CHAPTER I 



ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN BREEDS 



Origin of the fowl — Introduction of the fowl to Europe — Important 

 developments of fowls in eastern Asia — Introduction of the Asiatic 

 type to America — Crossbreeding that led to the production of the 

 American breeds — Appearance of the Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte and 

 Rhode Island Red 



The American breeds are the production of poultry breeders, often 

 called fanciers. Their history is modern. If the Dominique and Java 

 are excepted, it may be said that the other four breeds which comprise 

 the American class — namely, the Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte, Rhode 

 Island Red and Buckeye — have been developed and introduced since 

 the close of the Civil War. Thus, within the lifetime of men still 

 living, American breeders have done what nature had not done in all 

 the epochs of history. They have originated a new economic type of 

 fowl and given to the world the Plymouth Rock, the Wyandotte and 

 the Rhode Island Red. 



This remarkable achievement came about not as the result of the 

 creation or sudden appearance of totally new features, but rather as a 

 result of the new breeds inheriting qualities and characteristics which 

 were drawn from already existing foundation stock. 



The early history of the modern American breeds shows them to 

 have originated from the crossbreeding of three distinct and distantly 

 related types of fowl. One type, which was the home stock, had been 

 carried to the eastern United States by the early settlers from Eng- 

 land and western Europe. The other types were imported to America 

 from southeastern Asia and from China. An account of these Old 

 World groups of fowls should prove an instructive preface to the 

 rise and development of the American breeds. 



Origin of the fowl. The original wild stock from which the old 

 domesticated races descended is believed to have had its origin in 

 Asia. That continent has the largest land area, the most varied cli- 

 mate and food supply, and, in fact, the general aspects of nature are 

 the most diversified in the great geographical division of the earth 

 known as Asia. 



Inhabiting the primeval jungles of India and the Malayan coun- 

 tries there may be found even to this day a little wild fowl, Gallus 

 bankiva. Charles Darwin, the great English naturalist, accepted this 

 jungle fowl as the parent source of all the breeds of domesticated 

 chickens. It is a black-red colored variety, similar to the Brown 

 Leghorn, but much smaller than the Leghorn. The traveler to that 

 far country who spends a night on a clearing, with the lofty forests 



S 



