BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 123 



History of the Thompson pullet line. Latham and Welles were 

 both great pullet breeders. Charles Welles' famous hen "Fluffy Ruf- 

 fles" won at the Garden in 1907, and she was dark and strong-colored. 

 Charles Latham's females excelled in cleanness of the white bar, 

 sharpness with which the dark bar was denned and the decisiveness 

 with which the dark bar left off and the white bar began. These 

 two breeders held sway until Edward B. Thompson started in to 

 breed females in earnest, when he outdistanced both of them. 



Now, all these breeders agree that the dark line has influenced the 

 light line. Why not be frank about this thing? What breeder hasn't 

 admired the beauty of a cockerelbred pullet; what breeder of any 

 variety but what has learned that color works out from generation to 

 generation, and you get what you want on its way out? Surely every 

 breeder knows the value of excess color. It is, therefore, not damag- 

 ing to say that Thompson's female line dates back to the cockerel 

 line. The result is an entire flock containing hundreds of representa- 

 tives of double mated Barred Rocks that for evenness of color, simi- 

 larity in character of barring and blending of the whole flock, is unsur- 

 passed. 



In females we find the blood of one female running through the 

 flock. Some may call this inbreeding, and that is right, but you will 

 find more of her blood in some families of E. B. Thompson's pullet 

 line than in some of his other families. The birds are not closely 

 inbred. But, if they were totally unrelated, the Ringlets would not 

 represent a strain of Barred Rocks and no buyer in the flock would 

 have any assurance of the blood nicking and producing quality equal 

 to the purchased stock. Linebreeding is the proper term to apply to 

 this kind of constructive flock building. "Linebred" means that the 

 individual so bred traces back in a direct line to famous sires and 

 dams. 



History of the Thompson cockerel line. The history of E. B. 

 Thompson's bright, clean-colored male line will be of interest to 

 breeders, for this line has influenced the ideals of breeders and judges 

 of the east, west, north and south, and made it impossible for any- 

 one anywhere to sell for a long price anything other than a straight 

 barred, clean barred, bright clear colored bird. Even in England the 

 old color-type "black as a derby hat" has gone, and in its place we 

 find the winning hen at the Royal show (Agricultural Society's Show, 

 1919) possessing a straight dark bar and a clean white bar. 



The pedigree of the present Thompson male line of Barred Rocks 

 run back through two principal arteries of blood. Both of these tribu- 

 taries of the present stream may be traced, but we shall go back only 

 as far as the water is deep. In December, 1907, Mr. Thompson showed 

 a cockerel at New York that was big, fully feathered indicating strong 

 masculinity, finished in tail, big faced and his eye was as bright as a 

 shoe button. Henry P. Schwab who judged the class that year, said: 

 'There is something about that bird which is hard to describe," In 



