36 Barred and White Plymouth Rocks. 



"not subject to the diseases common to ordinary chickens; " "such 

 enormous layers that they have scarcely any time for sitting." 



Such exaggerated, overrated or overestimated (whichever name 

 you may please to call it,) ideas of any new or old breed, tends to 

 give a too-high coloring to the breed, and tends to false conceptions 

 in the minds of beginners. It may be true, as stated, that the writers 

 in question have an exceedingly prolific strain of layers, and that 

 their birds are fortunately exempt from the ordinary ills of other 

 breeds But the statements are made to cover the whole breed, and 

 not any branch or strain, and it is in this we take exception to the 

 statement. If there is existing to-day a breed of sitting fowls that 

 is so prolific they cannot find time to sit, and not subject to the 

 diseases common to ordinary chickens, we should like to see and 

 own some, for that upsets our preconceived notions about fowls. 



It is well to give due merit to a breed; it is well for one to 

 praise his own fowls when they prove more than ordinary good lay- 

 ers; but every experienced breeder knows it is more in the strain than 

 in the breed, and while we have some breeds which excel as layers, 

 we often find strains among those that we class as ordinary layers, 

 which excel, or at least equal, some of the strains of the prolific 

 breeds. It is in the power of every breeder, no matter what variety 

 he breeds, to make his fowls more prolific if he but devotes a tithe 

 of as much time to the selection of the steadiest and best layers as 

 he does to their plumage and markings. 



Few, perhaps, will take it for granted that the White Plymouth 

 Jlocks excel the Barred Rocks in prolificacy. It is not reasona- 

 ble to expect it, unless they receive higher cultivation and more 

 skillful selection. It is enough to say, they have advantages over 

 the Plymouth Rock proper in the way of mating and breeding for 

 the show-room and for sale to customers, and, perhaps, for broilers, 

 and it might be added that they show a more pleasing sight on a 

 l,awn or in a show-pen, on account of their rich red combs, faces, ear- 

 lobes and wattles, and bright yellow legs and beaks, contrasting with 

 their pure-white plumage. But it is not good policy, neither is it 

 just nor reasonable, to make loose statements by which the fancier 

 of the white variety seeks to build up one breed and tear down the 

 other. 



There is no fear but the White Plymouth Rocks will enjoy their 

 full measure of popularity, now they are admitted to the Standard, 

 and take their rank with the best of the old breeds; there is no fear 

 but they will be the central pivot for all the new white breeds hav- 



