PLYMOUTH ROCK STANDARD AND BREED BOOK 137 



CHAPTER V. 



MATING TO OVERCOME DEFECTS IN SHAPE 



"Shape makes the breed, color the variety." Then, as typical 

 Plymouth Rocks are. primarily desired from our matings, we 

 must look closely and well to the characters required to obtain 

 better formed specimens. 



The Importance of Shape. So often does the impression 

 exist that color is of primary and shape of secondary importance 

 with the breeder of Standard fowls that a brief discourse on the 

 above topic seems advisable. Such an impression is erroneous 

 and far from the letter and the spirit of the Standard. Shape, 

 in fact, with the more practical breeds, counts more than color. 



Why Shape Counts More Than Color. We must ever recall 

 that "shape makes the breed." Without typical shape, breed- 

 types are destroyed. A Plymouth Rock is not typical Plymouth 

 Rock merely because it has a single comb, smooth legs and the 

 color and markings of one of the Plymouth Rock varieties. It 

 must first have Plymouth Rock shape. Shape is of first impor- 

 tance because breed comes first and without shape there can be 

 neither breed nor variety. Faulty color injures the variety only, 

 but faults in shape injure both our ideals. A specimen quite 

 faulty in color has no standing with the variety of which it is 

 a member, but a specimen that is seriously faulty in shape has 

 no standing with the breed which it is supposed to represent, 

 and as variety is but a "sub-division of the breed," it can have 

 no standing as a representative of either a breed or of a variety 

 of that breed. 



Breed characteristics are vastly more important than those 

 of the variety ; for breed characteristics represent practical quali- 

 ties upon which the foundation of every branch of the poultry 

 industry rests. Deprive it of its economic value as a food supply 

 and this industry would assume merely the proportions and im- 

 portance of the breeding of pet dogs, pet cats, cage birds, and 

 kindred fancies. It is in recognition of this fact that the Ameri- 

 can Poultry Association has made breed characteristics, which 

 are synonymous with practical qualities, authoritatively of more 

 importance than those which apply to variety, representing the 

 attractive features only. Breed characteristics are described 

 completely by one word shape which embraces all the prac- 

 tical qualities of a fowl. The features that distinguish varieties, 



