Barred Plymouth Rocks — Improvement. 13 



who mate dark cocks and dark hens get pullets that are splashed 

 or too dark, and cockerels spotted, or very dark on back, wings and 

 tail. 



Many of the obstacles in mating Plymouth Rocks have been in 

 a measure, overcome. The different matings already alluded to, 

 were adopted experimentally by some, and necessarily by others. 

 Three important and valuable features for exhibition and breeding 

 had to be established at one and the same time, or the breed would 

 lose its value as a show fowl. The disparity of color shade ordin- 

 arily between the male and the female, suggested various ways of 

 modification on the female side, as the intense black color seemed 

 to persist in that sex, and with it the objectionable legs and beak. 

 The Standard was arbitary on " matching in the pen," and the 

 framers of the text knew, in the depths of their souls, that to get a 

 few pairs to match in the pen, hundreds of otherwise good birds had 

 to suffer death from their short-sighted or unreasonable exaction, 

 and those that matched in the show pen, when mated, did not pro- 

 duce their like, and they knew it at the time, and the exhibition birds 

 were used 2& weather cocks to indicate how the "wind blew" from 

 the exhibitor's yard, when really they were deceptions, and did not 

 represent the average color or quality of their numerous brothers 

 and sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins, or even the minority of their 

 relatives and friends. 



Were it not that the Plymouth Rocks had such a strong hold on 

 the affections of the people, and the only successful rival of the 

 Asiatics, their friends and admirers would have given up their breed- 

 ing in disgust, but with a fixity of purpose commendable, they 

 adopted various methods of mating to bridge the " color gulf " 

 which separated the sexes, and to bring them to a state of uniformity 

 by " meeting half way." The practice with other fowls was, if one 

 were deficient in size of comb, color or distinctness in penciling, 

 feathers on leg, etc., to mate it with one that had one or the other of 

 these points in excess or in full development, so that in the union of 

 the two, the product would be medium, or draw in opposite directions; 

 but in breeding Plymouth Rocks, the method of breeding light 

 cocks to dark hens (not approved of nowadays), was done to unite 

 the two extremes to produce a " happy medium." Other combina- 

 tions having the same object, were taking place at the same time in 

 the hands of other breeders, and the dark cockerels which come 

 from light and dark matings were matched with medium light pul- 

 lets, and so on, in the hope of attaining the object in view. 



