140 



THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



represented to his eye a very useful type. He remarked: "Buyers 

 want birds that lay and we must breed that kind, and the types that 

 win should always be of the best utility value." 



The White Rock, too, should be a bird that is in a good market- 

 able condition during its growing period. Cockerels that go through 

 an awkward stage and then develop into fine birds do not give the 

 same full measure of pleasure and satisfaction that is derived from 

 chickens that grow and blossom out like flowers, without ever having 

 passed through an unsymmetrical stage. 



Mating. The successful mating of this variety requires a knowl- 

 edge of the fundamentals of breeding. The novice may mate his best 

 birds together, but with more study and experience he finds that 

 considerable corrective mating may be employed to good advantage. 

 The best male and female may both be short in leg, and the mating 

 would be much Ijetter if the short, full bodied, full fluffed female were 

 mated to a male of greater station. 



The points that constitute a good White Rock are Standard size, 

 true Plymouth Rock type, a red eye, pure yellow beak and shanks, 

 an absolutely red ear-lobe and pure-white plumage. The whitest birds 

 only should be reserved for breeding and these may be mated together. 

 The surface of the feathers, quills and undercolor should be as white 

 as possible in all specimens. Some black ticking, or peppering of 

 black, is recognized as a fault common to many pure white birds. If 

 this black flecking appears in a minor feather or two, same are usually 

 pulled by the exhibitor, but if it is present in a main-tail or wing- 

 flight feather, the bird is of doubtful value and the breeder might as 

 well substitute some other specimen for breeding purposes. A bird 

 that shows any white in earlobes or greenish shanks should be sold 

 as market poultry and never allowed to reproduce itself in the breed- 

 ing yard. 



^i „, . . 



White Plymouth Rocks of 190J, 



