240 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



his increased size, and he, therefore, has the desired length without 

 narrowness. If you seek to breed length as an independent factor, 

 you will find that nature puts only so much boney framework in each 

 bird, and that length cannot be secured except by sacrificing width; 

 but if you breed a bird that is bigger than the birds of your com- 

 petitors, you will naturally have a longer and broader carcass. 



Size and egg production. This partly accounts for the tendency 

 among breeders and judges to emphasize the value of size in Rhode 

 Island Reds. Their preference in this matter, however, has not 

 amounted to a craze for size. While strong bodies of good substance 

 are desired, it is well known that the average man thinks of chickens 

 in terms of eggs, and that the popularity of the Rhode Island Red 

 females as layers may be lost by breeding an excess of size which 

 is unavoidably associated with slower maturity, coarseness of bone 

 and sluggishness of action. Although the Standard weight pullet of 

 5 Ibs. is usually too small for exhibition purposes, there is a certain 

 merit in her type that the founders of the breed sought to perpet- 

 uate, and a judge who awards a 9^-lb. cockerel is losing sight of 

 the economic properties of the active, early maturing red hen on 

 which the popularity of the breed has been built. 



Early history as a farm fowl in Rhode Island. What might be 

 termed the birthplace, it was at least the stronghold, of red plumaged 

 fowls, was the Little Compton district in Rhode Island. For many 

 years the farmers of this district had raised ever-increasing quantities 

 of fowls for egg production. Red hens were the predominant sort. 

 It was in the nineties of the last century that the poultry in 

 this district attracted the attention of Dr. N. B. Aldrich, Roland G. 

 Ruffington, Daniel P. Shove, Samuel Cushman and others not so 

 widely known, and they adopted some of the red stock and soon 

 evolved it into what is now so widely known as the Rhode Island 

 Red breed of poultry. 



The Little Compton district is sectional -geographically. It is the 

 southeast portion of Rhode Island, and is bounded by the Sakonnet 

 Sound on the west, the Atlantic Ocean on the south and the West- 

 port River on the east. This eastern portion includes a small part 

 of Massachusetts. No railroad or trolley line penetrates the district, 

 although of recent years an automobile bus line has operated between 

 Little Compton and the nearest railroad station, Tiverton, R. I. 



The chickens of the district are colony farmed for eggs and are 

 housed in colony houses, which are surprisingly uniform in size and 

 construction. They are 8x12 ft. on the ground, the front and rear 

 are 6 ft. high and the apex of the roof is 9 ft. high. Forty to forty- 

 five birds are put in each house. The birds are out of doors nearly 

 all day. There are probably not more than two weeks during the win- 

 ter when they must remain indoors. There is little snow, for the 

 "salt air" from the ocean cuts it. One or two glass windows and a 



