16 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



Massachusetts, held its annual exhibition. Several years already had 

 been spent in the work of developing the breed, and here in reality 

 was established between the Cochin and a common Dominique male 

 a cross that was to make lasting friends. 



It is recorded that Rev. D. A. Upham, who made the exhibit at 

 Worcester, took orders for one hundred setting of eggs at two dollars 

 a setting. By 1882, C. E. Thorne, associate editor of Farm and Fire- 

 side and author of "The Complete Poultry Book," referred to the 

 Plymouth Rock as "the most popular breed of fowls in the United 

 States, and deservedly so, since they combine more qualities valuable 

 to the general poultryman than any other single breed. By 188S the 

 Poultry World, pubUshed at Hartford, Connecticut, remarked: "The 

 number of breeders of Plymouth Rocks exceeds that of any other 

 variety." That this large-bodied, clean-shanked, prolific stock was 

 indeed a great boon to American farmers and poultry keepers gener- 

 ally was shown by the wide dissemination of the Barred Plymouth 

 Rock at the end of a quarter of a century after its introduction, when 

 it was the accepted and common type of farm fowl from the Maine 

 woods to the prairies of western Nebraska. 



The Wyandottes and Rhode Island Reds have been introduced 

 since the Rock made its debut, although their early history traces 

 l)ack about as far. They likewise are the result of combining the blood 

 of the old Asiatic and European stock as imported and bred in 

 .\merica. The success of the Plymouth Rock was a challenge and a 

 stimulus to the Wyandotte breeders, who, in their effort to develop 

 an intermediate type or general purpose fowl, selected the rose comb 

 character and bred for a laced color pattern, in contrast to the single 

 comb and barred color pattern of the Plymouth Rock; while in the 

 farm fowls of Rhode Island the red color always remained uppermost, 

 making them distinctively Rhode Island Reds. 



Breeders have since improved each of these breeds to the point 

 where they are today, a point where an average sort of bird which 

 may sell for ten dollars may be far better than what the early breeders 

 had to work with, even though they had sought such a specimen, pre- 

 pared to pay a hundred dollars for it. Indeed, the history of the 

 development of the Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte and Rhode Island 

 Red is a story of progress in breeding and vast multiplication in 

 numbers bred. 



