144 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



shape to make it a Rock," said this breeder. He of all the breeders 

 of America put into his daily care of the growing birds the sound 

 piiilosophy tliat half the culls are not bred, but are made by crowd- 

 ing and lack of thoughtful attention. He made it a point to develop 

 in every chick all of the true Plymouth Rock shape and pure buff 

 color that he had bred into that chick. As a result, Shepard did in 

 his limited way about a thousand dollars' worth of Buff Rock busi- 

 ness a year, and this over a series of years when a dollar was a 

 dollar and not fifty cents. 



Shepard was called upon to judge the Buf¥ Rock classes in a 

 number of leading shows, and of his own winners, perhaps his 1st 

 prize pullet at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901, was most 

 admired because of her smooth surface of correct and pleasing shade 

 of buff. She was pronounced by F. L. Sewell to be the finest modeled 

 pullet in the Plymouth Rock classes, all varieties. 



The Nugget strain. Henry S. Burdick died in 1901, but "Burdick's 

 Nuggets" is a well known name among Buff Rock breeders of the 

 present day. Burdick was a man of excellent character and enjoyed 

 the confidence and esteem of the poultrybreeding fraternity. Born in 

 Connecticut, he lived in Brooklyn for some time, and removing from 

 thence to Rome, New York, he devoted himself to the breeding of 

 fine poultry, and passed away at the age of seventy-five years. 



This master breeder, beyond peradventure of doubt, deserves the 

 distinction of having been the greatest improver of the Buff Plymouth 

 Rock. The leading strains of the east and west were rich in the blood 

 of Burdick's Nuggets. Burdick used both Buffington and Wilson 

 stock. "The Wilson strain had the better size and color; the Fall 

 River strain, the better form," wrote McGrew. 



The plan of mating used by Burdick was based on the theory that 

 domestic animals as well as wild animals should mate by natural 

 selection. For years he followed the plan of selecting females of 

 the same general quality and characteristics, not varying more than 

 one shade in color, and putting them in three pens. He then employed 

 three males, either full brothers or cock and sons, one light Standard 

 in color, one light orange, and the third dark orange, and changed 

 these males in the three pens in rotation every third day. 



Bennett a leading western breeder. Dr. O. P. Bennett,' Mazon, 

 Illinois, whose Buff Rocks sent into total eclipse all other flocks of 

 the variety in the west, got his stock from Burdick. About 1896 he 

 sent to Rome, New York, for six hundred selected eggs from the 

 Nuggets, paying $5 a sitting, which was $2 more than Mr. Burdick's 

 usual price, in order to get the best. In this purchase Bennett laid 

 the foundation for his strain. 



January 21 to 26, 1901, at the annual meet of the American Buff 

 Plymouth Rock Club at the Chicago Poultry Show, Bennett won 

 4, S cocks; 1, 3, 4 hens; 2, 3, 4 cockerels; 1, 3, 4 pullets; 1, 2 pens, and 

 the silver cup offered by the club for the best cock, hen, cockerel. 



