery white centers. Have him laced
ns well on the wing bar as possible. Have his breast soundly edged
with black. The breast lacing should not splash out in the lower
breast. If the lacing on the breast fails at all. let it be in medium
sized centers. Such a mating will produce a high-class lot of
cockerels and pullets.

AYhenever possible, breed birds that have a large feather. The
larger the feather, the larger the lacing. Lacing is the beauty of
the variety. It is hard to get too much lacing, provided you retain
a solid black edging on the feather — not a weak or brown-black
lacing. Do not mate two light under-colored birds together. You
must have a measure of slate under-color to feed the black in the
plumage and produce sound edging, sound wings and tail.

If the females have small centers and rather heavy black edging,
a good mating is made by securing a male with large breast feathers
which are openly laced, even though the lacing runs out a little in
the lower breast as a result of the white being somewhat too excessive
to be held within black bands. Such a male may be a little light in
under-color of hackle and saddle. If you insist on dark under-color
in both sexes, you will be forced into double mating, for nature does
not readily produce the open lacing of a Sebright with the under-
color of a Dark Brahma.

CHAPTER XIV
GOLDEN LACED WYANDOTTES

A richly colored fowl of pronounced vigor — Originated from a Silver

Wyandotte base — Progress that has been made in the color of Golden

Wyandottes — Improvement in type — How to mate

The Golden Wyandotte has from the beginning been a fowl of
unusual vigor. Some people have held an unverified but traditional
theory that a black-red fowl is naturally strong. Such are the colors
of that progenitor of the domesticated races, the jungle fowl.

It has also been said that black and red are easier colors for
the breeder to handle than are black and white. T. E. Orr, who
bred both Silver and Golden Wyandottes, was the first to comment
on the relative facility with which the two varieties could be bred;
and while he was more prominent as a Silver breeder, he spoke of
the feasibility with which black and red could be handled. Fewer
breeders of the first rank, however, have bred Golden Wyandottes;
while a long list of able breeders, including many of the most capable
that America has known, have been attracted to the Silver Wyandotte.

The Golden Laced Wyandotte is a duplicate of the Silver Laced,
done in black and red. In the Silver, the ground color of the laced
feather is white, which is laced with a narrow band of black; in the
Golden, the ground color of the laced feather is golden-bay, which
is laced with a similar edging of black.

The initial popularity of the Wyandottes led to a multiplication
of varieties, and continued popularity of the breed accounts for the
increase in the members of the Wyandotte family. The Golden was
the second variety of the breed to be presented to the public. It
was accepted as a Standard variety in 1888.

Origin. The early Golden Wyandotte carried at least half the
blood of the original Silver Wyandottes as bred by L. H. Whittaker,
of Michigan. They were originated by Joseph McKeen, of Omro,
Winnebago County, Wisconsin. In 1879 Mr. McKeen procured sev-
eral sittings of American Sebright eggs from Whittaker. He already
has some crossbred fowls which he called Winnebagoes. These
Winnebagoes had been started about seven years previous, when
McKeen had let a family named O'Neil have some Buff Cochin and
Golden Sebright bantam eggs. The chickens that the O'Neils raised
fiom these eggs were allowed to run together.

A few years later, McKeen found that the O'Neils had some
"Buff Cochins with yellow legs, rose combs, light leg feathering, and
a slight show of lacing on some specimens." McKeen secured some
of these buff hens and mated to them a cockerel that had been pro-

186

GOLDEN LACED WYANDOTTES 187

duced by a Partridge Cochin-Brown Leghorn cross. This was the
foundation blood of the Winnebago fowl. The males of this stock
were large black-red fowls. "Some of the males/' wrote McKeen,
"had black breasts, others (and these pleased me the most) were
a deep reddish bay, all but the tail, which was a very shiny,
greenish-black. They were rose-combed, legs clean and yellow."
The stock had good size and unusual stamina, and from the de-
scription were similar to the Rose Comb Rhode Island Red of
today. They were free from Game blood — a point that was overlooked
by many early breeders of Golden Wyandottes, who assumed that
the vigor of the race, as well as some features of their type, must
have come from Game blood in the old Winnebago fowl.

In 1880 McKeen produced from this stock of Winnebagoes "a
beautiful cockerel of glossy golden and black, the golden predomi-
nating." He now conceived the idea of crossing this cockerel on
some of the females that he had raised from the Whittaker Silver
Wyandottes, or, as they were then called, American Sebrights.
McKeen also tried to produce what he wanted by crossing a Silver
male on red Winnebago females, but this produced chicks that
were all, or nearly all. silver colored. When the Winnebago male
was crossed on the Silver females, the cockerels came Silver and
the pullets Golden. "Strange, is it not," wrote McKeen, "how the
males take the color of the dam and the females the color of the sire?"

Progress in the variety. The male Golden Wyandotte has con-
tinued to exert a great influence on his female get. To illustrate
this point, we shall tell in some detail the history of a Golden Wyan-
dotte pullet that was shown at Boston in January, 1920. She was
not awarded a prize. Every exhibitor there saw her and talked about
her. The judge is reported to have said that she "was first or nothing,"
and then he decided that her red ground color was of too rich a
shade of color, for the Standard calls for "golden bay." He left
her out of the ribbons. Later in January she won first at the National
show in Chicago under Walter C. Young.

This pullet was bred by Ira C. Keller. She traces back to the
hen that was first at Chicago, 1918, first at New York, 1919, and first
at Boston. 1920, as a five-year-old. This hen was mated to a cock
that was about as near to Standard plumage as you can get — very
open in lacing, but strong in wing. Twenty-four chicks were hatched
from this mating in 1918, and Mr. Keller had a streak of luck, for
he not only raised the whole twenty-four, but fifteen of them were
pullets and nine were cockerels. Every pullet was a good one, not
a poor one in the bunch, and they ran so uniform that they were
like peas in a pod.

The first pullet and the four pullets in the first pen at the club
show, Chicago, 1919, were from this lot; the second pullet and the
four first pen pullets at New York in 1919 were also from this

188

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

brood of twenty-four; and the first and second cocks and first and
fourth hens at the National show, Chicago, 1920, were of the
twenty-four.

The first pullet at Chicago in 1920, which was unplaced at
Boston, was a daughter of one of the above hens. She is a grand-
daughter of the mother of the twenty-four. Mr. Keller took eight
of her daughters, eight full sisters out of the twenty-four cockerels

i

First Golden Wyandotte Cock, Chicago, December, 1916.

and pullets, and mated them to a partly related cockerel in 1919.
He was a sharply marked fellow, uniform in ground color. He pro-
duced the cockerel at the head of the first pen at the National show,
Chicago, 1920, as well as the sensational first pullet.

Mr. Keller was the first to lay especial emphasis on the impor-
tance of open diamond shaped centers in the saddle feathers of
Golden Wyandotte male birds. He insisted years ago, as has been
amply proved since, that the more open you can get the red centers

GOLDEN LACED WYANDOTTES

189

in the black striping of the male's back, the cleaner centered cushions
you can get in your female progeny. As a result of well laced, open
centered males, it is not necessary to do so much double mating
any more. The lines are being brought closer together. The combs
of this variety are also much improved; and the flat backed and

A New York and Boston Prize-Winning Golden Wyandotte Hen.

Owned by Ira C. Keller, Ohio — Grandmother of

First Pullet, Chicago, January, 1920.

long tailed males are passing out, and rounder bodied birds of good
Wyandotte shape are filling the Golden classes.

The richer ground color in pullets is something ahead of the
Standard. Perhaps no judge should be criticized for enforcing the
Standard requirements, and yet it is a fact that the Standard is never
progressive; the breeders must run ahead, must make the advance-

190 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

ments, and the Standard makers can then come up and recognize each
improvement as an established fact. The Keller pullet is of a rich
bay, as against the golden bay of the Standard, and what made her
color show off to such good advantage was the metallic green-black
lacing. Otherwise, the plumage would not have had the same luster.

The richer tone of red ground color is a feature to be desired.
At the New York state fair, September, 1920, Melvin F. Uphoff, of
New Jersey, showed a pullet that was the sensation of the class.
She won first and had a rich red ground color, open laced in every
section and edged with a sound black lacing.

Improvement in type. There has been a great change in the type
of Golden Wyandottes. In 1900 the females had the length of
Plymouth Rock females, not typical Wyandotte females. The males
were frequently unsightly because of large, loose combs. The
males also had too much length, their backs were too long, and their
tails projected beyond their backs like the tails of Rhode Island
Red males. In the summer of 1905 Theo. Hewes wrote: "The writer
has found but few birds of this variety that filled the shape require-
ment, while many of our winning specimens would come nearer the
Plymouth Rock description, quite a few of them even reaching the
Java type, especially in females."

At the New York show of December, 1907, we saw for the first
time a Golden Wyandotte cock that was a wonderfully modeled
Wyandotte. There were no big combs, shallow breasts and long
backs among the birds in that historic class. The first cock, shov/n
by Charles H. Brundage, of Danbury, Connecticut, had a tail that
was short and bushy, and his breast was round. This cock again
was first at New York in 1908, and again as a four-year-old at New
York, 1909-10. Since that time the true Wyandotte type has been
more and more in evidence in the Golden variety both in the east
and the west.

We believe that all of the eastern birds were from the same original
McKeen stock, as were the western flocks, although it should be
said that about the same time that McKeen started to make his
Golden Wyandottes, the idea of such a variety occurred to two east-
ern breeders, and Jacob Ryder, of Pennsylvania, and W. E. Shedd,
of Massachusetts, also brought out Golden Wyandottes. It is our
opinion, however, that the good type seen in Golden Wyandottes
today, both east and west, is due to selective breeding rather than
to different elements entering into the early origin of different
strains, for undoubtedly the McKeen stock was the broad foundation
on which all modern strains of the variety take their root.

Mating. This variety can be single mated to better advantage than
its counterpart, the Silver Wyandotte. Slate under-color and black
markings in wings are more common to the Golden Wyandotte than
to the Silver. When you aim too strongly and too surely for these

GOLDEN LACED WYANDOTTES

191

points in the Silver, double mating becomes inevitable. But with
slate under-color and sound wings, a practicability in the Golden, the
question is simplified to one of producing lacing.

To hold the rich bay ground color, a weak under-color should
not be tolerated. The quill of a hen's back feathers should be of the
same shade of color as the web; otherwise, shaftiness appears. With
these faults in mind let us select the males and females to be mated
together.

Get females with as much bay in the center of the neck stripe as
possible; at least the quill should be bay. If solid black stripes are
bred, the cockerel progeny will have dark neck hackles that appear
almost black on the lower surface of the hackle. This shawl effect
is always undesirable in good males.

Now select a male that has a saddle striped with black, and be
sure that in the center of each black stripe there is a big, open,
diamond shaped bay center. Have the bird laced well in wing bow,
and, if possible, up on the wing bows, on the little feathers under
the wing, under the shoulder, and on the thighs. These are all indi-
cations of a bird that has been bred well for lacing.

If the lacing on the breast of the hens runs out, be sure that the
male has sound breast lacing and is as free as possible of a marginal
edging of red around the outer side of the feathers.

.Golden Wyandottes as Pictured About 1900.

192

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

PI ROT. -U
SECOND,

AMD
THIRD
PRIZE

I MADISON
I 5QVAR&

CHAPTER XV
WHITE WYANDOTTES

The Whites appear as sports of the original Silver Wyandotte — The
early breeders — How A. C. Hawkins bought up almost all the stock
in the country and started a boom on the variety — Well-known breed-
ers down to the present day — Defects found in the variety — How to
mate White Wyandottes — Washing for the show

White Wyandottes were recognized as a Standard variety in 1888,
but from the earliest history of the Silver Wyandotte, white speci-
mens had occurred in the best flocks. Perhaps these white chicks
traced back to the White Cochin blood that Fred A. Houdlette knew
to exist in his strain of Silver Wyandottes. In some cases, however,
the white sports were not bred pure, for according to I. K. Felch,
, these "nearly white specimens" of the Silver Wyandotte "were
mated to Rose Comb White Leghorns and the progeny offered as
White Wyandottes."

Theo. Hewes has told of the mating of Rose Comb White Dork-
ings on Silver Wyandottes to produce White Wyandottes. The
writer, however, as late as 1904 saw white sports in a well bred
yard of Silver Wyandottes (the yard of Ed Hungerford, Concord,
Michigan), and it is reasonable to believe that the original Wyan-
dotte offered a fertile field for the propagation of the White variety.

Early history. J. H. Drevenstedt, an authority on the Wyan-
dottes, states that some breeders had begun to exploit the white
sports "as early as 1885 as a promising new color type of Wyan-
dotte." The names of three breeders came out prominently in this
connection — Messrs. Fred A. Houdlette, of Massachusetts, and
George W. Towle and B. N. Briggs, of New York state. The white
chicks were at first considered culls by the Silver breeders. They
were the first to go into the pot. But about the time the Silver
Wyandotte was elevated to the rank of a Standardised (1883), the
white chickens were given serious attention. They soon enjoyed a
great boom. Towle and Briggs were principally instrumental in bring-
ing the variety to the favorable attention of the public.

A. C. Hawkins, of Lancaster, Massachusetts, who was a leading
breeder of Barred Plymouth Rocks and Silver Wyandottes, now
became interested in the new White Wyandottes and nearly cornered
the market on them. This phase of the breed's early history is told
in the following article written by Mr. Hawkins for the Reliable
Poultry. Journal of December, 1905:

Thirty-three years ago, in 1872, in the little town of Truxton, New York, the
first White Wyandottes of which there is any record were hatched from Silver

193

194 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Wyandotte eggs. A year earlier George H. Towle, of Trtixton, obtained a trio of
American Sebrights, afterwards named Wyandottes and later Silver Wyandottes.
During the spring of 1872 there appeared among his broods several pure white sports.

Mr. Towle mated these white birds together the 'following season and they bred
true to color with the blocky Sebright type. They had the orange yellow legs and
skin of the American Sebright, also the creamy tinge of plumage, making them an
ideal fowl for the market.

These white fowls were bred in their purity by Mr. Towle and his relatives until
1885, when George A. Preston, of Binghamton, New York, purchased several pens
of them and advertised them largely in the poultry press.

I became interested in their merits, and one pleasant morning in the spring of

Well modeled White Wyandotte cock at head of 2d
prize pen, Boston, Jan., 1920. Bred by Sabrina Farm, Arthur
H. Shaw, prop,, Arthur G. Duston, supt, Massachusetts.

1886 I landed in Binghamton and was taking a quiet look at Mr. Preston's birds
before breakfast. Mr. Preston showed me his books with the many sales of stock
and eggs he was making, and within an hour I owned the entire stock and they
were shipped to Lancaster.

That same night I registered at a hotel at Truxton, New York, and the follow-
ing morning was on the warpath for every White Wyandotte in the town. Before
night every bird was shipped and I was the owner of practically all the White
Wyandottes in the country. With the liberal use of printers' ink there was caused
a great demand for eggs and .stock, and the first boom in the now far-famed White
Wyandottes was on.

The practical merits of this popular fowl soon became known in all parts of

WHITE WYANDOTTES 195

the country, and the demand for breeding stock was greater than the supply for
several years.

When these fowls were admitted to the Standard and they became a study for
the fancier, the snow white plumage took the place of the creamy tinge, until
today only the whitest birds are of any use in the breeding pens o-f the leading
fanciers.

Since I began breeding the White Wyandottes I have made many exhibits at
such shows as Boston and New York, with success, and in the hands of my
patrons in all parts of the world my strain of White Wyandottes has carried off the
honors at many of the bast shows. I have sold many birds at $50 to $200 each,
and a recent sale of seventeen White Wyandottes for $850 to one of my strongest
competitors is convincing proof that the quality of this strain is appreciated.

In far-away Africa, India, Australia and Xew Zealand there is an increasing
demand for White Wyandottes, which gives evidence of their popularity in foreign

White Wyandotte pullet owned by D. D. Sullivan,
Missouri.

lands. The great numbers on exhibition at all the American shows tells better than
words how well they are appreciated by the American fancier.

A. G. Duston as a breeder. The next great breeder following
Hawkins was Arthur G. Duston, of Marlboro and, later, South
Framingham, Massachusetts. Interest in the variety slumped a little
about 1890, due to so many inferior Silver Wyandottes being sold,
and this reaction was reflected to some extent in the White Wyan-
dottes. But the Whites were soon going strong again, and Duston

196 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OE POULTRY

came to the forefront as their greatest champion and leading breeder.

Taking up the White Wyandotte in connection with several other
varieties at a time when he was interested in producing broilers for
the Boston market, Mr. Duston was quick to appreciate the value
of the variety, and in 1894 he began to breed it to the exclusion of
all others.

Mr. Duston never forget the utility of the breed. He persisted
in breeding a clean-cut type of Wyandotte. He had the Standard
changed at the Rochester meeting, years ago, to call for freedom
from long, profuse fluff feathering so that the drumstick of the bird
might show a little.

In judging Wyandotte males, he looked on the shoulders as the
keystone to the arch of the whole bird. He bred birds that carried
their shoulders down, always maintaining, and rightly so, that when
the shoulders of a Wyandotte are up, the breast appears deficient,
the back goes down, and the symmetry of Wyandotte carriage is lost.

As proprietor of Rose Lawn Poultry Earm, Mr. Duston bred stay-
white plumage into his birds, put red eyes throughout his entire
flock, bred off the green spots on shanks. When we visited his farm
in 1912 there was not an off-colored bird on the place.

