PARTRIDGE WYANDOTTES 217 



There was a fad for dark birds in the middle west about the time 

 that Carver and Avey showed at St. Louis, 1904. At a distance the 

 dark males appeared almost black. In the east, however, a brighter 

 color was bred, for Brackenbury's rich red line was the dominant 

 factor in the eastern flocks. 



M. H. Coffin, of Whitesville, Massachusetts, was prominent as a 

 breeder of the variety in New England. Charles H. Wood, Worcester, 

 Massachusetts, owed his success largely to Coffin. 



The splendid strain of Premier Partridge Wyandottes was founded 

 by H. B. Hark at Sheffield Farm, in Ohio. Hark took to Sheffield 

 Farm the Partridges that he was breeding at the Hartman Farm in 

 Columbus, and bought the entire flock of Coffin in 1910. The logical 

 successor of Ezra Cornell was M. H. Coffin, and the Coffin stock 

 was fundamentally the Cornell-Brackenbury stock; although Coffin 

 later secured some eggs for hatching from Doolittle, of Kansas, who 

 was breeding the western strain, and from C. H. George. 



Two years later Hark incorporated the Wolverine strain, bred and 

 originated by C. H. George, of Union City, Michigan. The Premier 

 strain today is an amalgamation of the cream of the early eastern 

 and western foundation strains of the variety. The Premier strain 

 was again reinforced as late as 1919, when Mr. Hark purchased a 

 bright colored cock and mated him to four females and used the 

 cockerels from this mating as pen breeders in 1920. This cock was 

 bred by C. R. Kreitler and was the progeny of a straight Doolittle 

 cock and an English hen imported by Thiem and presented by him 

 shortly before he died to Kreitler. Mr. Kreitler had purchased Mr. 

 Doolittle's flock some years before. 



Mrs. Dooley, the famous Partridge Wyandotte hen which was 

 purchased by Sheffield Farms and exhibited and bred by them with 

 such success that she became an outstanding individual in the history 

 of the breed, was bred by M. H. Coffin from birds produced from a 

 sitting of eggs that he purchased from Doolittle, and a sitting from 

 George. 



As a breeder she proved most valuable, and her blood and charac- 

 teristics are still quite prominent and noticeable in the "Premier" 

 strain. She was the sensation of the show at the club meet at 

 Chicago in 1909, and again at the club meet at Kansas City in 1910, 

 where W. A. Doolittle pronounced her the best Partridge hen that 

 had ever been produced. He remarked that it would be a long time 

 before another individual would be produced as good as she was. 



The first hen at the New York State Fair, 1920, on which we 

 commented, "A wonderfully big matron, elegantly penciled," is strong 

 in the blood of Mrs. Dooley and resembles her very much. 



The Sunbrier strain, as bred by T. W. Schoen, was started from 

 Premier birds, but at the Virginia State Fair in 1917 a most remark- 

 able pullet, both in shape and color, was purchased. "Sunbrier," an 



