White Plymouth Rocks— Characteristics. 31 



are plump, compact, full breasted ami bodied fowls, vigorous and 

 hardy, good layers and capital fiesh formers, handsome in looks and 

 carriage, showing well on the lawn or in the exhibition coop, their 

 rich red facial appendages contrasting so nicely and agreeably with 

 their pure white plumage, as fair to view as nature or art could make 

 them; easy to mate and raise, and, in fine, possess almost all the 

 essential points of an ideal breed. The name itself will be a pass- 

 port to their fame, for whoever has heard of the noted Barred 

 Plymouth Rock (and their name is legion), will take it for granted 

 that their offspring must be a "chip off the old block; " and whether 

 in the order of things or .by a "freak of nature," they will be worthy 

 of a place in the front rank, where beauty and utility go hand in 

 hand, and where the tried and the good " old reliables " pose in 

 self-reliant composure. 



CHARACTERISTICS. 



It is just and fair to all concerned to infer that no new variety 

 breeds uniformly true color and markings, until all the elements of 

 its former composition are bred out. With solid-colored varieties 

 there is less difficulty in establishing the color, because there is but 

 one general color to establish. It may be a sooty black, a sickly 

 buff or a creamy white in the beginning, but a few generations of 

 skillful mating, care and good food will make a sooty black a bril- 

 liant jet black, a sickly buff a rich buff, and a creamy white a pure 

 white. 



We all know how difficult it is to get well-marked birds from 

 even the oldest breeds. Why, then, do we insist on getting equally 

 as fine birds from new varieties, that are not as many months old as 

 the others are of years? The beginner with a new variety should 

 bear this in mind before buying them, and not feel afterwards that 

 he was cheated and badly disappointed. 



The " mania " for new breeds nowadays gives license for the 

 manipulation of everything approaching the breed in size and color; 

 consequently, we have among the new white breeds many types and 

 other characteristics forced into each breed; and all these were 

 evolved by the shortest way known to the art of poultry breeding. 

 Of course, there is no security against being cheated by purchasing 

 such fowls for the "pure quill." The birds may be as good for 

 utility as the pure-bred birds, but if you want a White Plymouth 

 Rock, and pay a fair price for it, you don't want a White Dirigo, a 

 White Erminette, nor a Snowflake. 



