20 Barred and White Plymouth Rocks. 



the futile efforts of those who strived to breed them in conformity to 

 Standard requirements, the disgust and bitter disappointments of 

 those who eagerly and confidingly purchased matched pairs, trios, 

 and breeding pens for high Standard breeding, and the denuncia- 

 tions of all honest and common sense breeders against such a ridicu- 

 lous and absurd farce as is embodied in the Standard requirements, 

 the libel on the fair name of the Plymouth Rock still remained as 

 evidence of the ignorance and ultraism of those who fashioned such 

 requirements for the breed. 



A distinguished writer and breeder of the east, commenting on 

 this subject, sensibly and pointedly says : " We find that the Stand- 

 ard describes the color of the cock as follows, ' body color grayish 

 white, each feather regularly crossed with bars of blue-black, giving 

 the effect of a bluish tinged plumage.' " The color of the hen is 

 described as the same as that of the cock. 



Now we can find Plymouth Rock hens and cocks of the same 

 color, and that, too, the color that the Standard describes. But will 

 they if bred together produce young like themselves ? Try it and 

 see how many pullets you will have, not "grayish white," but black 

 as crows. The cockerels of such a mating are likely to be pretty 

 good — to resemble their sire, to be what the Standard calls for, but 

 the pullets are very different from what the Standard demands. 

 Standard Plymouth Rocks then will not breed true when mated 

 together, and are not, therefore, a breed. 



If a medium dark cock is mated with light hens, the hens being 

 several shades darker than the cock, the progeny will closely resem- 

 ble their parents, the cockerels being about the shade of the cock, 

 the pullets about the shade of the hens. If the Standard describes 

 such a cock and such hens, it would describe a breed, because they 

 breed true. 



If, then, a breed be what I have defined it to be (and upon this 

 point there can be no question), and if the Standard describes such 

 ^ cock and hen, under the head of Plymouth Rocks, which, mated 

 together, will not breed true (and the experience of all the earlier 

 breeders of this variety is a demonstration of the truth of this posi- 

 tion), then the Standard describes as a breed what is not a breed. 

 It selects a few individuals, exceptions to the general character of 

 the fowls, extremes in the matter of color, and upon these exceptions 

 and extremes it builds the requirements of a breed ! Such require- 

 ments are a libel upon Plymouth Rocks. Standard Plymouth Rocks 

 are not a breed : but there is a breed of fowls which for the produc- 



