108 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



to wane, the editor of Poultry World. Hartford, Conn., issue of 

 March, 1876, commented on the controversial situation in the fol- 

 lowing words: 



Wlien the smoJke lias cleared away it will be found that this breed (Plymouth 

 Rocks), has had several independent origins. As oil and potash may be united and 

 soap made anywhere, so hawk-colored barn-yard fowls may be amalgamated witli 

 some Asiatic variety in any state in the Union and Plymouth Rocks formed. 



Mr. A. H. Drake of S tough ton, Mass., has a strain of Plymouth Rocks whicli 

 he has bred for nineteen years, which has not a drop of the Spaulding blood, nor 

 the slightest admixture from any other strain. We have word from a Pennsylvania 

 correspondent that on farms in Bucks county, that state, fowls have been fouiid 

 almost from time immemorial, that were identical with Plymouth Rocks, and were 

 produced, incidentally, l;y the introduction of Asiatic blood into the common hawk- 

 colored stock of the county. It must be kept in mind that upon many farms In 

 :ill parts of the land, twenty, bfly, or one hundred years ago, hawik-colored fowls 

 were numerous and common. The modern Dominique fowl is nothing more or less 

 than a hawk-colored dungliill bird, improved by cultivation. For that matter the 

 Leghorn is a genuine Italian dunghill fowl, improved. 



Rev. D. D. Bishop sums up the whole question of origin by stat- 

 ing that it was "inevitable" that the Plymouth Rock should make its 

 appearance about 1866 to 1870. He continues: 



The conditions were favorable. It was at the time of reaction from the furore 

 for simply big birds, wlien farmer folk were discussing among themselves the 

 failure of the mammoth Asiatics to fill the bill for both eggs and marketing. They 

 failed as foragers for want of activity. They were the reverse of precocious in their 

 development. The old-fashioned dunghill was too small. There was equal dissatis- 

 faction with both. 



The first result was the throwing of whatever Asiatic came to hand, Shangliais, 

 Rrahmas, Cochins — what not — at random into the barnyard flocks, to mix indis- 

 criminately with a lot of birds that had suffered that kind of breeding, if that 

 could be called breeding, for a generation or more. 



The next step in the process was that the more tlioughtful or fanciful began to 

 pick out tlie colors that suited their individual notions. Various farmers had local 

 reputations for the exc.llence of their white liens, or red hens, or whatever color 

 they might have chosen. 



Perhaps the most widely diffused of what might have been called a native 

 stock was even then known as "old-fasluoiied, hawk-colored" fowls. Their disper- 

 sion over a wide extent of country was brought about Ijy two causes. First, their 

 makings were much more distinct and uniform than any of the mixed colors, so that 

 by original vital strength the color was carried wherever a drop of the blood found 

 its way. Secondly, they proved to be hardy, matured rapidly and so came quidkly 

 to usefulness as broilers, egg producers or for marketing purposes. They were 

 not so much exposed to the ravages of hawks, and farmers thought much of that. 

 The hawk could not see them so plainly, and the mother hen was almost as sharp 

 of eye as her enemy in the air. 



Another point should not be overlooked, namely, the facility which was mani- 

 fested by this stock to assimilate the dash of Asiatic blood so as to make it a 

 genuine infusion. In other w^ords, tlie cross by Asiatics made "a hit" upon the 

 said old-fashioned, hawk-colored birds, so that they reproduced themselves, throw- 

 ing comparatively few reverts, and furnishing at once the basis upon which to 

 build a breed. 



Influence of the Dominique in transmitting barring to the breed. 



The old cuckoo colored Dominique played a dominant role in the 

 origin of the Plymouth Rock, All of the crpsses include the hawk- 



