EVOLUTION OF THE POULTRY INDUSTRY 15 



stocks were much superior in size, vigor, and productiveness to 

 those of their kind known at the present day. What the truth as 

 to this may be must always remain a matter of conjecture. The 

 probable truth is that the early stocks were on the whole inferior 

 to average specimens of their races at the present time. Certain 

 it is that not one of the many foreign breeds introduced was of 

 the type adapted to American ideas and conditions. No one 

 of them ever appealed, or could have appealed, to the mass of 

 poultry keepers as has the so-called American type, otherwise 

 known as the general-purpose type. 



Importations of ducks and geese of foreign breeds early made 

 American fanciers familiar with the favorites, of both kinds, in 

 various parts of Europe, and with the Chinese and African races 

 of geese. Singularly, the most important of all foreign breeds of 

 waterfowl, the Pekin duck, was almost unknown in this country 

 until quite late in the nineteenth century. Coming into general 

 notice just at the time when artificial methods of incubation and 

 brooding had been brought to a practical stage, and being espe- 

 cially adapted to the intensive methods of culture which harmonize 

 with these, the Pekin duck furnished the material for what soon 

 became the most profitable line of poultry culture. 



In the improvement of the turkey the greatest progress was 

 made by crossing the domestic native with the original wild stock, 

 still found in its natural state in certain localities over a wide 

 area of country. 



First effects of aquaintance with improved breeds. Observation 

 of the striking new types could not fail to impress on the minds of 

 those already interested in the improvement of poultry, the advan- 

 tages of fixed type and of uniformity in the individuals of a flock, 

 or to create an interest in methods of producing these. Naturally 

 such persons procured and bred stock of these breeds, but from 

 the beginning of public interest in them it was apparent that the 

 mass of poultry keepers were more interested in the new breeds 

 for the benefits to the native stock from crossing with them, than 

 for the development of the breeds in their purity. 



It was for this reason, and perhaps also because they had been 

 quite widely introduced through all that part of the country which 

 was in close touch with Asiatic commerce, that the Asiatic fowls 