Arthur Duston is one of the best conditioners of white fowls in
the east, and his exhibits at New York always have been beautiful
examples of the fitter's art. The main attraction of the White Wyan-
dotte class at the December, 1910, New York show was the first
prize cockerel shown by A. G. Duston. He again won first cockerel,
also first pullet, at New York, 1913; and first cockerel, Boston, 1914,
was won by one of his customers on a straight Duston bird.

Other well known breeders. Other prominent breeders in the
east have been C. F. A. Smith, of Waltham, Massachusetts, who took
up the variety in 1886, and won best display at Boston, 1900, and
first cock, first hen, first cockerel and first pullet at New York. 1902;
George Dakin, of Roxbury, Massachusetts, who furnished the birds
to Ross C. H. Hallock which won first cock, first hen, first cockerel
and first pullet at New York, 1905; W. R. Graves, Charles Nixon,
J. W. Andrews, J. H. Jackson, George H. Pollard, A. J. Fell, F. B.
Williams, T. E. Orr, Edgar Briggs, M. F. Delano and A. H. Shaw.

In the west, the more prominent breeders have been J. C. Fishel
and his son, Charles Fishel, Charles V. Keeler, George H. Rudy,
H. J. Riley, Ira C. Keller, Charles E. Cram, W. S. Beebe, H. H. Fike,
F. J. Wehrmeyer, L. J. Demberger, D. D. Sullivan, Fred E. Pile, A. H.
Emch, Otto O. Wild, Dr. W. H. Humiston, A. J. Smith and Ross
C. H. Hallock.

Canada has also contributed her share of great breeders to this
popular variety, and the names of John S. Martin and Sid Saunders
are well known to breeders. Indeed, John Martin has gone further
than any other breeder of White Wyandottes in all America in build-

WHITE WYANDOTTES

197

ing up a great breeding establishment, and his customers are located
in every state of the Union as well as in every province of the Do-
minion. The success of Mr. Martin may be attributed to sound busi-
ness principles applied to poultry selling and the fact that he has
persistently bred a well balanced type of White Wyandotte regard-
less of what extremes might be the fashion of the hour.

The western breeders, too, including Keeler, Demberger, Sullivan
and Fishel have kept their stock conspicuously free from injurious
types. All prominent eastern breeders of today have also given up
the overly short bodied type, and breeders as a whole have so com-
pletely come together on what should constitute a good specimen of
the variety, that there is little opportunity for fads or hobbies to
again enter into our own show rooms.

Modern White Wyandottes. The popularity of the White Wyan-
dotte has been remarkable. At the St. Louis, Louisiana Purchase

Pair of White Wyandottes owned by Chas. V. Keeler, Indiana.

Exposition, 1904, there were 808 White Wyandottes exhibited. This
record has never been equaled by any one variety of any breed. At
the New York and Boston shows of 1905 there were more White
Wyandottes entered than any other variety. It was about this time
that T. E. Orr penned his famous phrase: "A Wyandotte should
emphatically be a bird of curves." The quest for curves then entered
into the breeding operations to an extent that led some breeders to
shorten the backs of their females to the point of sacrificing egg
production. Extremely short birds were found among the winners
at New York about 1911-12. This abnormally short type is now in
the discard and breeders have returned to the true Wyandotte form
as not only the most showy but the infinitely more practical.

198

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

No fowl has been more plas-
tic in the hands of breeders than
the White Wyandotte, and so
much thought has been bestow-
ed upon it by men of great abil-
ity that the Whites have led all
other Wyandotte varieties in
shape. The birds of no breed
are as intelligent as are White
Wyandottes. They are an ideal
fowl for the fancier. As a com-
mercial fowl, they feather ra-
pidly, reach broiler size quickly
and are always in a plump con-
dition. They have made high
records as layers. In short, their
popularity is justified for it is
grounded in merit.

Defects found in White Wy-
andottes and how to mate to
overcome them. It should be
the aim of the breeder to com-
bine pure white plumage and
Standard shape, and competition
is so keen nowadays that he cannot afford to fall far short of the
actual accomplishment.

The start should be made with good birds that have generations
of good breeding behind them. They should not only be of a well
established family of the variety, but the immediate parents of the
birds should be in the hands of a careful breeder who has not toler-
ated the infusion into his flock of the blood of a single mediocre indi-
vidual.

The beginner can then be sure that no green-shanked, or white-
lobed or feathered legged specimens will show in his crop of young
stock. These are all marks of inferior pedigree. Neither will the begin-
ner, if he gets high-class stock which is today "stay-white," have to
struggle with that persistent old fault of brassy necks and backs in his
males.

Of course each variety has its characteristic faults which must be
considered and controlled or the stock will "run out." One of the most
important features to watch is the shape of the head. The head should
be round, broad across the skull and the eye should be clear. A pullet
showing a narrow skull and long head should be immediately condemned
to the pot. To breed such a female will result in a production of cock-
erels long in leg. angular in back, pinched in tail and high in breast. The
round head is a controlling feature in the variety.

A Typical White Wyandotte Male Head.
The head is broad, eye intelligent, beak
nicely curved, comb fits the head, wattles
well! rounded, ear lobes of proper shape
and soft texture. The head of the Wyan-
dotte is a study in itself. It is the most
intelligent head possessed by any breed of
chickens.

WHITE WYANDOTTES

199

To produce typical males, large females, good in head, well feathered
in back and with well spread tails should be used. A Wyandotte male
of excellent type but a little small, which is a combination frequently
found, will prove to be an excellent mate for such hens.

Never breed a hen that has a brassy hackle. Never breed a long-
legged bird. If your flock is producing birds with green eyes, introduce
a red-eyed male at once. Do not breed a bird that carries considerable
black flecking or ticking throughout its plumage. Black ticking is not
as common as formerly but it still shows to a limited extent in the
whitest birds. But, do not encourage it by breeding a bird that carries
a conspicuous amount. Neither should a bird be bred that carries a partly
black feather in wing or tail.

The whitest males are those that as young cockerels grow a plumage
that is distinguished by pink colored quills. If yellow corn is fed in
quantities to young White Wyandottes it will have a tendency to make
their plumage creamy colored. After the feather is grown, however,
yellow corn will not affect its color.

An occasional single comb sport appears in flocks of White Wyan-
dottes. Such a bird should be culled. A smooth fitting, nicely pebbled
rose comb is highly desirable. Do not breed the comb too smooth or too
small or the stock will lose vigor, lay fewer eggs, and give lower fertility.
However, a large, loose fitting, heavily pointed rose comb is unsightly
and unnecessary. Of all things, never breed a White Wyandotte the
second time that gives poor fertility.

Washing for the show. White Wyandottes must be washed for
the poultry show, and the pro-
cedure is well worth carrying
out. Competition in these days
is so keen, that only well groom-
ed birds are considered for high
honors by the judges.

Three tubs of water are ne-
cessary for the process. Fill one
tub with water rather warm to
the touch. Fill a tub with
warm water. Fill a tub with
water that has had the chill
taken off.

Hold the bird firmly about the
shanks with one hand, and put
the other hand over his wings.
Immerse him in tub No. 1.
Take him out, lay him on a
table, holding shanks firmly,

and soap him with Lux. Im- _,

. K Typical White Wyandotte cock owned

merse m tub No. 1. Now lay on by Sabrina Farm, Massachusetts-

200 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

board and soap again. If using Ivory soap, take soft brush and rub
across bar of soap, then rub soaped brush the way of plumage.

Dip brush in water and use as much soap and water as necessary.
Work soapy water clear to skin. Brush with lay of feathers. Brush from
head to short feathers around hock over back, and turning bircf over,
soap and brush breast. Open wings and brush out wing feathers.

Immerse in tub No. 1 and soak out soap. Lift bird to tub No. 2,
immerse and rinse. Open wings in water ; open tail with hand, in water.
Get out all soap. Lift to tub No. 3. Rinse again in the clean water of
this tub, working and rinsing feathers in every section, so that when
bird drys, feathers will be snowy white, and not sticky with soap.

Lift from tub No. 3 and set bird on table. Press out water from
neck, back, breast and legs. Dry wings and tail with towel, being careful
to open out tail and not press it together and warping its natural shape
while feathers are wet. Put bird in coop on broad roost in temperature
of 90 degrees.

The chalky condition of the plumage of your birds may be due to the
character of the feather your birds carry. A great many White Wyan-
dottes carry feathers that are rough and soft.

A White Wyandotte to wash well must carry a hard surface feather.
Some strains of birds have not a hard surface feather on them. It may be
that your stock is from some breeder who has not developed the proper
character of feather.

If you will wash the birds with Lux and soft water and then put them
ou'.side to dry, the plumage should fluff out and prove to be hard and
smooth. If it does not, the character of the feather is probably at fault.

In the winter it is of course necessary to dry indoors in a tem-
perature of 90 degrees or a little more. For fall shows, the birds may
be dried outdoors in the open air and sunshine.

We would suggest that you try washing a bird or two in August,
putting it outdoors in a wire coop or cage to dry.

In order to get the legs nice and clean we would scrub them with
soap and water and then with lard and gasoline, then with more soap
and water, and then take a toothpick and pick the dirt out from under the
scales, finishing by putting on a little oil and rubbing with a woolen rag.
In scrubbing shanks with soap and water, lard and gasoline, use a
brush. Use same treatment for face, comb and wattles, except that
you should employ a cloth instead of a brush for these skin areas.

The shanks will be real yellow if the birds are on grass range and
fed a fair amount of yellow corn. The shanks are lighter if the birds are
grown in confinement on barren runs. However, a rich yellow shank
is not as important as formerly.

CHAPTER XVI
BUFF WYANDOTTES

Wonderful improvement made in this variety since the early days —
The originators — Breeding buff color — The Standard color — Points to

consider today

No variety of the Wyandotte breed has shown more progressive
development than the Buff. The early birds carried black wings and
tails; frequently they were striped with black in the hackle; the under
color was usually defective, and the surface color of the males was
reddish buff, while that of the females was laid on in patches of buff
of different hues. It became necessary for a time for breeders to lose
sight of shape and specialize in their effort to produce buff color.

The early Buff Wyandottes were a composite variety. They had been
made by various crosses by different breeders. The first work was started
about 1885 when the boom of the original Wyandotte was at its height.
The new variety was admitted to the Standard in 1893, and by 1900 had
attracted to its ranks some of the greatest breeders in America. About
this time shape began to be given more thoughtful attention, good shaped
birds began to appear, and Buff Wyandotte breeders were of accord in
exclaiming that without Wyandotte shape, the birds were without the
Wyandotte class.

The originators. W. R. Wooden, Battle Creek, Michigan, who
took up the breeding of Buff Wyandottes in the nineties, made a thorough
examination of the evidence bearing on the origin of the variety, and in
the first year-book of the American Buff Wyandotte Club, 1901, presented
the following history :

The writer undertook the preparation of this article with a degree of confidence
that must have been born of the mother of presumption. What seemed at its com-
mencement a light and easy task has become a burden beyond the time, patience
and persistence of the ordinary man of business. Owing to the fact that breed-
ers are prone to make no record of new and experimental matings, much that would
throw light upon this subject is buried in vague remembrance. No one individual
can consistently claim credit of producing or originating the Buff Wyandotte. That
honor is to be divided among several breeders who were simultaneously working to
accomplish a certain end, though in most instances through different channels. The
first effort of which the writer has been able to obtain an accurate date was made
by W. N. Nicholoy, of Newark, New York. In 1885 he mated Buff Cochins and
Golden Wyandottes to produce a Buff Wyandotte, and followeil up with a series
of matings and crosses that produce one of the noted strains of the present day.
In 1894 Mr. Nicholoy exhibited Buff Wyandottes at Madison Square Garden show
and won first breeding pen and the society bronze medal for the best exhibit of the
variety, besides first, second and third on single birds.

About the time that Mr. Nicholoy began his efforts to produce the new variety,
and certainly not later than 1886, George H. Brackenbury, of Auburn, New York,
started a series of matings and crossings that soon produced most excellent results.

201

202 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

By crossing White Wyandottes with Golden Wyandottes he produced what he desig-
nated as cream Buffs, with white tails and wings. These were bred back to Buff
Cochins, and the product of the latter cross was bred to the product of a Buff Cochin-
Golden Wyandotte cross. Thus Mr. Brackenbury produced his best Buffs, and with
a liberal percentage of clean shanks. The Golden Wyandotte seems to have been
liberally used by him to eliminate feathered shanks. As early as 1888 Mr. Bracken-
bury had succeeded in producing birds of surprisingly fine color and good Wyandotte
shape. His efforts continued from 1888, largely in conjunction with work along the
same line by Clarence J. Reddig, of Pennsylvania, until 1894 or 1895, when he sold
his flock.

During the eighties the following gentlemen each produced Buff Wyandottes by
crossing Golden Wyandottes with Buff Cochins: Messrs. J. H. Drevenstedt, J. O.
Joslin and Clarence J. Reddig. Charles P. Pond is reported to have produced a
strain by crossing Golden Wyandottes to White Wyandottes and then back upon
the Goldens.

While the efforts above recorded were being made, R. G. Bufnngton, of Fall
River, Massachusetts, was working along a different line to produce the same results.
Having sold Silver Wyandottes to farmers in his vicinity, to be crossed for com-
mercial purposes with Rhode Island Reds (a mongrel mixture with probably Asiatic
and Mediterranean bloods), he was surprised to find among them fairly good Rose
Comb specimens. The males were red, although fair colored females were found.
All had black in hackles and black tails. This stock was bought and in 1892 or
1893 exhibited in New York and sold at long prices.

Messrs. Brackenbury and Nicholoy had kept silent regarding their effort, intend-
ing to further perfect the variety before placing it upon the market. The mongrels
from New England farms had, however, stolen a march upon them, and for a time
bore the credit of being the first Biuff Wyandottes.

Breeders were quick to discover the advantages of commingling this Fall River
strain with those produced through the help of the Buff Cochin, and the flocks of
today are undoubtedly the result of that combination.

The different breeders of this variety have from time to time corrected defects
or improved their flocks by the introduction of blood from others, until there is a
similarity between them that partakes of a strong family resemblance. The rapid
stride into popularity by the Buff Wyandotte exceeds that of any other fowl before
the American people. It was soon learned that it had all the advantages of other
varieties and many fine characteristics peculiar to itself. The low rose comb, with
full breasted, blocky shape, characteristic of the Wyandotte family, has become
permanently fixed in the variety, and in addition to other qualities, has inherited
the winter laying features of its Cochin ancestry.

In color it has had one great advantage over the balance of the family, in being
strictly within the pale of fashion. Buff is one of the most popular colors, either in
poultry yard or show room, and has been so for a long time and bids fair to con-
tinue for years to come.

During the show season of 1900 and 1901 the Buff Wyandotte class was one
of the largest at all the great shows. At Philadelphia, Boston, New York and Chicago
the class was one of the prominent features of the shows. In each instance exceed-
ingly fine specimens were exhibited. Fanciers marvel at the perfection in both shape
and color attained in so short a time.

This popularity, so strong and well established, must have something stronger
than whim or notion for its foundation, and can be accounted for only by merit,
and, based upon merit, this popularity must become permanent. This variety does
not contain all the good in fowldom, but so much of the good can be found in it
that for years to come one of the first upon the list of grand varieties will be the
Buff Wyandotte.

Breeding buff color. Master artists in breeding, blended the red
and white and black of the early buffs into the rich, golden, soft-toned
buff of today. The names that will always remain indelibly linked with
the history of the variety are those of C. S. Mattison, Mr. Dutcher,

BUFF WYANDOTTES 203

Andrew Riddell, L. C. Piser, and Warren T. Lord. They drew an imagi-
nary line between light buff and reddish-buff, and then they bred across
this line, selecting specimens not far removed from it on either side.
They eliminated the dark and light specimens as wasters ; and the breeder
of today will find that the beautiful buff will disappear unless he also
breeds for buff and selects out for disposal every bird that shows a
turning out of line. Let a dark bird be bred and the flock will soon run
to black and red. With the same neglect a flock can run to white.

On this question of mating, E. R. Durand of Toronto, Canada, con-
tributed a valuable article to the Canadian Poultry Journal, which is as
follows :

To put an even shade of golden buff, the most attractive of all colors, on a
true Wyandotte body, the most graceful of all types, is an effort that will always
stimulate the sporting instinct of the fancier.

It would be a pleasure for the writer to describe step by step the gradual
development of the Buff Wyandotte ifrom the "good old days" until now ; from
the years when every shape and color was offered for the judge's decision, until
today when the best exhibitions demonstrate that the Buff Wyandotte is being bred
closer to the splendid type of the White variety than any other kind of Wyandotte.
But suffice it to say that the leading breeders have striven for type and are getting
it, after years of study, so that today one can, by judicious selection of his founda-
tion, produce beautiful typy stock from the beginning. To sum up the type of our
male, let us ask this question: "If he were white, would he look like a good Wyan-
dotte?" If the answer is "yes," he will do for the breeding pen, always remember-
ing that females, no matter how good, cannot correct the influence of a tight, short-
featured or gawky male. The cockerels from such a mating will be useless and the
pullets not so good as the hens from which they came.

But our male is not to be white. He is buff, and many wiseacres will ask pro-
foundly, "What is buff?"

