WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 135 



New York show for several years, and upon this foundation was 

 builded the most successful strain of a generation. 



Success of Bailey and Graves. Some of Hawkins' stock found its 

 way into the hands of A. H. Bailey of Middletown, Conn., the first 

 great improver of the variety. In Bailey's yards outstanding birds of 

 superior quality were produced and eventually they began to appear 

 in the White Rock classes of the great eastern shows. Bailey was a 

 constructive breeder whose influence on the type, color and general 

 quality of the variety was greater than that of any man who had 

 taken up the breeding of White Plymouth Rocks after they had 

 become established as a separate and distinct race of the Plymouth 

 Rock breed. 



Harry Graves of Higganum, Connecticut, grew birds for Bailey, 

 and Bailey died before he reaped the full reward of his own efforts. 

 Graves got the credit because he lived longer, although he too is now 

 deceased. And Graves deserves much credit. He studied and grew 

 White Rocks for fifteen years before he ever exhibited. W'hen he did 

 exhibit, his birds were in a class by themselves, and their blood lines 

 were so established that they became the foundation source from 

 which descend the leading flocks of White Plymouth Rocks in the 

 east today. 



It was the Bailey-Graves strain, scattered around Middletown, 

 Higganum and Hartford that produced the White Rocks of surpass- 

 ing quality for years. Graves never grew more than 200, sometimes 

 100 birds. He was a hunter and fisherman and he traveled up and 

 down the Connecticut valley and had a great many birds farmed out. 

 When Graves died in 1905, M. L. Chapman continued his breeding; 

 system, although the personal flock of Harry Graves was sold. Chap- 

 man had been schooled down where the going was fast, and he mated 

 many of the farm flocks that had been established by Graves, and sold 

 a number of birds. When Chapman moved to New Jersey, the 

 farmers no longer had anyone to mate their birds for them and no 

 outlet for the fine birds that they grew. But the Graves' blood was 

 already well distributed in the hands of constructive breeders. 



What Bailey and Graves did could also be done by others. Per- 

 haps the easiest way to go about it was to get some of their blood, 

 although it was not necessary to acquire their best birds. It is not 

 always a matter of money with which to buy the highest priced win- 

 ners. A man does not have to have the best with which to start. 

 This question of producing good quality birds is largely a matter of 

 devotion to the birds themselves, a single standard well fixed in the 

 breeder's mind, and close study of individual birds so that they may 

 be mated to produce the better quality. 



Davey, Delano and Owen. When Frank H. Davey went to Grey- 

 stone Farm at Yonkers, New York, it is said that his purchases were 

 limited to $5 for any one bird, which is equivalent to about $20 today, 

 considering both increased currency and increased demand for pure- 



