LE55ONS IN POULTRY KLLPING SLCOND SERIES. 



were develop- 

 country a n d 

 aboard the 

 ^d to h a v e 

 from abroad, 

 nation, how- 

 removes the 

 farther back 

 reasonable to 

 fowls of this 

 sis introduced 

 were develop- 

 vommon stock 

 w i t h o u t at- 

 I ion. 



tic fowls were 

 type o f o u r 

 in* and Brah- 

 out the finish 

 feather, a n d 

 >harp differ- 

 v a r i e t i e s 

 *4nce taken 

 were large 

 threat size as 

 with the com- 



ed In this 

 s in u g g I c d 

 vessels reput- 

 brought them 

 Such an expla- 

 ever, merely 

 import ation 

 for it is not 

 suppose that 

 class and type 

 to the public 

 ed from our 

 or developed 

 trading atten- 

 r i'hese Asia- 

 of the general 

 present Coch- 

 in a 8, but with- 



Si he i 



without the 

 entiation into 

 which has. 

 place. They 

 birds. Their 

 compared 

 mon fowls 



Laced Wyandottes. 



>eems to have been their first point of attraction. They were docile and hardy, and were 

 generally given, by those who tried them, the reputation of being good layers. They laid large 

 brown eggs then a novelty in our markets, and as poultry were considered very superior to 

 the common fowls. 



They were immediately taken up both by "fanciers'' and by poultry keepers. The fanciers 

 immediately began to multiply breeds by giving different names to different types and colors. 

 Quite a number of poultrymen began at once to try to improve the common stock in their hands 

 iy crossing the large males on it. It is said that one effect of this was that within a few years 

 the poultry brought into the Boston markets was noticeably improved in size. Another result 

 was a general quickening of interest in better poultry. People began to try to learn something 

 of established breeds of fowls; numerous importations were made from England especially, 

 though there may have been some from continental countries. Within a few years most of the 

 breeds having any vogue in England were pretty well represented here, and forty years a^o 

 Ilamburgs, Polish, and Spanish were distributed quite generally throughout the northern 

 t-tates not in such numbers as are found of popular fowls today, but still numerous enough t > 

 Isecome familiar objects. Asiatics seem to have been distributed more slowly. All these 

 worked into the common stocks of the country until, when I was a boy beginning to be much 

 interested in poultry, a large proportion of the farm flocks contained many specimens showing 

 unmistakable evidence of well bred parentage of some of these races. 



Such breeding, however, was indiscriminate, and led to nothing definite. None of the new 

 types produced were able to gain more than local prominence. Nor did the thoroughbred 

 fowls of those days take with the public, especially the farmers, as did those which were to be 

 brought out later. 



It is less than thirty years since the first of our present "American class" of fowls was intro- 

 duced to the public as the "Plymouth Rx;k," to be known later, as other varieties of the same 

 breed type appeared, as the B irre 1 P.ymouth Rock. Into the disputes with regard to the 

 origin of this fowl we need not enter here. Suffice it to say that in it were combined for the 