Buff is the most fascinating, the most attractive and elusive color on the plumage
of domestic fowls. It is clean at all stages of growth. A flock of buffs will cause
the casual passerby to stop and look, where he would have gone his way without
a second glance at many flocks whose color demands a knowledge of Standard points
to be appreciated.

Some dictionaries describe buff as a light yellow. One calls it buff — the color
of buffalo, and gives as an example English oak-tanned leather. Thus we may
arrive at the basic shade, which the Standard amplifies by describing it as rich
and golden. There are many shades of gold, but the world standard for gold is
still, glory be, the English guinea. So here we have our buff with a golden hue
and rich, meaning that there is plenty of gold in it. There iv.ay be several degrees
of buff color, and the exact shade is o'f less importance than evenness, which should
be the ideal. Once attained, it is no longer illusive, for it can be fixed on the flock
by means of our line of sires.

Breed from buff that has life in it.

When a male's top color is so he has sheen. We must not stop there,
however, but match him in every section. His neck and back should show no
joining line of different shades, nor should his breast show any contrast with the
hackle except for the metallic sheen on the latter. In fact, tail, wings (folded or
open), body and fluff — all of him should be of the same even basic shade.

In under-color otir male will show his strength to transmit his color to his
offspring. The richer it is, the better. It will be weakest under the hackle, at base
of neck, base of tail, and base of breast. If it is good in all these sections he will
be "a find."

Now note his quills. If they are of a lighter shade than the web of the feather
it is called "shafting" where it shows on the surface. We will never entirely elimi-
nate shafting in our females until we produce males without it, especially in breast

204

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

and body, for it is this part of his plumage that corresponds to the female coloring.
If he is not shafted in breast, he will seldom if ever be shafted elsewhere.

Test the male's strength of surface by searching for mealiness in the wing
fronts and wing coverts. Mealiness consists of what appears to be a fine powdering
of white over the buff. At a distance it may look like very even buff. It is one
of the most difficult defects to throw off, and needs a strength of rich color in the
male to override it, and even then it will take years.

White anywhere should not be tolerated. Space is too valuable to go into the

Sensational Buff Wyandotte cock shown at Chicago, Dec., 1919,
by Ralph ^turdevant, Illinois. His grandsire won 1st as a cockerel
at Boston.

scientific details of this, but white is a weakness in the color pigment which you
are trying to fix, and will ruin any flock. Mealiness is the beginning of a tendency
toward white. This should suffice. Black is an entirely different matter. It is a
Standard defect, but it i& a sign usually of strength of color, and Orpington breeders
who have tolerated it in years past when Wyandotte breeders were howling against
it, have attained wonderful color in their birds. We do not like to see it in the
wings, but a little black in the tail is a small defect, and it is always safe to have

BUFF WYANDOTTES 205

a few such birds as a reservoir of strength. The wear and tear of breeding tends
to make buff come lighter each year, unless means are at hand to hold the shade
desired. Breeding year after year from buff without the black to hold it will finally
cause the color to fade to lemon, and the white in wings and main tail will at last
begin to show.

Females should always be of good general type and shape, with size and bone.
Alert, well curved pullets, with plenty of room in them for egg organs, should be
the aim. They are the layers. Some of our best show females are also our best
layers.

We want broad backs, flat at the shoulders ; and we also want well spread
Wyandotte tails.

A good head on a female means a good body, and the general remarks about
color apply to her as well. The male will correct color that is slightly uneven,
especially if due to improper molting. Hens .free from mealiness or white in any
part of the plumage will be corrected by the male if of the same approximate shade.
Try to have them as smooth as possible in this respect, however. Do not use
females of an entirely different shade to the male. If they are the same color, or
slightly darker, they will be better than if too light. On the other hand, they may
be light owing to age, and this should be considered when mating. Good judgment
and knowledge of what has gone before must always be used. Hens with dark necks
and light bodies will not be bettered if the neck is stronger than the color of the
male. Books could be written on color and color breeding, and most know more
about what not to do than what to do.

The Standard color. A splendid description of buff was written
for the Standard of 1898. Breeders and judges appreciated at that time
the need of reducing to definite terms exacty what was wanted, and the
Standard description as then written has been abridged but never modified.
The 1898 description was as follows :

Surface color throughout one even shade of rich golden buff, free .from shafting
or mealy appearance; the head, neck, hackle, back, wing bows and saddle richly
glossed with metallic luster. Under-color, a lighter shade, as free as possible from
all foreign color. Other things being equal, the specimen showing the richest under-
color shall receive the preference. Black or white showing in wings or tail shall
be considered alike objectionable. Specimens showing different shades of buff in
neck, back, wings or breast, or in two or more of these sections on either male or
female, shall be considered a serious defect. One harmonious blending of buff in all
sections is most desirable.

Better color in females needed. Good Buff Wyandotte males pre-
sent a beautiful sheet of buff color, but good females are rarely seen
any more. The best buff females of the golden days of 1910-11 had
edging on each feather. It added brilliancy to the plumage. The
laced birds were free from shafting, and not darker but brighter in
color as a result of the brilliant edging.

The breeders of Reds had some of this lacing. The majority of
the buff and red breeders wanted to get away from it. Lester Tomp-
kins said at the time that he would rather have lacing than some
other things. He didn't think it was much of a defect. The buff
men, however, particularly the Buff Wyandotte breeders, have suc-
ceeded in eliminating the brilliant edging. We would like to see
some of the rich golden buffs back to take the place of some of the
hens and pullets that are being shown today. These hens particu-
larly are patchy and mealy.

In order to produce level colored females, more attention should

206 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

be given to the breast color of the male. It should be free from
light colored quills, called shafting; it should be free from whitish
lacing; and it should be as nearly as possible of the shade of color
desired in the females. Moreover, ancestry is of fundamental impor-
tance, and a male to be a good breeder of females should not merely
be a good individual himself, but his dam should have been a smooth,
level colored hen.

The breeders of Buff Orpingtons are today producing a wonder-
ful coat of buff plumage on both sexes, and a few points on how
these breeders are handling the color should be of value to Buff
Wyandotte men.

William Hobbs, of Buff Orpington fame, mates a Standard col-
ored male to Standard colored females to produce good pullets in
Buff Orpingtons. He can use a male a tone rich in color, mated to
females with medium light hackles, to produce good colored males.
Of course, the tones of color indicated above present comparatively
slight differences. "Light" and "rich" to a breeder accustomed to
lots of quality do not mean lemon and red. When extremes are
mated together the produce shows patchiness and unevenness.

M. F. Delano can mate rather strong colored females to Standard
males and produce good cockerels in Buff Orpingtons. On the breed-
ing of pullets, the following illustration will be of interest. Mr.
Delano imported a light buff cockerel that won first at New York,
1906. His white did not show at New York, but he was such a soft
shade of color that he quickly got white, and it almost showed on
the surface of his hackle. He, however, was the sire of the first prize
pullets at New York, Cleveland and Chicago the next year. The
club show was at Cleveland and there was tremendous competition.
The bird sired a number of beautiful pullets.

It is the Buff Wyandotte females that require the extra study.
These hens with good hackles, even though patchy in back color,
will produce good males; but better females can be produced only
from males with brighter, higher toned breast color, even though
they fail in some other sections. If this fact is grasped, we can look
for Buff Wyandotte females the rival of any other buff colored fowls
in the whole category of breeds. An ambitious breeder can start
now to produce what is wanted, outdistance old competitors, and make
a name for himself. Get the breast of your male right, have his
ancestry on the female side right, and then overlook some minor
points in his own individuality, Such a male will breed good pullets.

CHAPTER XVII
BLACK WYANDOTTES

Black Wyandottes first came as true sports of the original Silver

variety — Early history — Mating Black Wyandottes — The difficulty of

getting red eyes, yellow shanks and beaks, and sound black color

Black Wyandottes were recognized as a Standard variety in 1893. In
explaining the degree of popular favor that the variety subsequently
enjoyed, it has been pointed out that the eight years which followed the
admission of the Silver Wyandottes, before the Blacks were admitted
to the Standard, "proved an effectual time handicap and the popular
White, Golden and Silver varieties, with the dozen and one other at-home-
and-abroad distractions had completely absorbed the attention of breeders."
The fact is, however, that the status of the Black Wyandotte has been
due to other factors.

Shank and eye color and its influence on the breed's popularity.
American judges, from the beginning, were insistent on demanding black
under color in this variety, and sound black under color and yellow
shanks in the same individual are produced with great difficulty. The
first Standard description, therefore, allowed dark colored shanks, a char-
acteristic that is not typically Wyandotte.

In England, \vhere surface color is of major importance and under
color of such minor importance that notable male winners may have
cotton colored under plumage in their hackles, the breed characteristic of
yellow shanks was quite within the range of practicability, and the Black
Wyandotte was typically a Wyandotte, distinct at first glance from the
black-shanked Orpington. Black Wyandottes in England, therefore, went
forward, until they became second in popularity to the Whites. Indeed,
at the Crystal Palace, London, show of 1908, there were 140 Black
Wyandottes exhibited, which was a larger total than made by the
birds of any other Wyandotte variety. The English were breeding a
rich yellow shank, a yellow beak and a red eye, and were laying
stress on a bright, lustrous, greenish-black surface color.

The English Black Orpington with its black shank and black eye was
now making great headway in America. It was possible to breed these
birds pure black in plumage and sound black in under color and they met
American ideals. Thus the road was paved for the dark-eyed and dark-
shanked Black Wyandottes, and birds of this character enjoyed a
run of popularity, splendid classes being seen at the Boston and
New York shows. In 1912 there were 55 Black Wyandottes exhibited
in competition at the Palace show. New York.

The committee that had the revision of the 1915 Standard in hand,
was influenced to change the Standard to call for yellow shanks and

207

208

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

reddish-bay eyes. They argued that all Wyandottes should have the
same breed characteristics, and they pointed to the popularity of the
variety in England to justify their action. The change was made. The
International Black Wyandotte club of America protested. They said
that they could not change their birds in one year or even two genera-
tions, and they asked for five years in which to make the change from
nearly black eyes to red eyes, and from black shanks with bottoms of
feet yellow to yellow or dusky yellow shanks. No such time allowance
was granted and the breeders of the fowl gave up and passed out.

To make "confusion worse confounded" the 1915 Standard called for
yellow shanks, and by an oversight there was left in the text the old
disqualification of "shanks other than black shading into yellow or dusky
yellow." There were no yellow shanked birds shown to disqualify, how-
ever, for breeders gave up in discouragement.

Early history. It was the attempt of the early breeders to produce
yellow shanks that retarded the progress of Black Wyandottes in the
beginning. After much effort and considerable loss of time, it was found
to be impractical to attempt the production of sound black under color

and the same yellow shanks
and beaks carried by the other
varieties of Wyandottes. The
breed, therefore, first went in
the Standard with dark shanks.
Wyandottes that were essen-
tially black be.-jan to appear as
early as the White Wyandottes.
They came from the original
Silver stock. Black chicks ap-
peared in the yards of F. J.
Marshall and F. M. Clemens, of
Ohio, in 1885, Mr. Marshall hav-
ing a black pullet and a cockerel
that was black in all save wing-
primaries, and Mr. Clemens
having two black pullets and a
cockerel that was black in all
save neck hackle. Both breed-
ers took advantage of these
birds and bred them in 1886.

Marshall in 1886 again bred
the mother of his black sports
and produced five more black
pullets. He never had another
mating of Silver Wyandottes to)

produce black chicks. But with
iand (Ohio) Poultry Show, January, 1911. . c Q<

Bred by Howard Grant, of Michigan. the stock produced in 1885-86,

BLACK WYANDOTTES 209

and from the same mating again in 1887 was enabled to breed his
blacks for several years without the introduction of new blood; then
learning that F. M. Clemens of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, was working along
the same lines, exchanged birds with Clemens, and continued to breed
and improve his Black Wyandottes for seven years.

Clemens, however, complained of "a dearth of new blood to keep up
stamina," and in 1890 took advantage of a few black pullets of superior
size and stamina that had been produced in the yard of a friend who was
breeding Barred Plymouth Rocks and to whom Clemens had furnished
a Black Wyandotte male for cross breeding. The cross had produced
barred ccokerels and black pullets, and the rose comb had proved its
dominance. When these big rose combed, black pullets were mated to a
pure black Wyandotte male; the progeny were 75 percent Black Wyan-
dotte and none showed the factor for barring in its plumage. Mr.
Clemens did much to promote the interests of the variety and for a
quarter of a century continued to take a keen interest in poultry affairs.
In 1910 he sold his entire stock of Black Wyandottes to the late Frank
C. Sites of North Dover, Ohio.

The future. The Black Wyandotte is a fowl of excellent utility.
In 1904, T. E. Orr shipped to us in Ohio a setting of 13 Black Wyandotte
eggs from his farm at Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, and we hatched 13
chicks. Under the date of June 11, 1904, Mr. Orr wrote us: "We have a
Black Wyandotte pullet laying before she is four months old — how is
that?"

With so good a fowl, the future rests with the breeder. He can today
breed Black Wyandottes with yellow shanks and red eyes and "get away
with it." The reason is that judges and buyers are today riding the
hobby of under color less than ever before. It used to be that before a
judge or buyer passed judgment on a specimen, he wanted to know what
it was "like underneath." Today he is looking at the bird as a whole and
accepting what he sees as the part that nature has contributed to the
sunlight; and the way she builds up that surface is more appropriate
for study than for criticism.

Mating. If only one yard of females are employed, two males
should be used, alternating them every third day. The females should be
sound colored with as red eyes and yellow legs as you can get. One of
the males used should have bright yellow legs, and naturally he will fail
in having white at the base of his hackle and perhaps in the under plumage
over his hips. This bird is selected primarily for his strength of yellow
pigment. He will produce fine pullets. The other male should be selected
for strength of black in his plumage, and naturally his shanks will run
a little dark in color. He will produce fine cockerels.

The disadvantage of this sort of mating is that you cannot know for
sure the sire of each chicken, and therefore it is not possible to develop
a satisfactory basis for line breeding. It is therefore a practical mating
rather than a theoretical system of mating. Of course, it is advisable,

210 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

when possible, to divide the females into two pens and head each of the
pens with a male, one having as orange-colored legs as you can procure
and the other male having as sound black color as is consistent with a
yellow leg. Use the brightest shanked females with the first male and
the slaty shanked ones with the second male. Mating No. 1 will breed
the best pullets, and Mating No. 2, the best cockerels.
As we wrote for the Wyandotte Breed Standard:

It is the old question of under color versus surface color. The evidence is
invariably and definitely favorable to the possibility of combining pure yellow shanks
with a black surface color; it is when the black is carried down to the skin that the
shanks are dark. Let the breeder, therefore, remember and be encouraged by the
fact that Black Wyandottes in American shows may now have slate under-color.
"Slate" is defined by the lexicographer of this text as "synonymous with gray," and
gray is a color between white and black. And, lastly, the breeder, instead -of
taking -up old prejudices of the fancy, should consider the wild birds, those marvels
of the alchemy of Nature, whose surface plumage is painted with the brush of a
Master Hand, and whose under-color comes as it will, always serving in subordina-
tion or to help forward and promote the perfection of the surface color. In the
theory of natural selection, color of the under-plumage has no place, for it can exert
no direct influence on the instinct and. preference of the species, and therefore nature
is able to concentrate her fforts in the production of a beautiful and harmonious
surface color. The surface is the beautiful part of a bird, anyway.

CHAPTER XVIII
PARTRIDGE WYANDOTTES

A handsome variety of pronounced utility value — The early work of the
originators — The name "Partridge" adopted after a long controversy —
The great improvers of the variety — Fad for dark birds — Orange colored
hirds wanted in England — The bright red males at last win out — correct
color for both male and female — Double mating — Possibilities of single

mating.

A good Partridge Wyandotte male is one of the most handsome
fowls in the whole array of breeds. Its comb, wattles and ear lobes
are neat fitting and red in color. Its breast, body and tail are lus-
trous, greenish black. Its neck and back are of a bright red, and
through the center of each neck and back feather there runs a bright
black stripe, making the entire sheet of top plumage over the breast
and back of gorgeous color. In the female the plumage is rich
reddish brown, and in each feather there are two or more distinct
pencilings of black. On the wing bows the feathers are small and
there are two and occasionally three bands of black; on the back the
feathers are large and there are three and sometimes four bands of
black. In a good female, particularly a hen — for pullets often im-
prove in plumage markings as hens — the penciling is distinct and
the sharp lines of black are laid on as if painted by a magic hand in
the alchemy of nature.

Every great breeder has the color scheme of his variety simplified
in his mind. He mates with success because the whole subject is
reduced to simple terms. The young breeder should likewise learn
to understand how the beautiful color contrasts are secured, and not
look at the bird as an intricate whole, the details of which are difficult
to master. Let us build up a Partridge Wyandotte in our imagina-
tion. We shall have to proceed as an artist would build up a bird
on canvas. First we must have the outline of a Wyandotte male.
Now we paint in a bright red neck and a red back; we then paint
in a black breast, body and tail; and at last we take a finer brush,
mix the black paint thick so that it will not run. and with infinite
pains we put a black stripe through the center of each neck and
back feather, stopping before the tip end of the feather is reached.
Again, in the female we draw an outline of a fine Wyandotte; then
we color it all over with rich reddish brown, and then carefully draw
the crescentic lines of black penciling in each feather.

