THE ORPINGTONS 



13 



one pen of Buff Orpingtons, Charles Vass, Wallace P. 

 Willett and Doctor Paul Kyle being the exhibitors. At 

 New York in 1909-10 157 Single Comb Buff, 122 Single 

 Comb Black, 134 Single Comb White, 17 Diamond Jubilee, 

 S Spangled, 25 Rose Comb Buff, 13 Rose Comb Black and 

 5 Rose Comb White Orpingtons were exhibited, making 

 a total of 478 Orpingtons — a remarkable showing for a 

 breed of English origin in a country where there was 

 supposed to be little demand for poultry with white skin 

 and white or black shanks. 



Early Orpington History 



Wallace P. Willett 6f East Orange, New Jersey, sends 

 us the following interesting data relating to the early his- 

 tory of the Orpingtons; 



"I have been keeping fancy fowls as a hobby not as a 

 business, except in certafn instances, for the past fifty 

 years, and have handled in that time almost every name- 

 able breed from the Shanghai, my first purchase in the 

 eighteen fifties, up to the present time. I was always on 

 the lookout for something new and promising in the poul- 

 try world — at home and abroad. When the Anconas 

 started to boom in England I brought them here and 

 trap-nested them for four years or more, but gave them 

 up as not filling the bill for an all round purpose fowl. 



"The October, 1897, number of Farm Poultry printed 

 a picture of Wm. Cook and of his Black and Buff Orping- 

 tons and the editorial correspondence of A. F. Hunter, 

 who was then visiting poultry plants in England, gave an 

 interesting account of meeting Mr. Cook, who personally 

 showed him about his poultry farm near Orpington vil- 

 lage. Mr. Hunter said that Mr. Cook's business included 

 the shipment of 10,404 sittings of eggs in nine months. 

 This and more written by. Editor Hunter gave me the 

 Orpington fever at once and I immediately entered into 

 correspondence which resulted in one importation early 

 in 1898 of Black, Buff and White Orpington eggs, direct 

 from Mr. Cook's farm, from which my 'first Orpington 

 chicks of these varieties were hatched. I made a second 

 importation by steamer in September of the same year. 

 Up to that year, 1898, no Buff or White Orpingtons had 

 been brought into the United States, but perhaps a dozen 

 Blacks had come in. 



"Daniel Love exhibited a Black cock and two hens at 

 " Worcester, Mass., in January, 1891, and Wm. McNeil, 

 London, Canada, entered one Black cockerel at the Boston 

 show, in 1897. Four Blacks were exhibited at New York, 

 in 1896 by C. S. Williams, New Jersey, and five Blacks 

 were shown at New York, in 1898, by Geo. M. Shaw. 



"A careful examination of poultry records shows no 

 other entries at poultry exhibitions in the United States. 

 The few Black Orpingtons exhibited had not caused the 

 breed to make" much progress here. 



"In 1898 C. E. Vass, Washington, N. J., brought over 

 a pen of Buff Orpingtons from "a successful breeder in 

 England," not from Wm. Cook direct, and exhibited them 

 at Mount Gretna, Pa. This was the first exhibit of Buff 

 Orpingtons in America. 



"In September, 1898, R. S. Templin, Colla, Ohio, ad- 

 vertised 'A few Buff Orpington pullets wanted in ex- 

 change for one or two cockerels.' 



"In 1899 Mr. Vass made two entries at Boston and he 

 and his neighbors made seventeen entries at New York. 

 At Philadelphia in 1899, there were two exhibited and this 

 is the record of Buffs up to January, 1900. 



"The exhibits of 1899 served to call attention to their 

 merits and there was quite a little demand for Orpington 

 eggs. At the New York show, in 1900, there were some 43 



entries. The writer made his first exhibit at this show, 

 entering two Blacks and two Buffs, winning two firsts on 

 Blacks but nothing on Buffs. The 'Cook Type' of Buffs 

 had not been judged before and differed somewhat from 

 the 'Vass Type' which had already been judged. It was 

 the only type known previous to the showing of the 

 'Cook Orpingtons' but the latter came to the front im- 

 mediately after." 



William Cook's Story of the Origin. 



In 1890 Mr. Cook contributed several articles to the 

 English poultry press, which purport to give the true 

 origin of the Black Orpington — the pioneer of this new 

 breed — at the same time setting forth in bold relief the 

 claims of its being the possessor of the finest flesh and skin 

 in existence. As a matter of history we give William 

 Cook's own story of his object in creating the Orpington 

 fowl, as follows: 



"I have heard it said by some persons when going 

 around a big poultry show that there are so many useful 

 varieties, it is difficult to decide which breed of fowls to 

 go in for. It certainly is puzzling to an amateur, and 

 even those who have kept fowls for years, when they 

 make a change in their breed are somewhat in a fix as to 

 which is the best for them to go in for. Those who have 

 kept a breed successfully for years are loud in their praises, 

 and say they are the best breed which c^n possibly be 

 kept (and very often they have not kept any other breefl 

 at all). It is usually the amateur poultry keepers who are 

 so enthusiastic over their results. Unfortunately many 

 practical men and women will not take the trouble to 

 place their poultry results on record, by writing to say 

 how they have obtained such results, etc. I have heard 

 some say: 'If we tell others of our success and mode of 

 working they will be as wise as ourselves.' Since poultry 

 papers have become so popular the truth of the old adage, 

 'Giving does not impoverish,' has been proved. There is 

 a class of people who say that we have enough breeds of 

 poultry as it is, without making any fresh ones. Tht- 

 Americans, however, have not paid any heed to murmur- 

 ings, but have kept pace with the times, and have brought 

 out some breeds of poultry which have been much ap- 

 preciated, not only in America, but throughout the world, 

 and perhaps more in this England of ours than in any 

 other part of the globe. The Plymouth Rock originated 

 in America, and no breed has held such a reputation as a 

 useful fowl all through England as the- Plym.outh Rock. 

 The Americans saw that they went well, and they soon 

 had another for us, viz., the Wyandotte. This breed 

 has taken fairly well, and has been much improved since 

 its' arrival in England; but what the Americans believe 

 to be perfection the English object to. They think that 

 a good yellow skin is the best for table fowls to possess, 

 whereas English customers like to see a nice white skin 

 on fowls, especially when they have to go through the 

 markets. 



"I may mention here that I have had many years' ex- 

 perience in crossing fowls, and I have tried as many as 

 fifty crosses in a year, for the purpose of testing which 

 cross is the most suited to various circumstances. I used 

 to have birds at different parts of the country, so as to 

 enable me to try experiments with the various breeds and 

 their crosses, and this I did for many years, but had not 

 at that time the least idea of publishing the result. The 

 idea did not enter my head until after I had had twenty 

 years of experience in this line. I commenced very young. 

 To try so many crosses I had, of course, to use pure va- 

 rieties of almost every breed, and in doing so I had a fair 



