5o6 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



darker ground they would appear differently. 

 English feathers similarly treated would appear 

 greyer in the ground, and the bars on many we 

 have seen are quite black, with more or less 

 green gloss>. It is difficult to find any single 

 feather from Rocks as now bred, which appears 

 blue at all ; and yet the whole mass of feathers 

 when superposed gives that impression distinctly. 

 If any breeder will examine single feathers 

 laid upon papers or cards of different colours, 

 these remarks will be understood, and such facts 

 make a really definite standard of colour very 

 difficult to frame. 



It was as a very profitable and generally 

 useful fowl all round, that the barred or original 

 Plymouth Rock steadily achieved popularity 



in the United States, and later in 

 Merits England. The colour wears well 



Rocks. ^"d looks well, especially about a 



farm ; the laying powers are above 

 the average, and when cultivated reach a very 

 high standard indeed ; the meat, though not 

 white or such as in England is considered first- 

 rate in quality, is extremely good and juicy ; 

 and the bird makes a rapid growth which is 

 only equalled by Dorking or Houdan crosses. 

 The constitution is hardy, and the chickens 

 easily reared. Until the White Wyandotte 

 arose, no fowl was ever bred and kept so 

 extensively as the Barred Rock was in the 

 United States, and it probably holds the first 

 place there still ; and we have already seen that 

 it forms the basis of a large portion of the best 

 table fowls sent over from Ireland. 



The Barred Rock plumage is not easy to 

 breed to present exhibition standards, and as 

 a rule requires more or less of the system of 



double mating. In this case the 

 Breeding necessity arises from fanciers desir- 



Barred Rocka. ing to make similar in both sexes, 



barring and colouring which Nature 

 has arranged to be finer in barring and lighter 

 in colour in the males than the females. That 

 would apply to all cuckoo barred fowls ; but in 

 this particular case there is the added difficulty 

 of the strong Black Java blood always tending 

 to reappear in pullets, if birds too dark are used 

 on either side*; some birds of this kind are 

 inevitable if adequate colour is to be preserved, 

 but they are getting somewhat fewer than they 

 used to be. We do not think breeding is so 

 difficult in England, at present, as it is to the 

 American standard of colour and marking. 

 The following notes are kindly contributed by 



* There is little doubt that some of the so-called Black Javas 

 in America are these black sports from barred Rocks, but have 

 been used as ciosses on the older Java stock, which of course 

 500Q absorbs them. 



Airs. Wilkinson, of Scotforth, Lancashire, well 

 known for her successes in the exhibition pen, 

 and set forth the necessary points clearly. 



" The description and systems of breeding 

 given below are based upon experiments per- 

 sonally conducted during the last seventeen or 

 eighteen years ; and, as my successes have not 

 been infrequent, it may perhaps be taken for 

 granted that the principles are sound. I will 

 commence by describing, as well as my rarely 

 used pen will permit me, the qualifications re- 

 quired of the breeding stock, and how to mate 

 for the production of youngsters of high-class 

 exhibition merit. 



" The chief question has been, shall we 

 retain the old style of single matings, or em- 

 ploy systems whereby we breed separately for 

 the two different sexes 1 Much may be said 

 for both sides of the question. As an instance 

 of the utility of single mating, it may be men- 

 tioned that at the Royal Show of 189S the first 

 prize winners in both the cockerel and the 

 pullet classes owed their existence to the same 

 parents. Since that date, however, events seem 

 to prove that the would-be prize winner must 

 study his fowls more closely and ascertain 

 which of his stock produce the best cockerels 

 and which the best pullets, and so mate that 

 these newly discovered proclivities may be 

 accelerated. I believe that since the period re- 

 ferred to the most successful cockerels owe their 

 origin to totally different sources from the 

 pullets. There are admitted exceptions, for 

 I have myself bred high-class exhibition 

 cockerels and pullets from the same pen, and 

 they have won first honours at leading events in 

 both classes; and, as late as 1910, the pullet 

 that won the champion challenge cup at the 

 Crystal Palace and all the large shows owed its 

 origin to a pen that produced a few first-class 

 cockerels that were well up at the chief events. 

 Still, in spite of this, during the seventeen or 

 eighteen years of my experience, the majority 

 of the champion winning pullets have been pro- 

 duced from different matings to the first-class 

 cockerels. This fact has converted me to 

 favouring double mating. 



" I have bred from a good many pens in 

 each year, and I have found that for breeding 

 the highest class cockerels, the females in the 

 pen must be of very dark rich colour, with good 

 undercolour, with tails well barred to the end, 

 and care must be exercised to have the feathers 

 with black tips. If this was strictly adhered 

 to we should not have so many cockerels with 

 white in tail. Care should also be taken to 

 have the female well built, standing fairly 

 well up with good shoulders. The stock 