It is not difficult to secure good shape in this Wyandotte. No
variety of Wyandotte produces cockerels truer to type, and none
produces cockerels whose tails are more abundantly covered with

211

212 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

lesser sickles and coverts. This wealth of tail plumage, each feather
bright greenish-black, is a glorious feature of the Partridge.

Bringing out the variety. The Partridge Wyandotte is not the
product of a novice. It is the worthy development of master breed-
ers. Today the making of new varieties is largely in the hands of
beginners who are incompetent to breed and who therefore experi-
ment, while the great breeders are improvers of the existing breeds
and varieties; but when this writer was a boy, a large number of the
truly great breeders were devoting themselves to the making of
varieties. The Partridge Wyandotte came from the hands of such men.
Pride, sentiment and idealism entered into their work.

They did not do their work because they thought that large profits
would accrue to them as payment for their labors. It was a labor
of love, and the reward has been one of joy in having brought forth
something new, something better, something more beautiful.

These old breeders were more interested in writing Standards
of Perfection than they were in selling chickens, more interested in
defining their ideals and reaching out for these ideals than in making
money. As early as 1896, two of the originators of Partridge Wyan-
dottes — Joseph McKeen, of Omro, Wisconsin, and E. O. Thiem, of
Vail, Iowa — prepared a standard for the variety, and it was published
as a leading feature in the April, 1896, issue of American Poultry
Journal. It was, however, stated in this article that neither of them
offered stock or eggs for sale that spring.

What was one of their Partridge Wyandotte cockerels worth?
What was eight pounds of bone, muscle and feathers worth? Ah,
the bird you inquire about represents more than what you see in
him. While an artist could now at his leisure make a photograph
of the bird, the time was when a camera with the fastest shutter could
not have recorded it, could not have caught a glimpse of it, for only
the breeder-artist saw the vision of its ideal form and finished coat
of plumage. The breeder who produced that specimen has waited
with patience for the seasons to come, and from year to year has
carried the germ of life through the stage of embryonic development,
through the period of actual growth, and then the cycle has turned
on to the season of reproduction and his ambition has been kindled
anew, and he has mated with thought and judgment and tried again.
There have been matings that have failed, parasites that have threat-
ened to arrest the growth of young stock; the elements of heat and
rain through which the chicks have been successfully carried, and
in winter the boots have sometimes seemed heavy and the snow
seemed extra deep. N

If you were to buy this bird, the product of this breeder's labor —
this finished, living, breathing picture that stands within his yards
— the price that you could pay would be in terms of dollars. The
price the breeder paid was in terms of life. He cannot surrender

PARTRIDGE WYANDOTTES

213

a product so costly until he is privileged to use the specimen in
the line of life that he is building; until his line of breeding is so
well developed that a single bird is only an expression of the tend-
encies in that line and the line itself can go on and on producing
individuals of equal symmetry of form and perfection of feather.

While the originators could offer no stock for sale in the spring
of 1896, surplus birds began to leave their yards later on, and these
birds were so well bred, the foundation had been so well laid, that
the sales-stock reproduced itself in fine order, and by 1901 the variety
was so well distributed and the birds produced were so true to type
and color that the Partridge Wyandotte was accorded recognition
as a Standardbred.

The originators. Partridge \Vyandottes were developed simulta-
neously in the east and in the west. Discussion on the priority of
origin has resulted in giving precedence to neither the eastern nor
the western strain. The "facts" and "dates" on origin as recorded
in some treatises on the variety are errors, and after a survey of all
current material on the subject, we have found it necessary to go
back to original sources
and write anew the early
history of the origin of
this variety.

George H. Bracken-
bury of New York state
conceived the idea of a
penciled Wyandotte, and
in 1889 made his first
crosses with the idea of
producing such a fowl.
The first mating was a
Golden Laced Wyandotte
male to a Partridge Co-
chin female. This mating
produced a few pullets
with double lacings. One
of these double - laced
pullets was mated back
to her Golden Wyan-
dotte sire in 1890. In
the year 1891 Golden
Penciled Hamburg blood
was introduced, also ad-
ditional Partridge Cochin
V,1r,r>M "R,,,- , rv c First prize Partridge Wyandotte cock, Michigan

Od. tfyron L>. barr, State Fair) 1920. Hatched May 4, 1919; great-
a Cochin breeder, also grandson of "Sunbrier" and carries 87^2% of the
V^,-1 c* t u blood of Sunbrier. Bred by T. W. Schoen, Sunbrier

York Mate, be- Farms, Michigan. Photo taken when a cockerel.

214 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

came interested and worked with Mr. Brackenbury for several years.

In 1894, Ezra Cornell, of Ithaca, New York, became interested in
the new Partridge Wyandotte, and in 1895 purchased Mr. Sarr's
birds and began to breed in co-operation with Mr. Brackenbury.
Mr. Cornell had heard of Mr. Brackenbury in a roundabout way. In
1893 Brackenbury had sent some buff feathers laced with blue to
Franklane L. Sewell, the poultry artist. Mr. Sewell carried these
feathers with him to the New York show and there showed them
to Mr. Cornell, who was then breeding Buff Leghorns; and Mr.
Cornell became so interested in the buff feathers laced with blue
that at the close of the show he made a trip especially to see Mr.
Brackenbury's buff-laced Wyandottes, or Auburnettes. The birds
themselves, however, proved unattractive, but the sight of the new
penciled Wyandottes on which Mr. Brackenbury was working repaid
Mr. Cornell for the journey.

Joseph McKeen was the originator of the Golden Wyandotte, and
he was familiar with both the Golden Wyandotte and the Partridge
Cochin. He and E. O. Thiem experimented with a Golden Wyandotte-
Partridge Cochin cross in 1885 for the purpose of improving the
Golden Laced Wyandotte. It was not until 1889 that McKeen and
Thiem made their first matings with a definite view of producing in
a Wyandotte the penciling of a Partridge Cochin.

Thiem mated a Winnebago hen, which he had secured from Mr.
McKeen, and a Cornish Indian game hen and a Golden Wyandotte hen
to a Partridge Cochin cock. He also mated Partridge Cochin hens to a
Golden Wyandotte male. McKeen made two matings of Partridge
Cochin hens, using a Winnebago male to head one pen and a Golden
Wyandotte male to head the other. These two breeders then ex-
changed birds and were associated together in the production of the
variety.

Ezra Cornell always gave the greatest credit to Brackenbury, say-
ing that he believed that Thiem took the cue from Brackenbury, and
added that Thiem had secured a little of Brackenbury's surplus stock,
some of which he turned over to McKeen. Cornell then summed
up his argument by saying: "One thing certain is that there has not
been a strain of Golden Penciled Wyandottes started in America that
has not gpne to George H. Brackenbury for help, whereas there is
not a drop of blood from any other strain in the Brackenbury or, as
it is known, the Cornell-Brackenbury strain."

Purity, however, is not in itself a guarantee of excellence, and
the western strain of McKeen and Thiem had the advantage of
better shape and richer coloring on the males, and the birds, due to
the Cornish cross that Thiem had made, were solid, compact and
well fleshed. The Brackenbury birds were looser feathered and more
accurately penciled in the females, but rather inclined to a pre-
ponderance of red in the males.

PARTRIDGE WYANDOTTES 215

The name selected. The rivalry between the two groups of east-
ern and western breeders was accentuated by the fact that Bracken-
bury and Cornell very much preferred that the variety should be
known as the Golden Penciled Wyandottes, on the ground that the
birds did not have the true partridge markings of our wild birds,
but had penciled feathers. The breeders of the west were insistent
on the name of Partridge Wyandottes, they preferring not to dis-
associate the penciled feather from the word Partridge, which had so
long been applied to that variety of Cochin in which the feathers
were of this same color and pattern. The preference of the western
breeders prevailed in the meeting of the American Poultry Associa-
tion at Chicago in 1901, and the new variety was admitted to the
Standard as the Partridge Wyandotte. Nevertheless, Ezra Cornell
and other eastern breeders continued to advertise and exhibit their
fowls as Golden Penciled Wyandottes. The publication of a new
edition of the Standard in 1902, in which the new variety was classified
as the Partridge, effectively killed the last hopes of the eastern origi-
nators. The formation of a Partridge Wyandotte Club in 1900 was
now bringing all breeders together and there sprung up a community
of interest that has ever since welded them in a fine fraternal spirit.

The first Partridge Wyandottes were shown at the Kansas City
(Missouri) show in 1894 by E. O. Thiem. He wrote that in 1893 his
efforts and those of McKeen were crowned with success. This was
about the time that the Brackenbury stock was used by the western
breeders. Shortly after the showing at Kansas City, Ezra Cornell
had an opportunity to buy the entire stock of Mr. Thiem; "but,"
wrote Mr. Cornell (page 970, Reliable Poultry Journal, January, 1902),
"the sample feathers sent were not attractive. They were considered
by us inferior to what we already had."

Cornell and Brackenbury were double mating, and the pullet line
was mostly on Cornell's Valleyview Farm at Ithaca; New York. He
produced a fine mahogany color in his females, cleanly penciled with
black bands that nicely followed the outlines of the feather. He
emphasized the point that "the nearer, you come to getting every
feather well penciled, the finer bird you have."

The western strain was bred by single or standard matings.

Great improvers of the variety. Ezra Cornell died about 1902.
Joseph McKeen went to his reward in 1896 and his birds were divided
between E. O. Thiem and W. A. Doolittle, of Sabetha, Kansas. Mr.
Doolittle bred the stock with signal success, exhibiting in the east
as well as in the west. At Boston, 1903, he won first hen and first
pullet and sold the pullet for fifty dollars.

Carver and Avey, Columbia City, Indiana, came into prominence
as breeders of Partridge Wyandottes about 1904. They won first
cockerel at the St. Louis World's Fair in that year, and exported
the bird to England at a price of $100, The. bird was not satisfactory

216

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Mrs. Dooley, the famous Partridge Wyandotte hen, which
won 1st prize at Madison Square Garden, Boston, Chicago,
Kansas City, Syracuse, Hagerstown, Columbus, Indianapolis,
Detroit, and Springfield, 111. Owned by Sheffield Farms, Ohio.

to its English buyer, being too dark in color. The English were
breeding an orange or golden-red ground color, and the dark mahog-
any colored American bird was a mere cull in their eyes.

The first Partridge Wyandottes to be exported to England were
shipped by Mr. Thiem to John Wharton in Yorkshire, in September,
after the breeding season, 1896. The pen consisted of a cock, two
hens and two pullets. In the summer of 1897 Mr. Wharton bought
six more Partridges from Mr. Thiem, paying $105 for them. The
progress of the variety in England was rapid, and by 1902 interest
had reached the point where the first cockerel at the Crystal Palace,
London, sold for about $825 in our money. We saw this bird,
mounted, some years later, and his color presented a striking con-
trast to the rich-toned males that were being bred in America. The
red in the English bird was light orange; the red in the American
birds was mahogany.

PARTRIDGE WYANDOTTES 217

There was a fad for dark birds in the middle west about the time
that Carver and Avey showed at St. Louis, 1904. At a distance the
dark males appeared almost black. In the east, however, a brighter
color was bred, for Brackenbury's rich red line was the dominant
factor in the eastern flocks.

M. H. Coffin, of Whitesville, Massachusetts, was prominent as a
breeder of the variety in New England. Charles H. Wood, Worcester,
Massachusetts, owed his success largely to Coffin.

The splendid strain of Premier Partridge Wyandottes was founded
by H. B. Hark at Sheffield Farm, in Ohio. Hark took to Sheffield
Farm the Partridges that he was breeding at the Hartman Farm in
Columbus, and bought the entire flock of Coffin in 1910. The logical
successor of Ezra Cornell was M. H. Coffin, and the Coffin stock
was fundamentally the Cornell-Brackenbury stock; although Coffin
later secured some eggs for hatching from Doolittle, of Kansas, who
was breeding the western strain, and from C. H. George.

Two years later Hark incorporated the Wolverine strain, bred and
originated by C. H. George, of Union City, Michigan. The Premier
strain today is an amalgamation of the cream of the early eastern
and western foundation strains of the variety. The Premier strain
was again reinforced as late as 1919, when Mr. Hark purchased a
bright colored cock and mated him to four females and used the
cockerels from this mating as pen breeders in 1920. This cock was
bred by C. R. Kreitler and was the progeny of a straight Doolittle
cock and an English hen imported by Thiem and presented by him
shortly before he died to Kreitler. Mr. Kreitler had purchased Mr.
Doolittle's flock some years before.

Mrs. Dooley, the famous Partridge Wyandotte hen which was
purchased by Sheffield Farms and exhibited and bred by them with
such success that she became an outstanding individual in the history
of the breed, was bred by M. H. Coffin from birds produced from a
sitting of eggs that he purchased from Doolittle, and a sitting from
George.

As a breeder she proved most valuable, and her blood and charac-
teristics are still quite prominent and noticeable in the "Premier"
strain. She was the sensation of the show at the club meet at
Chicago in 1909, and again at the club meet at Kansas City in 1910,
where W. A. Doolittle pronounced her the best Partridge hen that
had ever been produced. He remarked that it would be a long time
before another individual would be produced as good as she was.

The first hen at the New York State Fair, 1920, on which we
commented, "A wonderfully big matron, elegantly penciled," is strong
in the blood of Mrs. Dooley and resembles her very much.

The Sunbrier strain, as bred by T. W. Schoen, was started from
Premier birds, but at the Virginia State Fair in 1917 a most remark-
able pullet, both in shape and color, was purchased. "Sunbrier," an

218 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

almost perfect male, bought as a cockerel and cock, was of pure
Premier ancestry, and he was bred to this pullet, his mother and
two sisters. Upon checking up the pedigrees of the Sunbrier strain
a year later, all the best birds were from Sunbrier and the Virginia
State Fair pullet, and the offspring from all the other birds was
culled out.

As the Virginia pullet had gone through several hands before it
reached Mr. Schoen, then located in West Virginia, it was not pos-
sible to trace her birthplace, although the direction pointed east. A
great possibility exists that this pullet had the blood of the eastern
strain.

Writing of the future, Mr. Schoen says:

During the breeding season of 1920, E. G. Lapham's famous cockerel, winning
2d at the 1920 Club show, the greatest ever held, was bred to a Sunbrier hen and
after a cockerel from this mating has been bred back to his mother, the Lapham
strain will be brought into the Sunbrier flock. The Lapham cockerel was from
a strong female line and we think that by getting his blood into our flock, our
strain will exceed anything in existence, as our males are already dominating
the shows. We won last year 1st, 3d cockerel at the Club show and best colored
male in a class of 110.

Correct color for Partridge Wyandottes. When the variety was
first admitted to the Standard, edition of 1902, the neck of the ideal
male was described as "red," the back "dark red"; the female was
described as "mahogany red or reddish brown." With passing years
the black has remained pretty much the same. It is the tone of red
that really matters. In the 1905 Standard no changes were made.
In 1910 the neck of the male was described as "bright red" and the
back as "dark red," making a two-color bird as before. The dark
back satisfied the western breeders; the bright neck appeased the
eastern breeders. The female to go with this male was "mahogany
brown."

The 1916 Standard was a long step in advance. It called for a
male of the same shade of red in neck as in back, and that shade
was to be "bright red." The female description, however, remained
old-fashioned, i.e., "mahogany brown." This word "mahogany" has
been a stumbling block to progress, for it has in the past led breeders
to produce too dark a ground color. The majority of breeders in the
middle west held to the dark female, but all were now ready to accept
a brighter colored male. However, in 1917 the National Partridge
Wyandotte Club prepared a club standard which called for a female
that was of a "rich reddish brown color." While words are more or
less elastic, this club description fits the winning females as well as
any phrase ever penned.

There has been great improvement in the color of males. Dark
mahogany wing bows have been the last to go. One thing that the
Partridge Wyandotte breeder should see in his dreams is a shade of
color that is exactly the same over neck, back, saddle and wing
bows, and the breeder of today must work to produce such a bird.

PARTRIDGE WYANDOTTES 219

The exact shade of color in the male remains a matter of discussion.
All agree that a bright red color is most desirable and that he should
be of the same shade of bright red in neck, back and wing bows;
but many breeders have failed to understand the exact tone of red
that will meet the approval of the best judges.

At the New York State Fair, September, 1920, we discussed this
matter with H. B. Hark, and in August previous we talked the
matter over with Walter C. Young, who was to judge the annual
club show at Detroit, December, 1920. They both want the bright
red ground color seen to such splendid advantage in the lustrous
Brown Leghorn male. This is what we have always maintained.
Some years ago we made a study of this subject, collecting feathers
from the best colored Brown Leghorn males, Bird Bros.' Partridge
Rock males, and the best Partridge Wyandotte males. They match
in all save under-color, in which the Brown Leghorn has somewhat
the deeper shade of slate. Of course, the Leghorn feather is some-
what narrower. But the shade of red is the important thing, and in
this the bright red of the Standard Brown Leghorn male is the
bright shade that Partridge breeders must produce if they want to
get under the ribbons on Partridges at the big shows. There is aim-
less talk about Partridge color, and Mitchell's Cochins are brought
into the argument. There is a color in Mitchell's Partridge Cochins
that is different from that found in the Partridge Wyandottes and
Partridge Plymouth Rocks of today. Mitchell has produced a won-
derful chicken, but if you want to get a line of the bright color with
which the most successful exhibitors of Partridge Wyandottes and
Partridge Rocks delight the eye of the judge, go study the Brown
Leghorn males. This may not agree with some of the theories, but
it is practical and will bring home the bacon.

