POPULARITY OF THE. NEW TYPE. OF FOWL. 



89 



first time with promise of race permanence the most generally desirable qualities of the Asiatic 

 and the smaller races of fowls. Soon afterward the Silver Wyandotte appeared. This was a 

 combination of the Hamburg and Brahma, and a most attractive intermediate between those 

 types. 



A few years before the introduction of these "general purpose breeds," the Leghorns had 

 been introduced, and they quickly distanced the older "every day layers" in that field, while 

 with the new Plymouth Rocks and "Wyandottes they awakened a general interest in poultry cul- 

 ture which has enormously increased the volume of our poultry products, and is still steadily 

 growing. 



The remarkable success of the new class of fowls led to an immediate multiplication of varie- 

 ties of the same type if indeed some of these ware not already making when the pioneers of 

 each breed appeared. In a few years more \ve h.-id White Plymouth Rocks, Golden Wyan- 

 dottes, and White Wyandottes. Then came Butt" Plymouth Rocks and Buff Wyandottes, and 

 after them Partridge Wyandottes, Silver Penciled Wyandottes, Columbian Wyandottes, and 

 Partridge and Silver Penciled Plymouth Rocks. Of the duration of popularity of each of 



these, and of their rela- 

 be occasion to speak a 

 Meantime the develop- 

 type of fowl have not 

 ties of the two breeds 

 of the state of Rhode 

 serves a degree of isola- 

 of easy communication, 

 Asiatic fowls half a cen- 

 the beginning of the 

 breed, the only one 

 portant place for itself 

 Rhode Island Red. These 

 type and characteristics 

 and Wyandottes. A s 

 fanciers became interest- 

 pure bred fowls, for 

 introduced, one farmer 

 breed, another of another 

 general was the mixture 

 I. Reds a few years ago 



see* 



tive popularity there will 

 little further on. 

 ments of this favorite 

 been limited to the varie- 

 mentioned. In a section 

 Island which still pre- 

 tion rare in these days 

 the introduction of 

 tury or more ago marked 

 making of a "local" 

 which has made an im- 

 in this country, the 

 are fowls of the general 

 of the Plymouth Bocks 

 commonly bred before 

 ed in them they were not 

 foreign blood was often 

 using a male of one 

 breed, and so on. So 

 that in most flocks of R. 

 evidences of a very 



5. C Rhode Island Red Cock- 

 mixed ancestry were conspicuous. But through all these mixtures a common type was fol- 

 lowed, and when fanciers took up the breed it required only a few seasons of careful breeding 

 to make them as "thoroughbred" as most breeds have been within the same time after their 

 introduction. 



In England the success in America of the medium sized general purpose type of fowl led to 

 the development of a breed of fowls much the same in type, a little more "beefy," as English 

 types of poultry usually are when compared with American, but still very like. This breed 

 was called the Orpington. The object of the originator, as repeatedly stated by himself, was 

 to make a breed of the general type of the Plymouth Rock and Wyandotte, but better suited 

 to English tastes and markets. The American productions had the yellow legs and skin popular 

 i'i American markets the English markets wanted a white skinned fowl with flesh colored legs. 



In considering the relative merits of the many breeds and varieties in this class of general 

 purpose fowls, the reader should always bear in mind that they are essentially very like; that 

 the differences between them are mostly superficial; that in many cases differences observed 

 between the lots of two different breeds or varieties of this class when compared are peculiar 

 to the case under consideration, and not general differences running all through the variety or 

 breed. Hence as we shall see, any one of these varieties may be substituted for another in any 



