20 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



Specially selected meat type. In the development of a strictly 

 meat type, the Plymouth Rocks generally are considered as possessing 

 the rather greater possibilities. The Plymouth Rocks have competed 

 with the most formidable of the Asiatic sub-breeds, namely, the Light 

 Brahmas, and in the great poultry growing section of eastern Massa- 

 chusetts the Rock has displaced the Brahma on some farms, and on 

 some others the two are crossbred to make the finest capons and soft 

 roasters. 



It should be said, however, that pure Barred and White Rocks are 

 extensively used down the shore south of Boston, where the famous 

 South Shore roasters are grown. These roasting chickens consist 

 both of caponized cockerels and fat pullets. It is one of the few 

 places in the world where pullets are grown for their meat. The 

 general run of South Shore roasters weigh from eight to nine pounds 

 for males and from five and one-half to six pounds for females. 

 Not infrequently heavier weights are obtained. The writer has han- 

 dled a pair of South Shore White Rock capons that weighed twenty- 

 two pounds four ounces and were said to be nine months old. There 

 is no opportunity for milk-feeding establishments in a district like 

 this where the birds are "grown fat." As the fowls are not finished 

 by being confined and crate-fed, their meat is relatively firm, yet a 

 certain softness results from the rapid growth. 



J. H. Curtiss, of Assinippi, Massachusetts, who has been called 

 the "father of the South Shore," being credited with having started 

 the industry there about 1880 by growing the best poultry that he 

 could, has strongly recommended the White Plymouth Rock. Said he: 

 "It produces a golden yellow leg, a golden yellow bill, and as high- 

 colored meat as any fowl in the world." To show the size this variety 

 attains and the satisfactory, quick growth that it makes, he took the 

 carcass of a White Rock capon that had just come from the picking- 

 room, put it on the scales, and it pulled eleven pounds four ounces. 

 It was May 3, and the bird was a winter chicken eight months old, 

 having been hatched September 1. 



Henry Dana Smith, of Norwell, Massachusetts, an extensive grower 

 of roasting chickens, preferred the Barred variety. Commenting on 

 the matter, he said: "The Barred Rock is now the best bird on the 

 South Shore. I have found that on the same feed and with the same 

 care the Barreds average one-half pound more than the Whites. 

 Growing five thousand roasters a year, this half pound means twenty- 

 five hundred pounds of high-priced soft roaster meat a year." Mr. 

 Smith's near neighbor, Joseph Tolman, keeps White Rocks, and thus 

 the matter of preference runs. Success with a certain kind depends 

 more on the flock or strain than it does upon breed name. 



Plymouth Rocks on the South Shore which are most desirable as 

 producers of roasting chickens are of Standard weight or slightly 

 heavier. The Rocks of the midwest farms are largely grades, and 

 while somewhat under Standard weight, as a rule they usually are 