Mating Partridge Wyandottes. Practically every beginner wants
to steer clear of a variety that is bred in double matings. He wants
a variety in which an ideal pair are ideal mates; in which his finest
male will be his best pullet breeder, and his finest female his best
producer of cockerels as well as pullets. Alas, such perfection in
the variety is not yet known. And the beginner must accept things
as they are.

He will find that the best penciled females have penciling in their
neck feathers. The Standard, therefore, allows penciling in the lower
neck feathers, but the upper neck feathers may be striped. This is
a compromise between the tendency to penciling in the females and
the tendency to striping in the males.

A well penciled hen, penciled in neck hackle, will produce cock-
erels that are inclined to show red tipping on lower breast and thighs,
and perhaps a red quill in his hackle and saddle feathers. Such a
male often is spoken of as "pullet-bred," that is, bred from a wonder-
fully penciled female. Such a male will produce elegant penciling
in the pullets which he sires, provided, of course, that he is himself

220 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

out of a wonderful hen and is not merely a faulty colored exhibition
cockerel.

The best producers of gorgeously striped males are females whose
necks are striped with black, not penciled; and around those stripes
should be an edging of bright red, not orange or Temon. Such a
female will be stippled in the back or coarsely penciled, and cannot
win in the best shows. Ancestry again determines the value of such
a female, for a plainbred Partridge Wyandotte hen may fail in pencil-
ing, yet be an inferior breeder of cockerels. A little dark color in
the shanks should never condemn a cockerel-breeding hen. She
should be mated to the brightest color type of exhibition male that
you have. This is the cockerel mating. The pullet mating is com-
posed of the finest marked females mated to the pullet-bred male
above described.

The standard or single maters are usually partly double maters,
although they do not so state. The facts are that they pick as good
colored male as they can whose dam was a nicely penciled female,
and they mate him to some well penciled females and some stipple-
backed, striped-neck females. The former produce a fair share of
good pullets and the latter produce a fair proportion of good cock-
erels. This kind of mating frequently amounts to mating the best
birds together, and accounts for the mediocre flocks of the average
small breeders and the fact that they have to reinforce their stock
with a high-class purchased bird from time to time.

Possibilities of single mating. Of course we concede that a super-
breeder can breed striping in the male and penciling in the female
from the same blood. Single mating, however, requires more time
and thought than double mating. The easy way to produce what you
want in any variety is by double mating. The easy way to fail is to
single mate. A breeder who has the ability can duplicate what
George W. Mitchell has done in Partridge Cochins, but he will have
to "put his whole being into the work," as Mr. Mitchell would say.

Twenty-five years ago Mr. Mitchell was told that Partridge Cochins
could not 1)e bred by single mating — that it would always be necessary
to maintain a separate family for the production of black-breasted,
clearly striped cockerels, and another distinct family to produce finely
penciled pullets. He did not think so, and he has since so conclusively
proved the possibility of single mating that his results in breeding
will be cited through years to come whenever an example and inspira-
tion are needed.

At the Boston show, January, 1920, Mr. Mitchell, seventy years
old, exhibited his wonderful Partridge Cochins. There had not been
a drop of new blood introduced into this strain since 1894 — a period
of twenty-six years. We have Mr. Mitchell's word for it and we
believe him. Some years ago Mr. Mitchell thought that he should
infuse some new blood, and asked Frank Sewell, who was going to

PARTRIDGE WYANDOTTES 221

England, to buy a female or two for him; but Mr. Sewell returned
without making a purchase, for he could find nothing in the best yards
of England worthy to be introduced into Mr. Mitchell's line. And
so the line has been bred, on and on, within itself, and the pedigrees
of the individual birds have grown closer and closer. On top of
this, Adolph Anderson, Mr. Mitchell's poultryman, has sold time
and time again the best birds that he had at the shows, and people
have wondered howr long he could continue to sell his best and come
up with better Cochins the succeeding year.

For thirteen years we have watched this line, and cannot see but
what the birds at Boston, 1920, were as big and strong as when we
first saw the Mitchell Cochins in New York, 1907. There are cockerels
up to eleven pounds. The judge asked Mr. Anderson to go down to
the secretary's office and take an oath that the pullets were pullets
and not little hens.

Does inbreeding destroy the virility and growing power of a race of
poultry? We are forced to conclude that not inbreeding, but permit-
ting inferior specimens to reproduce themselves, undermines a flock,
and as long as a breeder has an eye for strength and size as well as
shape and color, he is on safe ground, be he ever so close an inbreeder.

Inbreeding has led to uniformity in these Cochins. The first prize
young pen at Boston was composed of four pullets, each from a
different dam, and they were as nearly alike as four full sisters.

Now, mark this well: The cockerel that headed the pen was a
full brother to one of the pullets. The Mitchell Partridge Cochins
are bred by single mating, and the finest cockerels and the finest
pullets come from the same mating. The first cock was the sire of
the first and second cockerel, and also the first, second and third
oullets. Mr. Anderson took the birds out of the?r cages and showed
us the toe punch, so that there would be no mistake. The penciling
on the pullets ran way down below the wings, clear on to the fluff.
There is one thing: Mr. Mitchell does not breed dark slate under-
color. Customers who wrote him for dark under-colored males mated
to dark under-colored females to produce more dark under-color,
put him out of commercial breeding years ago. Such birds are pro-
duced only by double mating, and this breeder does not breed his
birds that way. While never using white under-color, he does recog-
nize light slate as a desirable shade.

No doubt double mating would result in richer colored hackles,
for only one pullet at Boston, 1920, suited us in this respect; but the
birds are a tribute to single mating. They are better than the birds
of all the other Partridge Cochin breeders in the world, all of whom
have been privileged to try out every conceivable system of mating.
But George H. Mitchell is a fancier and student who not only pedi-
grees but keeps blood lines in mind, and at the age of seventy he
\vrote:

222 THEv AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

The end we hope for is not yet attained and all our plans are to produce even
better Standard bred fowl than in previous years.

Thus the greatest breeder of Partridge Cochins that the world
has yet known, a breeder whose best birds are the standard by which
all other specimens of the variety are gauged, is still planning, at the
age of seventy years, to breed better quality. Such is the spirit of the
fancy.

An unusually good photograph o_ a Par-
tridge Wyandotte pullet. Because of the red
ground color and black penciling, the con-
trast is usually lost by the camera, the red
appearing black in the picture.

CHAPTER XIX
SILVER PENCILED WYANDOTTES

A distinctively beautiful variety — Its origin — How to produce the finest
quality in males and females.

The Silver Penciled Wyandotte is one of the most strikingly
colored fowls among the established races. Its inherited qualities
from the good old Dark Brahma, Silver Penciled Hamburg and Silver
Laoed Wyandotte are of the best. Its originator told of five pullets
laying 400 eggs in 100 days; of pullets hatched July 12 that were
up to the Standard weight of five and one-half pounds by January 12,
and laying; and of the cockerels that were well fleshed at all ages.
Unfortunately for the general popularity of the variety, the Silver
Penciled Wyandotte became a gentleman's breed. Year after year
for twenty-five years beautiful specimens, correct in every detail, have
been shown at the New York and Boston exhibitions; but the birds
have been in the hands of fanciers who bred for pleasure and per-
fection, and the stock was not distributed by the common business
methods of advertising and selling.

The plumage color. The Silver Penciled Wyandotte male carries
a plumage of well defined and sharp contrasts. The breast, wing bar,
body and tail are black, with a greenish sheen to the black. The
wing bow is white on the surface. The neck and back are white, and
through the center of each hackle and saddle feather there runs a
black stripe which tapers to a point near the lower extremity of the
feather. No white shafting in the stripe or black edging on the
feather is wanted.

The female is very differently colored from the male. She is
beautifully penciled. There is a tendency to a reddish-white ground
color, but it is less attractive than a steel-gray ground color, and
the latter offers the proper base for the crescentic bands of black
penciling which are the beauty of the female.

We do not know why the female should be so differently marked
from the male. In this variety it is as if nature had performed a
miracle for the delight and fascination of the lovers of animated bird
life as seen in our races of domesticated poultry.

Origin. The first matings were made in 1894 by Ezra Cornell,
Ithaca, New York, and he was helped in his work by George H.
Brackenbury, who lived near Auburn, New York. Both of these men
were keen students and accomplished breeders, which accounts for
the rapid progress made in blending Silver Laced Wyandottes, Dark
Brahmas and Silver Penciled Hamburgs intc a new and dependable
variety of the Wyandotte breed. Partridge or Golden Penciled Wyan-

223

224

THE AMERICAN BIPEDS OF POULTRY

First prize pen of Silver Penciled Wyandottes, St. Louis World's Fair, 1904, bred
by E. G. Wyckoff of New York state, who succeeded Ezra Cornell. In all the varieties
of Wyandottes at this, the greatest Wyandotte show in the world — over 2,000 Wyan-
dottes in the show — it is doubtful if five individual specimens of any variety of the breed
could have been selected that would have shown more real merit than the cock and
four hons represented above. They were grand in shape, comb, color, markings and size.

SILVER PENCILED WYANDOTTES 225

dotte blood has since been introduced into the Silver Penciled variety
with excellent results. It strengthens the black markings and the
red color is easily bred out. The early results of the cross may,
however, be detected by buff colored feathers on the face or the top
of the head of the Silver pullets.

Mating. Ezra Cornell desired to produce the pure white and
pure black of the Silver Penciled Hamburg. This is the goal to aim
for. But a penciling so clean, so distinct on the female, leads to a
weakness in the black colored sections of the male. The simpler way,
therefore, to produce what is most desired is by the double mating
system.

There is a tendency for the sound-colored exhibition males to
contribute too much color to their female progeny; but such dark,
heavily penciled hens make good cockerel breeders. They often are
stippled with black as well as penciled; their hackles are striped with
black; and their wing primaries are black edged slightly with white
on the lower edges. Such hens, if bred from a high-class exhibition
male, will produce in their cockerels solid black throats, breasts and
bodies, solid black wing coverts which form the wing bar, and solid
black tails, heavily hung about with rich black tail coverts free from
white splashing; and solid black striping in neck and back, free from
white quills or "shafting." The pullets from such a mating will be
strictly "cockerel-bred," lacking the distinct penciling desired in
exhibition pullets and having tails that are black to the roots of the
feathers. They should also have wing primaries that are solid black
except for a slight edging of white on the narrow side of the primary
feathers.

The beautiful combination of clean steel-gray penciled with dis-
tinct bands of soft black, which is the real beauty of a Silver Pen-
ciled Wyandotte pullet at her best, can be most easily reproduced
by mating a well penciled female to a male whose dam was a high-
class exhibition female. It will be found that this male carries strip-
ing in hackle and saddle, but the stripe may have a white quill in it,
and the entire top plumage presents a silvery white appearance. The
breast and fluff of this male will carry some white and the tail coverts
may show some white. The throat, however, should be reasonably
black, for weak throats in pullets are a common fault. The under-
color of such a bird will be light, and if he carries some white at
the base of tail, it should not be deemed objectionable. His wing
primaries should be correctly colored. Yellow shanks and beak will
come naturally to such a bird. Now, if his ancestry on the female
side is right, you can produce some wonderful pullets when such a
male is mated to high-class exhibition females. The pullets will
be of the desired steel-gray color, cleanly and distinctly penciled.
They may in their early plumage appear weak in penciling on throat
and upper breast, and if the show is an early one, these light colored

226

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

feathers may be plucked and the mature penciled throat and breast
plumage will then grow in.

The Future. As we look into the past, we see a variety whose
roots adhere deep and vital into three of the grand old breeds, a
variety whose inheritance none can question, a variety that was
built by master breeders, and one whose beauty is of such fine con-
trasts in black and white that its admirers have been numerous,
although its breeders have -been few. What of the future? That
depends on the beginners of today — on whether they are ready to
say "So hard to breed!" or will say "Breeding males and females is
a compound problem, the practical solution of which lies in breaking
the problem into its two component parts; and the females from my
fine males I shall learn to admire and value for their ancestry, their
pedigree, the blood that courses through their veins; and I shall
produce the wonderful steel-gray pullets, sharply penciled, by breed-
ing males whose mothers were of that sort." The problem, thus
solved, would bespeak a future for the variety that would be dis-
tinguished by splendid classes of one of the most strikingly beautiful
fowls that ever graced the show rooms of America.

"Elmwood Queen," a Silver Penciled Wyan-
dotte pullet bred about 1901 by T. F. McGrew.

CHAPTER XX
COLUMBIAN WYANDOTTES

A white-bodied variety that carries beautiful black markings — The

variety was made and named and then remade — Modern specimens

are beautiful in every detail.

The Columbian Wyandotte is one variety in which the present-day
specimens are not lineal descendants of the original stock.

Origin. The first Columbian Wyandottes were originated by B. M.
Briggs, one of the originators of the White Wyandottes. In 1887
Mr. Briggs sold some White Wyandottes to a party who lived near
him in western New York, and one of the White females became
crossed with a Barred Plymouth Rock male and the result was two
pullets that had white bodies, striped necks and black tails. Mr.
Briggs secured the two pullets and mated them to one of his White
Wyandotte males in the spring of 1888. He continued to breed the
stock, and in 1893 named the new variety the "Columbian" Wyandotte,
:aking the name from the World's Columbian Exposition, which was
3eing held in Chicago. He sold some eggs for hatching that season
and disposed of some stock the next year. He made his first exhibit
Df Columbian Wyandottes at the Providence (Rhode Island) show
in 1894. In 1896 he exhibited five specimens at the Boston show,
and in the fall of that year sold his entire flock.

The Columbian Wyandotte carried the same color and markings
of the Light Brahma, and it was not difficult to produce the Light
Brahma coloration by the crossbreeding recorded by Mr. Briggs, for
prior to the 1891 New York show no Light Brahma female had the
double and triple rows of laced tail coverts which are the crowning
glory of the modern bird. It was at the 1891 New York show that
George Purdue exhibited a Light Brahma pullet with a double row
of laced tail coverts. He named her "Progress," and soon thereafter
all Light Brahma breeders were endeavoring to make progress in the
development of more laced tail coverts on their females.

The Light Brahma enjoyed great popularity between 1891 and 1900.
Three different years during this period there were classes of over
two hundred birds in the Madison Square Garden (New York) show.
Master breeders were devoted to the variety and vied with one
another in their efforts to put down pure white bodied birds that
were sharply marked with black points. Compared to such birds, the
new Columbian Wyandottes failed to attract serious attention, for
the new Columbians had weak striping in their hackles; the wing pri-
maries, instead of being black edged on the lower edges with white,

227

228

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

were mostly white; and there was scarcely any lacing in the tail
coverts.

Light Brahma blood used. As time passed and fanciers caught
the vision of a White Wyandotte marked with the exquisite black
points of the improved Light Brahma, the possibilities of the Colum-
bian began to be taken seriously. It was apparent, however, that the
variety should be remade and advantage taken of the work that had
been put into the Light Brahma.

Crosses with the Brahma were made, beginning late in the nineties
and continuing up until about 1910. J. H. Drevenstedt states that
John Evans, of Rhode Island, was the first to come out with Colum-
bians that had been reinforced with Brahma blood, "and that he pro-
duced some remarkably good pullets prior to 1900. Breeders every-
where went back to the Brahma, or secured stock from someone
who had.

The pea comb of the Brahma was not as satisfactory a base as
a single comb would have been for producing the rose comb of the
Wyandotte. When a rose combed Wyandotte, either White or Colum-
bian, was bred on the pea comb Brahma, the combs produced were

Columbian Wyandotte hen. The beautiful black tail coverts laced
with white are here seen to advantage. The striped neck is another
important section of the bird. The wing is opened to show the black
flight feathers properly edged with white. The entire body, back,
breast and wing bows are pure white on the surface.

COLUMBIAN WYANDOTTES 229

round in front, deficient in spike, and were smooth, or corrugated
with ridges on top, and lacked the papilla or minute points desired
on a Wyandotte's comb. It was quite a problem to get good combs
on the Columbians, but this feature is now worked out, and the
variety comes very good in comb and head points.

The question of feathered shanks, inherited from the Brahma, may
always be solved in two generations. But the beautifully laced neck,
the sound wing markings, and the contrasting lacing of white on
the big black tail coverts, were not so easily held.

It is well known that in breeding this color type you get what you
want as the color works out, and not on its way in; and the black
color does work out from generation to generation. Therefore it is
necessary to have a reserve of color in some of the specimens that
are used for breeders. This point was emphasized in the judging at
New York for several years, especially from 1907 to 1910. The result
was that the birds in the show were good in neck striping, tail lacing
and wings, but their bodies were not white enough, many of the
pullets showing a superabundance of black flecking and even black
spots in their backs. This off-color has now been cleaned up, and
backs that are white on the surface are the rule in the showrooms
today.

Mating. If the male has weak striping in hackle and white on the
broad side of the wing primaries, we would mate him to females that
are very dark, heavy colored specimens; females that arc strong slate
in under-color. We would not call this a good mating, however, for
a wing showing white in primaries, except on the outside edging of
the narrow web, seriously reduces the breeding value of the bird.

Mating I. — We would prefer to have a male that has good wings
and colored on the surface like the male illustrated in this chapter.
As nearly as possible, his mates should then be females like the one
which also is illustrated in this chapter. The majority of cockerels
and pullets from this mating will be good.

