54 



OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



Subsequent developments showed that those who had sup- 

 posed that the interest in fine poultry was only a passing fad 

 were wrong. The true reason for its decline at that time was 

 that the nation was approaching a crisis in its history and a 

 civil war. When the war was over, the interest in poultry revived 

 at once, and has steadily increased ever since. The prices for 

 fine specimens, which were considered absurd in the days of the 



hen fever, are now ordi- 

 nary prices for stock of 

 high quality. 



How the American 

 breeds arose. It is natural 

 to suppose that with such 

 a variety of types of fowls, 

 from so many lands, there 

 was no occasion for Amer- 

 icans to make any new 

 breeds. If, however, you 

 look critically at the for- 

 eign breeds, you may 

 notice that not one of 

 them had been developed 

 with reference to the sim- 

 FIG. 43. Barred Plymouth Rock cock. (Pho- pie requirements of the 



tograph from Bureau of Animal Industry, or dinary farmer and poul- 

 United States Department of Agriculture) 



try keeper. It was the 



increasing demand for eggs and poultry for market that had 

 given the first impulse to the interest in special breeds. The 

 first claim made for each of these was that it was a better layer 

 than the ordinary fowl. In general, these claims were true, but 

 farmers and others who were interested primarily in producing 

 eggs and poultry for the table were rather indifferent to the 

 foreign breeds, because, among them all, there was not one as 

 well adapted to the ordinary American poultry keeper's needs 



