08 AMERICAN POULTRY ASSOCIATION 



"Now it is both curious and very extraordinary, to say the 

 least of it, that Mr. Spaulding should adopt for his breed the 

 cognomen of that of Dr. Bennett's and Mr. G. P. Burnham's 

 new variety, and which, according to the portraits in Bennett's 

 book, so much resemble in shape the New Plymouth Rock ; and, 

 further, it is not so clear that those of Dr. Bennett had really 

 disappeared, for in the last paragraph in 'the Doctor's' book 

 regarding them, Mr. John Giles distinctly states that : 'I shall 

 endeavor hereafter to produce them with uniform plumage, pre- 

 ferring the dark colour, dark legs and four toes only.' To me the 

 name thus given to a new breed, being one belonging to another, 

 is very unsatisfactory, nor does the after variations of the Barred 

 Plymouth Rock, borne out in the progeny, accord with this 

 asserted origin; nor is it likely but that the name had some 

 notoriety, or why adopted if it was so indifferent as to have 

 become extinct?" 



One could hardly imagine that a possibility of developing a 

 fowl of the type and plumage of the modern Plymouth Rocks 

 from the crosses named by Dr. Bennett exists. Upon this ques- 

 tion Mr. Weir seems the only exponent of this theory of the 

 origin for the Plymouth Rock of the present day. All writers 

 during the intermediate period, even the Doctor's friend, Burn- 

 ham, seem to repudiate such a theory. 



Mr. F. H. Ayer in his pamphlet (1878), after describing the 

 Bennett Plymouth Rocks goes on to state: "The modern Plym- 

 outh Rock is quite a different fowl from the one we have just 

 described and was produced from different stock though, as is 

 too well known to need comment, it is a cross-bred." 



Stoddard in The Plymouth Rocks (1880) writes: "Whatever 

 their excellencies, the incipient breed ran out completely, or ran 

 into anything or everything by admixture with adverse breeds, 

 and for years no Plymouth Rocks existed. Then came another 

 fowl of entirely new blood and finding the name ready-made 

 but the fowl it used to represent extinct, accepted it as the title 

 best suited to its solid merits. At this point the old line Rocks 

 disappear; henceforth the title 'Plymouth Rock' means the fowl 

 of today." 



Exactly the same views are taken by Corbin n 1879, Bishop 

 in 1880, Wallace in 1888 and many others. The periodicals of 

 that time, however, show that the new breed was quite widely 

 distributed and received its full share of publicity. Though 

 they failed to establish themselves and lacked uniformity and a 

 positive pattern in plumage, such was the call for a fowl that 



