PLYMOUTH ROCK STANDARD AND BREED BOOK 159 



varieties of Plymouth Rocks as far as conformation is involved ; 

 therefore, the general treatise upon that topic will apply; no 

 special treatise being necessary. Naturally, then, this chapter 

 will be expected to omit such a treatise and deal with the prob- 

 lems of breeding exact color and correct markings. 



The Chief Difficulty. It is a well known and universally 

 recognized fact among the well informed along these lines of 

 endeavor that the Barred Rock males are as a general occur- 

 rence lighter in shade of color than the females. 



This phenomenon of light colored males and darker colored 

 females from the same parents is not thoroughly understood. 

 Many have sought to explain it by stating that the male of the 

 original cross was light and the female black ; hence produced 

 light males and darker females. That this explanation is no 

 explanation at all, everyone at all familiar with the laws of 

 breeding recognizes. 



The very first breeders of this variety discovered that the 

 males from the same matings were much lighter than the fe- 

 males. We have in Mr. Upham's account the statement that 

 the first cross of Spaulding's produced females most of which 

 were black and that but few were gray, while all the males 

 were gray. Mr. Ramsdell makes the same statement. Thereby, 

 we learn from the beginning the females came much darker 

 than the males and this tendency was much more pronounced 

 in the earliest days than later. It would appear that skillful 

 mating has overcome this tendency slowly, gradually and to a 

 certain extent only, because the existence of such a tendency 

 we can not deny even at the present day, over fifty years since 

 the origin of the variety ; but still, skillful breeding, certainly, 

 must be conceded, because improvement in every way, the evi- 

 dence of which is on either hand in every community in the 

 land and nearly every country on the globe, yet there must be 

 a strongly dominant influence, naturally inherent in this variety, 

 when, after fifty years, an undesirable tendency, to eliminate 

 which every effort has been made, will show itself even in the 

 slightest degree. The student is anxious to understand and de- 

 mands a plausible theory of explanation. The breeder ques- 

 tions why, so that he may overcome this tendency as fully as 

 possible or more completely than his competitor. 



The Generally Accepted Explanation. A few explanations 

 of varied character have been offered and the one that is the 



