BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS 143 



the first cross, now came to the surface, and Wilson was puzzled about 

 this, but he was able to select two yards of creditable birds from the 

 forty chicks, and improvement the following season was very marked. 

 The line continued to improve and in 1893 the birds made a great name 

 for their breeder by winning at the World's Fair at Chicago, 1st 

 cock, 1st hen, 1st cockerel, 1st pullet and 1st pen. Several of these 

 birds were sold to an English breeder, and in this World's Fair 

 collection was a female that continued to win at Madison Square 

 Garden until her death in 1897. 



Another prominent strain of Buff Rocks appeared in the early 

 nineties. It was bred by J. O. Joslin, Tiashoke, New York. Joslin 

 claimed that his stock was free from Buff Cochin blood. While this 

 was a controversial point, the fact was that Joslin was very success- 

 ful in breeding a pure buff bird, his stock being remarkably free 

 from black in tail, wing primaries and secondaries, and the birds 

 were of good Plymouth Rock shape. 



F. C. Shepard as a breeder. Between 1890 and 1900 several strains 

 of prominence were started. With the foundation laid by Buffington. 

 W'ilson and Joslin, numerous breeders took up Buff Plymouth Rocks. 

 One of the best known names among these successful breeders was 

 that of F. C. Shepard, of Toledo, Ohio, who made his start in 1893 

 and for twenty years exhibited at the leading shows. 



Shepard's start was made on the original foundation stock of the 

 variety. He purchased from Buffington in 1893 the 2d Buff Rock 

 cock at the New York show, and at the same time obtained two 

 pullets from Joslin. The color of the cock was reddish-buff with 

 some black in tail and wings. Shepard bred the birds as the best to 

 be had, and continued to linebreed throughout his career as a breeder. 



There are those who claim that Shepard introduced new blood 

 from time to time, but he stoutly put forward the assertion that he 

 had but once introduced a new bird into his yards, and "she was a 

 pullet bred from a female I sold. Never could I have bred out the 

 off colors by crossing every year. It is inbreeding in its closest form, 

 but it is the only way I know how to breed." 



Shepard was never an extensive breeder. He mated four pens 

 each year and raised seventy-five to one hundred chicks, selling the 

 surplus eggs for hatching. In 1911 he hatched eighty-two chicks 

 and that fall had seventy-seven head of young stock. Not one had 

 been culled, yet upon a visit to this breeder's yards in the fall of 

 that year we saw but one of the hatch that showed a trace of white 

 and but one that was a little dark in color. We weighed a cockerel 

 that day (September 12) that had been hatched May 8, and he tipped 

 the scales at a trifle over four pounds. He was a strongly built 

 youngster. A man could put his fist between his legs, he was so 

 broadly built. This cockerel was a living witness that there had been 

 no loss of vigor in the Shepard flock. 



Shape was maintained. "A buff bird with a single comb must have 



