RED MALAY GAME FOWL BROUGHT TO MASSACHUSETTS FROM MALAY ABOUT 1846 

 Reproduced from photos by Dr. P. T. Woods. Two views of a beautifully motinted specimen of Malay fowl now preserved in the museum of 

 the Peabody Academy of Science, East India Marine Hall, Salem, Mass. This bird has a pea comb, yellow legs and plumage which is a rich uniform 

 red throughout with ^ the exception of one wing, which shows white in the primaries. The under-color ranges from Tight to dark slate (almost 

 black) in different sections. This bird was brought from Malay about the year 1846 by Capt. Richard Wheatland and was bred in Salem, Mass., about 

 three years by George Wheatland, Jr. Further particulars concerning this bird will be found in the accompanying article by Mr. Denny. 



"To begin with, as far back as 1854 John Macomber, of 

 Westport (living near what is now called Central Village, 

 but then called Westport townhouse) and my father, William 

 Tripp, both of them, ran teams to New Bedford as market- 

 men. They took the matter in hand to see if they could 

 not, by crossing different strains of fowls, get better layers 

 than the fowls in the surrounding country and also better 

 looking poultry for the market. The result of their trials 

 was the production of the so-called Rhode Island Reds of 

 today. Previous to that they were called the 'John Macom- 

 ber' or the 'Tripp' fowls." 



Nam^ing the Breed 



Captain Tripp credits Isaac C. Wilbour of Little Comp- 

 ton as being entitled to the honor of having named Rhode 

 Island Reds, but does not mention the year. On the same 

 subject William P. Shepard, South Swansea, Mass., who 

 for several years was an officer of the Southern Massachu- 

 setts Poultry Association has stated in a letter, that in 1879 

 or 1880 a Mr. Jenny who was one of the directors of the same 

 association presented some fine birds for entry and when 

 asked what they were called, he replied that they had no 

 name. It was suggested that he give them one. He is 

 credited with the statement, "Well suppose we call them 

 Rhode Island Reds." Later Dr. Aldrich advocated the 

 name Golden Buffs and they were exhibited by him under 

 that name at an exhibition of the Rhode Island Poultry 

 Association, December 16, 1891, and later the same winter 

 he exhibited a pen under the same name at Philadelphia. 

 The name Rhode Island Reds however seemed to stick and 

 be the one to meet with popular favor. In 1895 Richard V. 

 Browning of Natick, Mass., made an exhibit under the name 

 Rhode Island Reds at a show held by the Rhode Island 

 Poultry Association. This is the first record that can be 

 traced of their having been exhibited under the name of 

 Rhode Island Reds. The late Roland G. Buffinton was the 

 first one to advertise rose comb Rhode Island Red eggs and 

 stock and the second to advertise single combs. 



Fifty Tears of Outbreeding 



The individual types of all component breeds were lost 

 in the consistent outcrossing that was continued by those 



who were keeping these fowls. Of this system of breeding 

 that has produced the Rhode Island Red the late Dr. Aldrich 

 has written: 



"The utility farmer of that section of Rhode Island 

 known as Little Compton, tor nearly sixty years- had been 

 selecting red males and leaving the females to be what they 

 may. By this means they have now carefully outbred this 

 now famous breed. Probably today there is not in the whole 

 world another breed of fowl produced by fifty years of out- 

 breeding. If it were so, how much more vigor our several 

 breeds would have. The Rhode Island Reds stand as the 

 only proof of what outbreeding will do. We fanciers do not 

 live long enough to compose a breed deliberately, unless we 

 inbreed, but it was not so with the original Rhode Island 

 Red breeders. They knew the red cock was the most vigor- 

 ous and almost unconsciously they made a breed." 



It should be noted that while Dr. Aldrich says that red 

 males have been used by farmers for breeding purposes in 

 their utility poultry for sixty years, he does not claim that 

 they are entitled to consideration as a breed for so long a, 

 time. On this subject L6ster Tompkins, the noted breeder 

 of this breed, writes : 



"For nearly forty years I have known the Rhode Island 

 Reds in Little Compton, their original home. In speaking 

 of the new breed, or as I know them, the new old breed, I 

 am carried back to my boyhood days. This was about the 

 only fowl we saw on the farms in our vicinity, which at that 

 time and today produces more poultry than any place of 

 its size to be found." 



The system of out-breeding as referred to by Dr. Aid- 

 rich was no other than the practice of changing males which 

 was customary among the early poultry raisers, who, it 

 seems were chiefly concerned in breeding tor vigor and 

 vitality and who believed in the fallacy that it was necessary 

 to introduce new blood or unrelated stock to secure it. It 

 would appear that a demand was created for red males and 

 that enterprising sea captains, sailing to the Orient, brought 

 home with them some of the native fowls of China, India 

 and the Malay Islands, for which they found ready sale. 

 Whenever one of these males from over the sea was secured, 

 the entire neighborhood was interested and that year the 

 owner would find a demand for all the cockerels he could 



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