142 



THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



1889, when looking fo;- material in the farm flocks of the district, 

 found some reds with single combs and good buff color excepting 

 that they had black tails and wing flights. Aldrich suggested calling 

 the single comb buffs Golden Buffs, and thus making a new breed, but 

 Buffington preferred to make a new variety of the established Plym- 

 outh Rock breed. To test out public sentiment, Aldrich exhibited 

 Golden Buffs at the Rhode Island Poultry show. Providence, 1890, 

 and Buffington entered his birds as Buff Plymouth Rocks. The result 

 was that every exhibitor and a large part of the interested public 

 inspected the new Buff Plymouth Rocks while scarcely anyone looked 

 at the Golden Buffs. That settled the cjuestion of name. 



Buffington continued to breed "buff-in-ton lots" in his Buff 

 Plymouth Rocks well into the dawn of the twentieth century. He 

 called his strain the Fall River. He experimented with the early 

 males that he secured that were of a reddish-buff color by crossing 

 them on White Plymouth Rocks. The Fall River strain therefore 

 was not built up altogether from Rhode Island Reds of fairly good 

 Plymouth Rock type and buff color. 



Wilson and Joslin strains. In 1888, J. D. Wilson, Worcester, 

 New York, upon learning of the popularity of the new Buff Leg- 

 horns in England, from reading a copy of the Fanciers' Gazette, 

 London, conceived the idea of producing a Buff Plymouth Rock. 

 After a futile search for foundation material in the different poultry 

 yards of his vicinity, he at last found in a relative's flock a male 



that had resulted from a cross 

 of scantily feathered Buff Cochin 

 on a Light Brahma. 



Wilson described this bird as 

 possessing even, beautiful, gol- 

 den buff color, except his tail, 

 which was black. He had yel- 

 low shanks, free from feather- 

 ing, a small single comb, weighed 

 twelve pounds, yet was of good 

 Rock type. Two females of Buff 

 color were also selected, and 

 these were chosen for the 

 smoothest surface color and the 

 least feathering on shanks. This 

 trio formed the foundation of 

 what later proved to be the pop- 

 ular Wilson strain. 



That year the trio produced 



about forty chicks. The black 



1st prize ButF Plymouth Rock hen, striping in the hackle of the 



Kansas City, Mo., 1919. Bred by C. R. _ , ° ,.,,., , 



Baker. Brahma, which did not show m 



