CHAPTER XI 

 COLUMBIAN PLYMOUTH ROCKS 



A color-type of surpassing beauty Pure white bodies offer a fine contrast 



to the black-striped hackles, black-centered tail coverts and greenish-black 



tail Origin of the variety Developments made by prominent breeders 



How to mate for best results. 



The color type of the Light Brahma was first bred in the Colum- 

 bian Wyandotte. This variety was named in 1893, the year that the 

 Columbian Exposition or World's Fair was held in Chicago. It was 

 a decade later before work was started on the Columbian Plymouth 

 Rocks. The variety was first called the Light Plymouth Rock, but 

 in 1910, when it was accorded recognition as a Standard variety, it 

 was known as the Columbian Plymouth Rock. 



There was some discussion on the desirability of making a new 

 breed of the two Columbians and, instead of calling the new varieties 

 Columbian Wyandottes and Columbian Rocks, naming them Rose and 

 Single Comb Columbians. The difference in the varieties, however, 

 was so distinct, even in the early days, that no action resulted from 

 the discussion to breed the two races to the same shape standard. 



The Columbian Rock was a distinctly larger fowl than the Colum- 

 bian Wyandotte. The Light Brahma, the largest of all the breeds 

 of domesticated chickens, was close up in the ancestry of the Colum- 

 bian Rock, and the breeders of this new variety were insistent on 

 bone, size, length of body, broad skulls and big heads features that 

 did not characterize the Columbian Wyandotte. 



The Columbian Wyandotte had the greater intensity of black 

 markings, the Columbian Rock being weak in black points, but of 

 all things the Rock was big. 



In the early days of the Columbian Wyandotte there was less 

 opportunity for a larger type fowl which would carry the markings 

 of the Light Brahma, for the Light Brahma completely covered the 

 big-breed field. But at last the clean-legged breeds of the American 

 class began to reduce the new recruits to the ranks cf breeders of 

 the majestic old Brahma, and its wonderful color scheme of a pure 

 white body with greenish black contrasts was not in itself sufficient 

 to maintain the premier position of the old Asiatic breed, and at the 

 ten Madison Square Garden (New York) show^s from 1901 to 1910 

 the Light Brahmas averaged ninety-seven birds at each exhibition, 

 as against an average of 164 Light Brahmas at each New York show 

 from 1891 to 1900, inclusive. It now became practical to transfer the 

 plumage of the Light Brahma to that large, typical American race, 

 the Plymouth Rock, and there appeared to be a big opportunity for 

 the progressive breeder who should perform the work successfully. 



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