Mating II. — If the breeder has some hens that are very dark,
with some flecking of black in their back, and these are mated to a
male that runs light, that is, one which has clean striping in his
hackle but the stripe breaks into white underneath, and the male has
little striping in his back, his breast near the throat is white, his
wings good, and his under-color nearly white, the mating can be
relied upon to produce good pullets and some good cockerels.

Mating III. — If the male runs dark, is heavily striped in neck
and white lacing is edged with black; if his breast near throat shows
considerable black; if his back is striped more or less; if his wings
are good and his under-color is slaty in color, he may be mated to
females that are deficient in neck, wing and tail markings, and good
cockerels will be produced, also some good pullets. It should be
remembered, however, that if the back stripes in the male are so

230 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

solidly black that they run into the slate under-color without a break,
the male is too heavily striped to produce more than a few good
pullets, and the rest will show black spots in their back. The striping
of the male's back should be, as far as possible, a V-shaped stripe,
opened in the center with a white quill, and there should be a pro-
nounced bar of white before the under-color is reached. We like to
see this striping in the saddle hangers rather than on top of the back,
although we must make an allowance for the fact that the Columbian
Wyandotte male is inclined to carry his striping on the top of his
back, while his saddle hangers are white.

The Columbian is an interesting fowl to breed, and it presents the
advantage of allowing the breeder to use in successful matings not
only his highest type show-colored specimens, but also his excess-
colored males and females and his light-colored males and females.

Typical Columbian Wyandotte
Male.

CHAPTER XXI
JAVAS

An American production — Not extensively bred at the present time —
How to mate both Black and Mottled Javas

The Java is one of the oldest American breeds. Controversies
have raged concerning its origin, and, while they have subsided, the
issue never has been settled completely, and in 1920 the question was
taken up anew.

Black Javas. There are two varieties of Javas, Black and Mottled.
The Black Java is the older variety and the original from which the
Mottled was produced.

The Black Java is mentioned as an ancestor of the Barred
Plymouth Rock, and the question has been whether this so-tailed
Black Java was what we now term a Black Java or whether it was
a Black Cochin. The weight of the evidence clearly indicates that
all the big black fowls were first called "Javas," and that in reality
it was the Cochin which was used in the original Spaulding cross
which produced the first Barred Plymouth Rocks.

C. P. Nettleton, an old-time breeder of Asiatics, writes of having
purchased some Black Cochins in 1868. In a letter^ dated in 1901,
he said:

They were commonly called by most people Black Javas, had feathered legs,
but scant feathering, hardly a bird having any feathers on the middle toe. Most
of the parties who, spoke of these black birds as long ago as 1868 called them
Black Javas. Some of this kind of fowls were shown at the New York show held In
Barnum's Museum long before that time.

At the Philadelphia Poultry Show of 1871 £he classification read
"Black Cochins or Javas." This recorded history helps the breeder
of today to accept the account of the origin of the modern Black
Java as chronicled by J. Y. Bicknell, an honored secretary of the
American Poultry Association from 1876 to 1883, and one of the fore-
most breeders and judges in his day and generation.

The western strain. According to Bicknell, the Black Java was
bred in Missouri by a family who came into possession of three eggs
from the poultry yard of a doctor who bred what he called Javas.
The doctor was very selfish of his stock, so his coachman "borrowed"
three eggs and from the chickens hatched from these eggs, "the
American Javas," says Bicknell, "have all descended."

The breed was first brought into Duchess county, New York, in
1857, by a family who moved there from Missouri. From this source
the eastern flocks were established. Until about 1880 the variety was
little known, but by 1890 were well known fowl and more popular
than at the present time.

231

232

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Black sports from the early flocks of Barred Plymouth Rocks
undoubtedly contributed many specimens to the Black Java breed
during the years of 1880 to 1890.

The eastern strain. Dr. W. H. Harwood, New York State,
whose Black Javas we.re reported to be of pure Bicknell strain, issued
a mating list in 1920 in which he gave an antiquity to the origin of
the breed which was contrary to the breed's history recorded by
Bicknell. Dr. Harwood stated:

This is not an American breed, as has been commonly supposed, but comes, as
its name indicates, from the isle of Java, in the East Indies. About 1835 an old
New England sea captain who made many voyages to the East Indies brought
home some of these fowls and presented them, to a friend, Amasa Converse, of
Northampton, Massachusetts. He in turn presented some of these fowls to a niece,
who afterward became Mrs. Lyman J. Tower. Everyone agrees that these fowls
were as finished and well established a breed in their earliest years in this country
as the breed is now. Mrs. Tower, unlike the Missouri doctor of whom we have
heard so much, freely furnished her neighbors with this stock until there was in
Hampshire county, Massachusetts, many families breeding them. No doubt the
Missouri doctor obtained his stock from this source. It is due to J. Y. Bicknell
and his associates, C. S. Whiting, G. M. Mathews and others, that the Missouri
line became so prominent. I have my information concerning the origin of tne
Black Javas in this country from J. Lyman Kelly, of Malone, New York, formerly
of Hampshire county, Massachusetts, who was a grandson of Mrs. Tower, with
whom he lived when a boy, and who gave him the information aforesaid.

Undoubtedly the parties referred to had

Black Javas as bred by Henry C. Turck, Ohio, and
illustrated in the American Poultry Journal, De-
cember, 1888. Mr. Turck made a specialty of the
variety for a number of years. Today a longer-
bodied bird is wanted in both male and female. The
tail of the male is altogether too high to meet pres-
ent requirements.

what they called Black
Javas, and these Black
Javas were equally
without doubt of
Asiatic origin as
claimed, and the mod-
ern Black Javas of to-
day are descendants,
with modifications, of
the imported fowls.
Just as the Barred
Plymouth Rock is a
descendant from the
Black Cochin or Java,
so is the modern Black
Java a descendant
from the Black Co-
chin or the Java. The
confusion is due to the
fact that the early
Black Asiatic fowls
were known as Black
Javas as well as by
the name of Black
Cochins.

JAVAS AND BLACK GIANTS

233

The modern Black Java is an American production and is a
member of the American class of fowls. The typical Java has a long
back and body and a broad feather, but in other respects is not dis-
similar to the Rock, and has from time to time absorbed the material
that appeared and was available for the development of a black
variety of the Plymouth Rock breed.

Some excellent Black Javas have been shown even in recent years.
Herbert Link, of Laporte, Indiana, produced some very fine ones
about 1912. At the present time, however, Black Javas are exhibited
rarely at the poultry shows and only in small numbers. As a Black
Plymouth Rock, the variety might be more popular. A black plumagecl
fowl does not show the dirt as does a white one, and when William
Cook originated the Orpington it was a Black Orpington, designed
for poultrykeepers in London and the environs of that great city.
where white and buff fowls became dirty and less attractive. While
some people object to black pin feathers, their conspicuous presence
is a guarantee that they will not be eaten; and altogether a black
fowl has special qualifications which should commend it.

Characteristics of the breed and mating. The Standard recognizes
the Java as a distinct breed and requires a long back slightly declin-
ing to tail. One characteristic of the breed is black or nearly black
shanks, with bottoms of feet yellow. Willow shanks are allowable in
cocks and hens, but objection-
able in cockerels and pullets.
The face and wattles usually are
of a gypsy color, young pullets
usually having rather dark faces.
The surface plumage should be
a lustrous greenish black in all
sections. White in under-color
constitutes a serious defect, a
dull black being the ideal under-
color.

It is well to occasionally breed
a female that is dull black in
surface color. This is a rule in
mating all black varieties. If
lustrous, greenish-black birds
are mated together for two or
more generations, some red
feathers may appear in the plu-
mage. Purple barring in the
black, the bane of black breed-
ers, results as much from mat-
ing together birds that have too
much green sheen as from lice,
crowded, damp quarters and

Reproduction of the frontispiece to the
American Poultry Journal, Sept., 1886. A
pair of Mottled Javas as bred by J. Y.
Bicknell of New York state. Today the
old-fashioned splashed white and black
effect is gone, and the best specimens have
a black ground color, each feather neatly
mottled at the tip with white. A con-
structive breeder can make of the Mottled
Java as attractive a fowl as the now pop^
ular Ancona,

234 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

lack of care. Bicknell recommended that a bird showing any red
feathers never be bred.

Mottled Javas. The Mottled Java should have a plumage that is
mottled with black and white throughout, the black predominating.
The tendency in recent years has been to breed a black bird mottled
on each feather with a tip of white. This is a darker and much more
beautiful bird than where the black and white is broken and splashed.
The 1st and 2d hens at the New York State Fair, 1919, were of the
darker ground color, each feather ending with white. More such
birds can be bred through the infusion of Black Java blood into the
mottled variety. The Mottled Java was originated in 1872 by a cross
of a Black Java cock with a large white hen. The hen was from a
flock prized for its laying qualities, and old breeders have commented
on the Mottled Java as possessing utility qualities that were superior
to those of the Black Java. For years the variety was bred princi-
pally for utility. More recently specimens have become scarce, and
new Mottled Javas have been produced from White Rock crosses.
The majority of these recent productions, however, have had yellow
shanks, whereas the true Mottled Java has shanks that are leaden
blue in color, broken with yellow.

The Houdan originally had a broken black and white plumage,
also the Ancona. It is well known what beautiful white tipping is
today bred on these breeds, and a breeder who takes up the Mottled
Java can make out of it one of the most beautiful fowls in the
American class. It affords the basis on which to work. It should
not be bred as dark as the modern Houdan or Ancona, in which one
feather in five is tipped with white. The Mottled Java may be bred
with each feather tipped with white.

White Javas. White Javas are today extinct. They were pro-
duced in the yards of Henry C. Turck, Elmwood Place, Ohio, and
shown by him at the American Fat Stock Show, Chicago, November,
1888. The Whites were sports of the Blacks. They had yellow shanks.
They were admitted to the Standard along with the White Plymouth
Rocks. However, when admitted, the Standard was made to read that
Javas were to have willow shanks, with the result that the existing
stock turned into White Rocks and the variety died out.

Black Giants

Black Giants were originated in Burlington county, New Jersey.
It is in New Jersey that the famous Philadelphia chickens are grown.
They are really Burlington county capons. It was there that John
and Thomas Black, along in the eighties, bred a giant mongrel black
chicken which today bears the name of Black Giants. These birds
carry Partridge Cochin and Dark Brahma blood, two breeds that
always have entered largely into the production of Philadelphia
chickens; for a dark colored fowl for breeding purposes always has
been considered the stronger by Burlington county farmers.

JAVAS AND BLACK GIANTS 235

In New England this opinion is reversed, and down the shore
south of Boston, where the famous soft-roasting capons are pro-
duced, the Light Brahma with its white body and the White Plymouth
Rock have been prime favorites for many years.

These keen eastern farmers, tilling the sands of Jersey or picking
up rocks in New England, have been obliged to watch the details of
their income. They have found that a capon at forty-five cents a
pound is a better sell than a rooster at twenty-two cents. And the
chefs in Boston and New York hotels are not jeopardizing their jobs
by stewing stag roosters; they are setting before the epicures in
their dining-rooms roasted chicken as soft and sweet as a broiler and
as big as a turkey.

The Black Giant, like the Black Java, has a single comb, black
shanks with yellow bottoms to feet, a dark brown eye approaching
black, a pure black plumage, and the females lay brown-shelled eggs
of good size. The Giant, however, has a larger, rounder, deeper body
than the Java. While the Java is shaped more like a Rhode Island
Red, a Black Giant female is more on the massive order of a big-
bodied Plymouth Rock.

Serious color defects in the females of this variety are brownish
cast or gray in the plumage. White in the under-color or red in the
surface are serious defects more common to the males of black
varieties. Size and flesh qualities are of first importance in the
Black Giant.

There probably have been as many Black Javas bred in New
Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania as in any other one section in Amer-
ica: and the modern Black Giant carries some Black Java blood, some
Cornish Indian game blood, and possibly a, trace of Black Langshan
blood. It is a standard bred, compared to 'the original feather-legged
Black Giants of New Jersey. Some really fine Black Giants were
shown in 1919 and 1920. and the breed undoubtedly has a future.
U. L. Meloney of New Jersey has taken a leading part in the perfec-
tion of the Black Giant.

CHAPTER XXII
AMERICAN DOMINIQUES

The oldest American variety — Not merely a Rose Comb Barred
Rock — Double mating not required in breeding

Prior to the introduction of the Barred Plymouth Rock the Domi-
nique was increasing in favor among the farmers of the eastern United
States. There is no definite evidence as to the origin of the Domi-
nique. The breed is looked upon as the oldest American variety, and
is believed to have been produced by the crossing of the common
hawk-colored stock in the country. The breeds that entered into this
cross-breeding are unknown, but the earliest pictures of Dominiques
were suggestive of the English Dorking. Possibly some English
Hamburg blood entered into the makeup of the Dominique, and a
French cuckoo colored fowl is also referred to.

Utility qualities. The Dominique was a progenitor of the modern
Barred Plymouth Rock. It is smaller than the Rock, more active,
an excellent layer, and for table purposes the flesh is found to be
well distributed. The birds stand confinement or make good foragers
when on range.

Many people want a rose combed fowl. They also prefer an inter-
mediate one in size — something between the Leghorn and the Rock;
one as active and as prolific a layer as the Leghorn, yet carrying
some of the meat properties of the Plymouth Rock. To these people
may be recommended the old Dominique. As chickens the birds of
this breed feather more quickly than those of the Rock, mature more
quickly, and are more active. As layers they produce a firmly
shelled egg of good size and from light brown to dark brown in
color of shell.

In the showroom and breeding yard. The Dominique has much
more plumage than the Plymouth Rock, and birds in the showroom
should present the true Dominique type. A great many cross-bred
Barred Plymouth Rocks are entered at the fairs as American Domi-
niques because pumpkin show judges are prone to give the awards
to straight, even barred specimens. The fact is that the barring of
the Dominique is not the same straight across the feather barring
found in the Rock, nor does it show the same black and white con-
trasts between the light and dark bar. The Standard calls for irregular
barring, and the color should be of a bluish tone. This bluish hue is
obtained by the light bar being slightly gray and the dark bar not
being too intense in color. On full-blooded birds the last bar at the
tip of the feather is shaped like a new moon, and is not a straight-
across-the-feather bar.

Mating. Double mating is not required, as the Standard calls for

236

AMERICAN DOMINIQUES

237

a male one or two shades lighter than the female. The Standard
under-color is slate. The Dominique has a rose comb, being unlike
the Plymouth Rock in respect to comb.i The Standard weights are:
cock, 7 pounds; cockerel, 6 pounds; hen, 5 pounds; pullet, 4 pounds.

American Dominique, Male and Female.

238

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Rhode Island Red Cockerel. Winner of first prize at
the Madison Square Garden (New York) Show, Janu-
ary, 1920. Owned by Prospect Farm, New Jersey.

The type of this bird has been the subject of more
study than any other male in the history of the breed.
His type was the basis of an outline of an ideal male
prepared for the Rhode Island Red Club of America.
This male has a flat, level back and desired length of
body, together with a big body of good substance. It is
an oblong body like a brick laid on edge, which is ideal.
He is neither narrow and thin, nor too long on legs.

In color, this cockerel was an even shade of rich toned
red, one color all over, and very rich in undercolor.

CHAPTER XXIII.
RHODE ISLAND REDS.

A Fine utility type — Importance of the oblong body — Too much size
is not typical of the prolific Red — The Little Compton district in
Rhode Island where the breed originated — The early improvers of the
stock — Recognized as a Standardbred — Correct mating.

The Rhode Island Red stands in the forefront as a Standard
breed which combines a maximum of utility and beauty.

The long body and deep abdomen of the typical female allow for
big intestinal development and large egg capacity.

Some selective breeding is, of course, necessary to maintain the
egg qualities. Because of the Indian Game blood in the breed, some
of the females show the trait in wrinkled faces; and a wrinkled, puffed
face in either male or female augurs against heavy egg laying inclina-
tions. It has been found that the smooth faced females, fine in texture
of the skin, are the best layers.

Length, height and width. Length of body should not be over-
done, for excesses in any direction are detrimental. A breeder who
develops any one point to the extreme, pays a penalty which is exacted
by an inexorable Nature. The wise breeder realizes the practical
value of a well balanced fowl, and is not led astray in an effort to
develop length to an excessive extent.

There is the same amount of bone in one Rhode Island Red as in
another of equal weight. If an extreme length is obtained, it is
gained at a loss of width. The bird is, therefore, long in body, but
narrow across the hips and not thick through the breast and body.
Such a specimen will present a nice side view, but a good breeder
will remark that such a bird lacks substance.

The carriage of a Rhode Island Red is important. A bird, to
have the right bearing, should have sufficient station, which is secured
by legs of proper length. The leg comprises two sections, the drum-
stick and the shank. Commonly the shank is of sufficient length,
but from the hock joint up, the so-called thigh is apt to be too short.

It is easy to get the desired length of leg coupled with a long
back. But as already pointed out, excessive length of back is secured
at the expense of thickness of body; and length of legs in such a
bird is secured with a loss of muscle or meat on the drumstick, and
there is absent that desirable spread between the legs which is sug-
gestive of good under pinning and a strong body.

How, then, are birds of good length of back and legs, combined
with good width, produced? They are produced only in one way,
i. e., by breeding big size. A big bird has a longer back because of

239

240 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

his increased size, and he, therefore, has the desired length without
narrowness. If you seek to breed length as an independent factor,
you will find that nature puts only so much boney framework in each
bird, and that length cannot be secured except by sacrificing width;
but if you breed a bird that is bigger than the birds of your com-
petitors, you will naturally have a longer and broader carcass.

