PLYMOUTH ROCK STANDARD AND BREED BOOK 99 



acquainted with Mr. S ." Taking that statement as a fact, 



it was natural for Mr. Ramsdell or any one that was fond of 

 fowls to try out some of this new cross. We find no record of 

 Mr. Ramsdell exhibiting very often, but we do see accounts of 

 his selling birds, which indicates that he was a factor in the de- 

 velopment of the breed, but putting the two facts together it 

 seems not improbable that he was like Spaulding particularly 

 interested in the commercial side of poultry culture, though on 

 a smaller scale, Mr. Ramsdell being a clergyman. 



The Drake Strain. Forced by the circumstance of poor 

 health, it was necessary for the originator of this strain to make 

 his living from his sales of poultry, to sell his creations rather 

 than buy the creations of others ; especially, as fashionable novel- 

 ties in poultry, as in every other product, usually command 

 prices which it is to one advantage to receive rather than to give. 

 Drake strove to breed and rear specimens that could compete 

 successfully for the remunerative business that fell to Upham, 

 Ramsdell and Spaulding. The purchase of a large number of 

 birds was out of the question ; a few would not produce sufficient 

 numbers ; certainly it was not necessary to purchase if he could 

 devise a plan of breeding with results that were apparently the 

 same. This, we judge from all available accounts, he was able 

 to do. Some years ago the writer obtained from Mark Pitman 

 an account of his visit to Mr. Drake's place. Mr. Pitman said : 

 "We saw no Plymouth Rocks at all ; we did see hawk-colored 

 fowls, White Cochins and Light Brahmas. It was late in the 

 Fall, and as all we saw were old fowl, we concluded that the 

 Hawk-colored fowl, crossed with Light Brahmas or White 

 Cochin, were the parents of Drake's Plymouth Rocks. This view 

 of the question coincides very well with that taken by Mr. V. 

 C. Oilman of Nashua, N. H., whose early stock was largely of 

 the Drake strain. Mr. Oilman relates that he became acquainted 

 with Mr. Drake and found him an intelligent and honorable 

 gentleman of delicate health, but a thorough fancier. He never 

 volunteered information as to how he came into possession of 

 his first stock that Mr. Oilman remembered. Mr. Oilman relates 

 further that he was told by a neighbor while he was there that 

 Drake started his strain with Hawk-colored hens and an Asiatic 

 male bird. This statement Mr. Oilman apparently credited, as 

 he says: "I know it was a feature in his breeding to produce 

 male birds after the Brahma style." From the foregoing there 

 appears little reason to doubt that Mr. Drake did produce Ply- 

 mouth Rocks by crossing the Hawk-colored fowl, or Dominique, 



