80 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



THE POULTRY-YARD. 

 BRISTOL. 



[From the Report of the Committee.] 



The Plymouth Rocks were numerously represented, this 

 excellent breed evidently growing in favor with .our farming 

 friends. Few breeds combine so many valuable qualities. 

 As winter-layers they have no superiors, if any equals ; and, 

 weighing from six to eight pounds, they are excellent poultry 

 for the table. Like all races which have an Asiatic strain 

 in them, it will not be found profitable to keep them after 

 they are two years old, as, after that time, the Asiatic pro- 

 pensity to sit develops itself strongly. The young pullets 

 begin to lay nearly two months earlier than the Brahmas or 

 Asiatic varieties. This is emphatically one of the breeds 

 which it will repay the farmer to breed pure. To the 

 poultry-fancier who has been accustomed to other longer 

 established breeds, it may not be quite so satisfactory, as 

 some other varieties, from the fact that great care must be 

 taken in the selection of a cock to match the pullets in 

 order to secure the best markings. 



The standard of excellence needs revision ; for, as it now 

 reads, no pair of Plymouth Rocks properly mated for breed- 

 ing can take a premium : in other words, it is necessary to 

 show a bird highly ornamental perhaps, but of no possible 

 use as a breeder, merely to fill the requirements of the show 

 pen. It has been conclusively demonstrated that a cock and 

 hen of the same color or tint of plumage will throw birds 

 too dark, if both are of the standard shade, or vice versa if 

 both are too light. t Now, there would be just as much sense 

 in requiring the cock and hen of the black red game variety 

 to be nearly the same in color in order to take a premium in 

 the show pen, as insisting on the requirement as it now 