Size and egg production. This partly accounts for the tendency
among breeders and judges to emphasize the value of size in Rhode
Island Reds. Their preference in this matter, however, has not
amounted to a craze for size. While strong bodies of good substance
are desired, it is well known that the average man thinks of chickens
in terms of eggs, and that the popularity of the Rhode Island Red
females as layers may be lost by breeding an excess of size which
is unavoidably associated with slower maturity, coarseness of bone
and sluggishness of action. Although the Standard weight pullet of
5 Ibs. is usually too small for exhibition purposes, there is a certain
merit in her type that the founders of the breed sought to perpet-
uate, and a judge who awards a 9^-lb. cockerel is losing sight of
the economic properties of the active, early maturing red hen on
which the popularity of the breed has been built.

Early history as a farm fowl in Rhode Island. What might be
termed the birthplace, it was at least the stronghold, of red plumaged
fowls, was the Little Compton district in Rhode Island. For many
years the farmers of this district had raised ever-increasing quantities
of fowls for egg production. Red hens were the predominant sort.
It was in the nineties of the last century that the poultry in
this district attracted the attention of Dr. N. B. Aldrich, Roland G.
Ruffington, Daniel P. Shove, Samuel Cushman and others not so
widely known, and they adopted some of the red stock and soon
evolved it into what is now so widely known as the Rhode Island
Red breed of poultry.

The Little Compton district is sectional -geographically. It is the
southeast portion of Rhode Island, and is bounded by the Sakonnet
Sound on the west, the Atlantic Ocean on the south and the West-
port River on the east. This eastern portion includes a small part
of Massachusetts. No railroad or trolley line penetrates the district,
although of recent years an automobile bus line has operated between
Little Compton and the nearest railroad station, Tiverton, R. I.

The chickens of the district are colony farmed for eggs and are
housed in colony houses, which are surprisingly uniform in size and
construction. They are 8x12 ft. on the ground, the front and rear
are 6 ft. high and the apex of the roof is 9 ft. high. Forty to forty-
five birds are put in each house. The birds are out of doors nearly
all day. There are probably not more than two weeks during the win-
ter when they must remain indoors. There is little snow, for the
"salt air" from the ocean cuts it. One or two glass windows and a

RHODE ISLAND REDS

241

board door are on the south side of each house. There are no drop-
pings boards, neither are there any runs. The houses are not close
together but are scattered over the fields and pasture lots, and cattle
are often kept in the same fields with the fowls. The birds are rugged,
out-of-door stock that obtain a large amount of natural food in
foraging.

This colony plan of housing and the red hens of the Rhode Island
farmers were at last discovered and the poultry world has reaped the
benefit, — thanks to the pioneers who explored.

In the old days when 49 dozen egg cases were used, it was reported
that one buyer, in the district, secured a load of 50 of these big
cases in a single trip, making his day's collection nearly 30,000 eggs.
This was done in the spring, and five or six other men were collecting
eggs at the same time along their respective routes. As a further
illustration of the value of the ancestors of the modern Reds, it may
be stated on good authority that plying between Westport, Massa-
chusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island, a small boat that made
about 25 round trips each year, between 1827 and 1850, averaged to
the load about 400 dozens of eggs each trip.

The Little Compton district has been a melting pot for Asiatic,
Mediterranean and English stock, and the visitor to the district of a
few years ago saw chick-
ens that were plainly a
composition of varying
types, but the dominating
color was red.

Wm. Tripp of Little
Compton and John Ma-
comber of Westport were
the early improvers of the
stock in the district. Both
of them ran teams to the
New Bedford, Massachu-
setts, market as market-
men. "They took the mat-
ter in hand (about 1854)
to see if they could not, by
crossing different strains
of fowls, get better layers
than the fowls in the sur-
rounding country and also
better looking poultry for
market. The result of their
trials was the production
of the so-called Rhode
Island Reds today. Pre- s- C Rhode Island Red cock heading 1st old
, pen, Madison Square Garden, New York, Jan.,

V10US to that they were 192o. Owned by Harold Tompkins, Mass.

242

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

called the 'John Macomber' or the 'Tripp' fowls." — Thus wrote Capt.
B. E. Tripp, son of Wm. Tripp, in a letter, January 17, 1900, which
was published by the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station,
1901.

Wm. Tripp's original stock of red fowls came from crossing red
Malay Games and reddish-colored Shanghais. The surplus cockerels
of this stock were introduced into a number of the farm flocks.
However, every conceivable sort of crossing was resorted to as time
passed on. Brown Leghorns and Cornish Indian Games were later
employed, and it has been said with a considerable measure of truth,
that every great breed that became known in America found its way
into the flocks of the Rhode Island farmers.

It was about 1895 that the red stock of the district began to attract
the attention of breeders. Dr. B. N. Aldrich who lived at Fall River,
Massachusetts, made frequent trips into the district. Red chickens
were to be found in such vast numbers that they provided a wide
field for selection. Numbers always afford selection, and Dr. Aldrich,
who was an experienced fancier, went through the flocks seeking out
those birds that measured well up to the Standard he had in mind.

From 1900 to 1910. the breed made rapid progress. It came out
of obscurity about 1900, and by the end of the decade had not only
been taken up by many poultrymen throughout New England, but

its popularity stretched
westward to the Pacific
Coast.

It was the intrinsic
merit of the fowl that
won for it its popular-
ity. At the outset the
Red had to prove its
worth. Not since the
advent of the Barred
Plymouth Rock had a
new breed been pre-
sented to the public
that was more emphat-
ically and persistently
decried as a mongrel of
the barnyards. While
the champions of Rhode
Island Reds were bat-
tling for their favorites,
and the birds them-
selves were overcoming

Single Comb Rhode Island Red Pullet. A first prize P^eJudice b^ ^ force
winner at Boston. Owned by Owen Farms, Mass. Of their Utility quail-

RHODE ISLAND REDS 243

ties, productiveness and usefulness, a dozen other new varieties, as the
creation of fanciers, came upon the scene. Today the Red excels
them all as the sun excels the moon. It has proved to be the most
permanent success of any new breed in recent years.

The Red was the more lastingly built. The work of man is great,
but the work of nature is greater. Nature co-operated in making
the Rhode Island Red. The race, in the long years of Its beginning,
enjoyed the liberty of the farm yards and open fields; the birds were
grown rugged, not soft; they roughed it and were not pampered; and
nature helped to weed out the physically undesirable. Unaided by
nature, they would not have succumbed to circumstances and their
constitutional taint would have been reproduced.

Nature's contributions to the Red were assured health, without
which there cannot be productiveness, activity and early maturity.
As a new Standardised, the breeders of poultry received the Red
with all its virgin fertility; as vigorous, healthy fowls, good foragers,
fast growers, prolific.

The birds were first exhibited as Rhode Island Reds by Richard V.
Browning of Natick, Massachusetts, at the Providence (Rhode Island)
Show, 1895, the early exhibits were a motley, uneven lot of birds.
Nothing ever looked more like farm-yard fowls. There appeared to
be no "established blood" in their veins, but the fowls proved to be
rough, unfinished diamonds that have since become gems in the set-
ting of poultry culture in America.

In February, 1898, the Rhode Island Red Club of America was
organized in the Coffee Tavern, Fall River, Massachusetts. Daniel
P. Shove was the first president.

The first Standard was drafted by the Club, and it called for a
color of plumage as follows:

General surface rich brilliant red except when black is desired. Free from shaft-
ing, mealy appearance or brassy effect. Depth of color (red) is slightly accentuated
on wing bows and back, but the least contrast between these parts and the hackle
or breast the better; a harmonious blending is what is desired. The bird should be
so brilliant in luster as to have a glossed appearance. Other things being equal
the specimen having the deepest and richest red, salmon, or buff undercolor shall
receive the award. Any smut or white in the undercolor is to be cut hard. The
quill of the feather should be red or salmon. White showing on the outside of the
body is to be cut harder than white that is out of sight. Black is desired in the
u.nder-web of the wing flights. The main tail feathers and two main sickle feathers
are to be black or greenish black. The greater tail coverts are mainly black, but
as they approach the saddle they may become russet or red. The blending of the
red body with the black tail is gradual, thus preventing any sudden contrast. With
the saddle parted, showing the undercolor at the base of the tail, the appearance
should Ve red or salmon, not whitish or smoky. The hackle should be free from
black, although a suspicion of black, that can hardly be found, would not cut the
bird much. White in hackle will be cut harder than black. The wing bars should
be free from black, and all black in the primaries and secondaries should be out
of sight when the wing is folded.

The early breeders knew that the color of their birds would have
to be improved, and it is truly remarkable how definitely and accu-
rately they laid down the rules and specifications for an ideal red

244 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

color. There has been no change in the Club Standard as far as the
aims and ideals of breeders are concerned, except to eliminate the
accentuation of red over the wing-bows and produce one even shade
of rich brilliant red; hackle, back and wing-bow matching; and then
to breed this color as rich as possible down to the skin.

The Single Comb Rhode Island Reds were admitted to the Stand-
ard in 1904. The Rose Comb Rhode Island Reds were admitted to
the Standard at Minneapolis, Feb. 13, 1905, as American Reds. F. D.
Baerman of Dunellen, New Jersey, a prominent breeder of the time,
was influential in having the Minneapolis meeting of the American
Poultry Association, adopt the name of "American Reds." A storm
of protest followed this action, and Chas. M. Bryant of Wollaston,
Massachusetts, was instrumental in changing the name to Rose Comb
Rhode Island Reds at a special meeting held in Pittsburgh, April 14,
1905, which meeting rescinded the action of the Minneapolis conven-
tion.

The Revision Committee that had charge of the 1915 Standard
dropped the name Rhode Island, and called the varieties simply Single
and Rose Comb Reds, but the breeders again protested and the name
remains as originally adopted.

Mating Rhode Island Reds. The good specimens of no other breed
are more widely distributed than those of the Rhode Island Red
breed. This accounts in part for the big classes of Reds seen in the
poultry exhibitions. So many breeders have some of the best quality
that a large number of different breeders are able to compete in the
large shows. No one or two breeders have a patent on the produc-
tion of fine quality Reds.

This wide distribution of good birds is a good thing for the breed.
Small breeders are encouraged to go forward, and the interest in
Rhode Island Reds is kept at a high point. While the problems of
mating require close study, they may be mastered, as the successes
of countless breeders testify.

The darkest feathers in a Rhode Island Red hen may be taken as
the measure of her breeding value. The hackle is usually the darkest
red section of the female. If you are to produce rich colored cockerels
you must have a rich hackle in your females. If there are black stripes
in the female's hackle, her. cockerels will show the same fault. If the
female's hackle is orange colored, in part or whole, her cockerels will
be light in color of neck. If the female has black peppering on the
wing-bow the same defect will show in a number of her cockerels.
The breeder can get a good line on the breeding value of his females
by their darkest feathers.

Evenness of red color is of major importance. There should be a
coat of one shade of level color. Two colored males are of no value.
A bird that is of rich red over wingbows and top of back and of
orange color in lower hackle and saddle, shows poor breeding. Orange

RHODE ISLAND REDS 245

is not red; it is a first cousin to the old "punkin" colored necks of the
early days of the breed.

The male's breast is of more importance than some breeders attach
to this section. It should be rich and lustrous and free from shafting
or lacing. Good colored females cannot be bred from males that are
faulty in breast color.

White in the wings is a bad fault, but one that may be caused in
well bred birds through faulty feeding and cooping when the chickens
were growing.

Slate is a fault, but an otherwise good bird is sometimes bred if it
carries a bar of blue color in the under plumage. It will be found that
some cockerels and pullets show this slate in their first chick feathers
and then come in clear red, down to the skin, when they drop their
chick feathers and grow their adult plumage. Such birds should not
be mated together or they will produce too much slate, but such a
bird may be used to strengthen and reinforce the color, and such an
one will produce more good colored chicks than one that retains the
slate.

Rich, sound red undercolor is desired in a show bird and is one
of the points which influence the judges. They will overlook slight
defects in comb, legs and tail, provided the bird has an oblong type
"like a brick set edgewise," has a level sheet of rich red color and has
good undercolor.

It seems as if it is easiest to produce good undercolor in connec-
tion with a surface plumage that is stringy and not perfectly webbed
together. A hard surfaced plumage is frequently associated with a
lighter tone of red undercolor.

These rough feathered birds are often of the darkest shade of red
on the surface. It may be that the color is due partly to feather
structure as well as pigment; however, the rough feathered birds are
not as pleasing in appearance, and it is our opinion that they are not
as good utility poultry as the smooth surfaced birds. Some breeders
occasionally breed a rough feathered bird to reinforce the red color in
their stock.

To sum up this problem of breeding red color, we would say:
A male to sire exhibition pullets must have a rich, red breast, free
from shafting or lacing; free from black ticking on wing-bows; and
he should be rich red in fluff.

A female to dam exhibition cockerels must have a dark, rich red
hackle, with little or no black ticking in it; and be red in undercolor
of back, although she may be somewhat patchy in surface color of
back and body.

When both male and female of a mating have Standard wings, that
is, the lower webs of the wing primaries are marked with black, some
of the chicks that they produce may carry smut.

A female with red flights, that is, free from black on the lower

246 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

edges of the flights, may be mated to a standard winged male, or
vice versa. When standard wings are bred together there is a danger
of the black spilling over into the wing-bows and an excess of slate
color showing in the undercolor of the back.

A bird showing smut may be introduced into each line or family
about every third generation, or whenever the undercolor begins to
run a little light. Always choose a smutty bird bred from sound red
undercolored parents. Birds bred from a mating in which smut was
used should be bred to clean color.

Slate can never be entirely eliminated, for the tails of Rhode Island
Reds are black, and there is that black-red combination which the
breeder must segregate to their respective locations and then hold
in place.

There is practically no difference between the Single Comb Red
and the Rose Comb Red except in comb. The Rose Comb needs a
little more attention paid to selection for comb than the Single Comb,
for a good rose comb is a beautiful character, while a big, loose rose
comb with a hole in the center is unsightly.

If the breeder will watch the hackles on his females, the breasts
on his males, the undercolor and the amount of black in wing flights,
he will have the necessary checks on the color of this variety, and by
holding these checks he will be able to blow the flame of his red
surface color until it is a bright, rich "burn your fingers" red.

Rose Comb Rhode Island Red Cpck.

CHAPTER XXIV
RHODE ISLAND WHITES

Origin, utility qualities and mating of this variety

There are today two varieties of Rhode Island Whites. Single and
Rose Comb.

Rhode Island Whites were originated by J. Alonzo Jocoy, who
lived in the state of Rhode Island, near Peacedale. He bought two
White Wyandotte cockerels in 1888. These birds were mated with
two Partridge Cochin hens. The pullets that resulted were a dirty
buff; they had rose combs and clean yellow legs, and for mongrels
they were said to have been an ideal lot of birds.

These pullets were again mated with Cochin blood, as the Cochin
was a high-class roaster-producing fowl in that day. However, the
white fowl being the choice of Mr. Jocoy, because it made the better
dressed carcass, the pullets from the second Cochin cross were mated
with a Rose Comb White Leghorn male. From this mating he raised
over a hundred chicks, ten of which were pure white, and of the ten,
two were males and eight were females. They had rose combs and
clean yellow legs. In shape they resembled the Plymouth Rock.
The eight white pullets began laying before they were six months
old. The breed was then started from this foundation. Other blood
may have been added since; on this there are no authentic records.

A dual purpose type. The Rhode Island White is a general pur-
pose fowl; it has both meat, and egg properties. One of the finest
flocks of growing youngsters we ever saw were Rhode Island Whites
in the yards of a Mr. Gough at Peacedale, Rhode Island. Eleven years
has not erased the memory of those robust, thrifty young chickens.
The birds of this breed have yellow skins and are sitters. The breed
is bred in two varieties, rose and single comb.

Rhode Island Whites have been making records in the egg-laying
contents of the country since 1914. In 1918 a 291 egg hen was pro-
duced in the All-Northwest egg-laying contest at Pullman, Washing-
ton. In 1919, in this same contest, Rhode Island Whites made the
best breed average, and in the same year at the National egg-laying
contest at Mountain Grove, Missouri, they broke all previous egg
records. The two leading pens were Rhode Island Whites. One
pen of five birds laid 1,217 eggs, or an average of 243.4; the second
pen averaged 233 eggs. The leading hen in the contest, also a Rhode
Island White, laid 306 eggs for the year. A pen of Rhode Island
Whites was awarded the silver cup at the American Egg Laying
Contest, year ending Oct. 31, 1920, for the highest number of eggs
laid during the year. The pen of 5 pullets laid 1.208 eggs, each in-
dividual laying over 200, the highest record being 285.

247

248 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Mating. Type is of primary importance in Rhode Island Whites.
There is no breed characteristic such as the rose comb of the Wyan-
dotte, which at once sets it apart from the single comb Rock, or
white shanks such as are possessed by the White Orpington and
which at once set it apart from either the White Wyandotte or White
Rock. It is easy to confuse a Rose Comb Rhode Island White with
a White Wyandotte, or a Single Comb Rhode Island White with a
White Plymouth Rock.

