196 AMERICAN POULTRY ASSOCIATION 



quite against his will, to mature and mate the white chicks. The 

 greater part of all the white chicks obtained from the Barred 

 Plymouth Rocks came from the Essex or Drake strains, orig- 

 inated through the union of several kinds of fowls. 



An Early Account. From "Barred and White Plymouth 

 Rocks," by Joseph Wallace, 1888, we obtain in substance the 

 following account of the foregoing occurrence. Mr. Frost re- 

 ceived a pair of these White Plymouth Rocks (sports of Barred 

 Plymouth Rocks) of a neighbor who was breeding the Essex 

 strain of Barred Plymouth Rocks. These he bred the first year 

 and according to several accounts he had a poor looking lot for 

 some years, but finally succeeded in producing very fine flocks 

 of fowls. According to some authorities quoted in that work, 

 1878 is the date that Mr. Frost started to breed them, though 

 it is generally thought that white sports from Barred Plymouth 

 Rocks had not been an infrequent occurrence. The same author 

 pays this nice tribute to the new variety : 



"The mind cannot conceive of a more handsome and appro- 

 priate companion for the Barred Plymouth Rock than the White 

 Rock. Often in our boyhood days, while reading the stories of 

 Sinbad, the Sailor, in the 'Arabian Nights' Entertainments,' we 

 pictured to ourselves the size, strength and power of flight of 

 that formidable and fortuitous bird, the White Roc, that was 

 capable of lifting elephants from the plains, that rescued so 

 many travelers, heroes, cast-aways and adventurers from the 

 jaws of death, and carried them in its huge talons over seas and 

 mountains to other lands, where pleasure, wealth and beauty 

 awaited them. Little did we think then that the day would come 

 in our time when the great White Rock of the western world 

 would carry off thousands at a time, not in its talons, but in 

 admiration of its grandeur, beauty and usefulness." 



Clamor for Recognition. Directly following the public an- 

 nouncement of the presence of these fowls, there was a persistent 

 clamor for recognition as the originators of them, and for the 

 right to name them. This claim was conceded to the person who 

 could prove that he was the first to see and breed them. They 

 were variously named White Plymouth Rocks, Puritans, Dirigos, 

 and other names for the less important strains. The real strife 

 for supremacy came when admission to the Standard of Perfec- 