Rhode Island Whites depend altogether on the oblong Rhode
Island -Red body type to give them the distinctiveness of an independ-
ent variety. Shape is therefore of paramount importance in selecting
birds for the breeding yard. The breeder should study every detail of
Rhode Island Red type and select birds that in their general set-up
conform to that type. Breeding for color is the same as in the
White Wyandottes the color of this variety needs careful attention.

Missouri Fluffs.

This is a new variety of white fowls that have a plumage of peculiar
texture, being webless and silky, due to the barbs not being hooked
together. Specimens of this kind have been known to appear in
flocks of Black Langshans. Rhode Island Reds, Black Orpingtons
and WThite Rocks. Several flocks of fluffy specimens have been
developed, and the names of White Klondikes, White Fluffs, etc.,
applied. At one time the Klondikes were as well known as are the
Missouri Fluffs at present.

Rhode Island White Pullet.

CHAPTER XXV
BUCKEYES

This variety is distinct from the Rhode Island Reds — Was originated

in Ohio and known for a time as the Pea Comb Rhode Island Red —

Males are better colored than the females

The Buckeye, which is not altogether dissimilar to the Rhode
Island Red, was produced by Mrs. Nettie Metcalf, of Warren, Ohio,
before the Reds had become established in the central states. When,
in 1896, she learned that her idea of a red fowl was not really new
and original, and that Rhode Island Reds had been worked on for
some years in the east, she opened up correspondence with several
of the eastern Red breeders, exchanged birds and eggs with some of
them, and followed the advice of one of them, R. G. Buffington, in
dropping the name Buckeye Reds and calling her new fowls Rhode
Island Reds.

The Reds were being bred in rose and single comb varieties, and
the new Buckeye Reds made a third variety, the Pea Comb Rhode
Island Red. But, in addition to comb, the fowls of Ohio origin
differed from the Reds of Rhode Island in having more of the Cornish
Indian Game type and in being of a darker shade of red. It was
plain that this new pea comb variety was distinct, and Mrs. Metcalf
saw that instead of being helped by being identified as a variety of
the Rhode Island Red breed, the Buckeye Red would be absorbed
and its distinctiveness lost, so in 1902 she exhibited a pair of her
birds at the Cleveland show as Buckeyes. Mrs. Metcalf then exhibited
at Indianapolis and at Rochester, and having thus presented her new
Buckeyes for public inspection, and having secured the necessary
affidavits from breeders as to the ability of the breed to reproduce
true to type and color, the Buckeye was admitted to the Standard in
1905. Pea Comb Rhode Island Reds then began to disappear.

Origin of the Buckeyes. Mrs. Metcalf took up the breeding of
Barred Plymouth Rocks when the variety was new to northeastern
Ohio. She crossed Buff Cochin cockerels on her Rock hens and pullets.
"This produced a big, lazy fowl, so I looked around for something
else to mix in." She then secured some eggs from a breeder of
Black Breasted Red Games and raised some cockerels which were
top-crossed onto the Cochin-Rock females.

This mating produced a few red birds, something that had not
been seen in the community before, and aroused Mrs. Metcalf's ambi-
tion to try to reproduce them. She penned up two pairs, and, writing
in later years of the results, said:

My, what a flock I raised that year ! No wonder my friends laughed. Green
legs and feathered legs, buff chicks, black chicks, and even red-and-black barred

249

250

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

chicks; single combs and pea combs and no combs at all, but all fighters from
away back.

Many names for my new breed suggested themselves, and year after year they
bred tru,er to the type I had in mind, which was a modified Cornish shape, with
the very darkest of red plumage, hens containing some black not being objectionable
to me, so long as the males kept that dark red shade I admired.

Characteristics of Buckeyes.. It is commonly supposed that this
variety carries some Cornish Indian Game blood, but the originator
does not so state. The type is intermediate between that of the
heavily muscled, big boned, hard feathered Cornish and the Rhode
Island Red. The breed has a close fitting pea comb and small, short
wattles.

This variety is strictly cockerel bred, the originator having always
selected males that measured up to her requirements and then got

A Pair of Buckeyes, Showing Correct Buckeye Type in Both
Male and Female.

the females as good as they would come. The result has been that
good Buckeye females have been very few in numbers, although a
number of fine males have been shown. These good males have had
greenish-black tails like a Rhode Island Red, although the Standard
allows red to show in the tail. Red usually shows in the tails of
females, or rather it is a dull, wheaten-red color.

In the early days of the variety, the- Buckeyes were of a rich, dark
red as compared to the majority of Rhode Island Reds. Mrs. Metcalf
believed that the plumage should be bred with some black pigment in
the under-color. She had noticed that all wild birds had some slate
in their under-plumage to feed the depth and strength of color
exhibited by their surface plumage, so the Buckeye male and female

BUCKEYES

251

were bred with a slate under-color that shaded into red at the base,
and this was adopted as a Standard characteristic of the Buckeye
breed.

Few breeders of the first rate have ever taken up Buckeyes, but
if someone will come into the leading shows with fowls of this breed
bred as it is possible to breed them, they will find a large opportu-
nity for profit. A. H. Weisberg, of Missouri, an^ Elton C. Mahon,
of Tennessee, have had fine Buckeyes. A variety of this kind only
waits for a keen fancier to take it up. The breed is particularly well
fitted for a cold climate.

At the New York State 'Fair, September, 1920, there were some of
the best Buckeyes that we had seen in five years. The -winning
cockerel was of a rich, deep toned red, one level shade of color all
over, and with a lustrous, greenish-black tail. He was built like the
bird in the picture on this page. The first pullet was also typical of the
true Buckeye, and rich and level in her color.

To attract attention, males of this variety should be of one even
shade of rich red in neck, back and wing bows. , While the Standard
allows the bird to be of a darker red on wing bows than in neck or
back, no two colored fowl of this kind can receive favorable comment
from critical fanciers. We would advise breeding the Rhode Island
Red color with a bar of slate in the under-color of back.

Typical Buckeye Male.

CHAPTER XXVI
PEDIGREE RECORDS

Toe marking and leg banding for the purpose of identifying the

pedigrees of birds — Growing opportunity for breeders who will

accurately and honestly pedigree-breed.

Perhaps no book on breeds and breeding is quite complete unless
it details methods for pedigreeing the progeny of matings. At least
the importance of such pedigreeing should be emphasized.

There is scarcely a breeder and seller of purebred fowls but what
has been impressed with the tendency of beginners to mate so many
females in their pens that they are unable to identify the individuals
from which they are breeding, with the result that recollections of the
parentage of any particular cockerel or pullet is more or less clouded
and confused.

Breeding should be carried on along definite lines. Of course, ever
since poultry has been bred, not merely raised, breeders have had con-
siderable information concerning the heredity of their birds. As a rule,
this information has been kept in simple form, such as toe marks in the

web of the foot between the
/K y|\ g /K A\ toes. Sixteen different toe marks

7 ' X 7 ' X • /ol \ /°l \ for identification purposes can

2 /°]\ /1\ /o /1X /1X ke kept as shown herewith.

/N /K /K /K ^^e cnicks may be web

3 /IX / 1\ //- /o\\ /IX punched, or toe marked, imme-

A. /K yK /K diately upon being removed

• /l\ /°\\ * ' /o\\ /o\\ from the nest with the hen or

<> A\ A\ n /K A\ taken from the incubator. Any

1 Jr 1 p°uitry suppiy st°re shouid be

6 Xl\ /N '* /1X XIX able to suPP]y a toe punch at

A A /K A sma11 cost for the PurP0se.

7- /l\ /o\\ fs- /o\\ /o\\ When a few females of about

/K /K /6 A\ A\ e(lual quality, which are full sis-

« /Io\ /ol\ '• /o|o\ /o|o\ ters are mated to Qne ma]e> toe

Sixteen Different Toe^Marks for Identification marking is a satisfactory means

of identifying the birds from

the pen; but when a number of pens are mated, and females of
different qualities and diverse breeding are mated in each pen, it
becomes necessary to employ trapnests, that the full parentage of
each egg may be identified with certainty, and then band each chick.
Each hen in the matings should carry a numbered leg band. The
band number of the hen that lays an egg should be marked with pencil
on the egg when it is taken from the trapnest and the hen released.

252

PEDIGREE RECORDS

253

The process of banding chicks is explained in the following quo-
tation from Rob. R. Slocum who has had charge of the breeding work
on the poultry farm of the U. S. Department of Agriculture in Mary-
land :

The parentage of the eggs having bee'n identified, the eggs are then set in an
incubator in the usual manner, receiving exactly the same treatment as any other
eggs until the eighteenth day. On this date the eggs are sorted out according to
the hens which laid them, the eggs from any individual hen being placed by them-
selves in a wire basket or compartment, or in a pedigree bag made of bobi.net. Both
the pedigree baskets arid the bobinet bags are found to be quite satisfactory.

The baskets allow greater freedon for the chicks after they are hatched, and
may interfere to a slightly less degree with the hatching of the eggs. The bobinet
bags take up less room on the incubator tray, and are adapted to varying numbers
of eggs to better advantage. The ends of the bags are closed by means of a draw-
string which can be tied tightly so as to prevent the escape of the chicks.

When the eggs are placed in the pedigree compartments, a slip of paper is en-
closed with them on which is written the hen number and pen number which appears
on the eggs. This is "done by way of precaution, so that if the eggshells are broken
so badly during the process of hatching that it is impossible to decipher the numbers
on them, the record will be available on the slip of paper and the parentage of the
chicks will not be lost.

When the eggs are hatched under hens, only eggs from one hen are placed in
a nest, or else eggs from hens of different breeds or varieties where the color
of the baby chicks is so different that the chicks can be distinguished readily, are
hatched together. After the chicks are hatched under the hens they are banded in
the same manner as those hatched in the incubator.

I

Punching a Hole in the Web With Strong, Sturdy Barred Rock Chick With
a Toe Punch. Bands on Legs.

254 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Banding the newly hatched chicks. We now have the chicks hatched in the
pedigree compartments in such a mariner that their parentage is known. When they
are taken out of these compartments, however, it becomes necessary to mark them
in some way immediately, otherwise the pedigree would be lost. The usual method
of marking the chicks is to leg-band them writh numbered, metal leg bands. Those
used at the Government Farm are No. 2 open pigeon bands, which have a simple
fastener that can be employed after the bands are transferred to the wings. For
the purpose of greater accuracy in our records, and to prevent the loss of the chick's
pedigree through the occasional loss of a leg band, two bands are used on each
chick. These bands bear the same number, and one is placed around each leg.

In attaching the band, one end of it is formed in a half circle, slipped around
the leg, and the rest of the band simply folded around the leg. Care must be
taken to see that the bands are not put on so tightly as to pinch the leg, as this
would cause a severe injury. On the other hand, bands must not be put on so
loosely that they will slip off over the foot and become lost.

As the bands are placed on the chick, a record is made of the number of the
band, the pen number from which the egg came, the number of the hen which
laid the egg, the date of hatching, and any other information desired.

Enlarging the leg bands. As the chicks grow, the size of the leg increases
quite rapidly. Early in the second week the chicks should all be gone over care-
fully and the bands opened up to provide for the growth of the leg. The bands
should be opened just as far as possible without their slipping off over the feet.

Transferring the bands to the wings. At any time after the chicks are three
weeks old they will be large enough for the removal of the bands from the legs
to the wings. This is desirable, since it will make it unnecessary to go over the
chicks a 'second time for the purpose of opening up the bands to accommodate
the growth of the legs. Once the bands are inserted in the wings, no further
attention need be given them, as they become permanent marks. The way in which
the bands are inserted in the wings is as follows :

When the wing of the chick is opened, a flap of skin will be noticed which ex-
tends from the shoulder joint across to the third joint of the wing, counting the
shoulder joint as the first joint. By holding this skin up to the light, a place
can be selected about a quarter-inch from the edge of the skin where there are
no large blood vessels. At this point run the small blade of a penknife through
the wing. Little bleeding will result. Remove the band from the leg, insert
it through the slit in the skin, and bring the ends together, forming the band into
a circle. The ends of the band can then be fastened together by means of its
fastening device.

Care must be taken in placing the band in the wing that it is not pressed
together so as to squeeze or pinch the skin of the wing. 'If this is done, the
circulation will be cut off, a sore will result, and the band may slough out and
be lost. These bands, when put in properly, will remain in the wing of the fowl
through mature life and will always serve as a permanent identification mark.
However, it will be found that it is not easy to read the numbers on these bands
on account of the feathers which interfere. On this account these bands do not
make suitable means of identification when the fowls have reached maturity and
are placed in separate pens or trapnested. Because of this, leg bands may be used
when the fowls are removed to thir winter quarters in the fall.

Opportunity for pedigree poultry breeding. Pedigreed breeding cannot be made
a simple process. It takes time, it takes pains, and unless one is prepared to give
it the time and attention necessary, he had best not attempt pedigree breeding in
poultry. For the general poultry keeper it is probable that trapnesting and pedi-
gree breeding are both impracticable. It is only the specialist, who has some par-
ticular purpose in his breeding operations and can afford to give the time and at-
tention necessary, who can go to the expense of this kind of breeding. For such
a specialist, whether he is breeding for exhibition stock, for stock of heavy egg-
producing proclivities, or for a combination of the two, there is a splendid widen-
ing field and a constantly growing demand for stock of known pedigree and per-
formance.

Index

American breeds, origin of, 13
Asiatic fowls, 9, 10, 12, 17

Back, 71

Barred color, inheritance of, 92

Barred Plymouth Rocks

breeding of, 92, 110, 111, 125, 127

crosses that produced the, 106

dark and light matings in, 127

early breeders of, 104

future of, 128

improvement in, 115

mating for color in, 125

origin of, 15, 103, 106

pullet breeding, 119
Barring, 89

lighter in male than in female, 110
Beak, 77
Black Wyandottes

early history of, 208

eye color of, 207

future of, 209

mating of, 209

recognized as a Standard variety, 3-17

shank color of, 207
Blue color, 86
Blue Plymouth Rocks, 171
Body, 74
Breast, 73
Breeder

place of the, 37

qualifications of the, 39

work of, 43
Breeding

color and markings, 91

effect of heavy laying on, 28

factors in, 51

for increased egg production, 26, 49

for increased size, 21

principles of, 48
Buff Plymouth Rocks

breeding of, 148

correct shade of buff, 146

origin of, 141
Buff Wyandottes

breeding of, 202

correct color of, 205

origin of, 201
Buckeyes

characteristics of, 250

origin of, 249

Columbian Plymouth Rocks
mating, 168
origin of, 164

Columbian Wyandottes

mating, 229

origin of, 227

Combs, rose and single, 48, 78
Culling, 62

Dominiques, 108, 236
Double mating, 94

Ear lobes, 77, 100
Economical producers, 32
Eggs

brown shelled, 18

purebred birds as layers of, 27

records of, 23
Eyes, 77, 101

Face, 77
Fancier, 80
Feather

secondary, 82

size of, 86

structure of, 82
Fluff, 74

Giants, Black Jersey, 234
Golden Laced Wyandottes

mating of, 191

origin of, 186

progress in, 187

type of, 190

Hatching, late, 99
Head, 76

Inbreeding, 44

Javas, Black, 231

characteristics of, 233

mating, 233

Mottled, 234

White, 234
Judging, 69
Jungle fowls, 6

Lacing, 89, 181
Sebright, 184
Legs, 75
Leg bands, 253
Linebreeding, 46

Meat

breeding for, 20

poultry, 19

wanted by poultry buyers, 22

255

256

THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY

Mendelism, 48
Missouri Fluffs, 248
Molt, 96
of pullets, 99

Neck, 72

Opportunity for breeders, 35, 52
Origin of the fowl, 5

Partridge Cochins, 157, 220
Partridge Plymouth Rocks

mating, 161

origin of, 155
Partridge Wyandottes

beauty of, "211

correct color of, 218

great improvers of, 215

introduction of, 212

mating, 219, 220

name selected, 215

originators of, 213
Pedigree breeding, 252
Penciling, 89
Plumage, 58, 59

beauty of, 79

colors found in, 86

growth of, 95

male, 84

patterns of, 88

texture of, 85

utility of, 81
Poultry products

demand for, 33
Poultry shows, 41
Prepotency, 47
Prices for purebred stock, 34, 52

Rhode Island Reds

color of, 243

early history of, 240

improvers of, 242

mating of, 244

size of, 240

type of, 239
Rhode Island Whites

egg value of, 247

mating of, 248

origin of, 247

Score card, 61
Selection, 43

natural, 44

to produce heavy layers, 65

Shape

body, 60

for meat production, 66

of good layers, 62

typical, 60

typical of breeds, 67
Silver Laced Wyandottes

early popularity, 179

English blood in, 181

dark fad in, 181

mating of, 185

naming the, 173

theories of origin, 174
Silver Penciled Plymouth Rocks

decline of, 152

mating of, 153

origin of, 149

Iver Penciled Wyandottes,

color of, 223

mating, 22b

origin of, 223
Size, relation to type, 57
Strain, building a, 43
Symmetry, 68

Tail, 72

Toe marking, 252

Trapnests, 252

Type

breed, 55

dual purpose, 29

future of dual purpose, 31

judging, 55

Variation, 46

Washing white fowls for exhibition, 199

Wattles, 77

White

color, 86

inheritance of, 87
White Plymouth Rocks

as a Standard variety, 137

mating, 140

modern, 139

origin of, 131, 133
White Wyandottes

defects found in, 198

early history of, 193

mating of, 198

prominent breeders of, 196

washing for exhibition, 199
Wings, 73

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