The Rapid Progress of the Campine 



What Legend and History Have to Tell ll« of the Origin of the Campine-Its Sister Breed, the Braekel- 

 In 1884 Separate ClsBseB Were Made for the Two Breeds in Belgiam-A New Type Introduced 

 Into England in 1904 and Improved English Birds Imported to America in 1907- 

 The Advancement Made in Color and Style-Its White Eggs Win at Boston- 

 Description of An Ideal Campine Section by Section 



By F. L. Plait 



rW^HE Campine is a fowl that was bred in times that Yorkshire and Lancashire, England, about the middle of 

 X are now long past. In the ornithology of the the eighteenth century, marks the beginning of poultry 



Italian naturalist, Ulysses Aldrovandus, which exhibitions, 

 was published in 1599, there is a description of the G. The first selective work with the Campines waS be- 



turcica or Turkish fowl, which indi- 

 cates its strong resemblance to the 

 modern Campine. Some four hun- 

 dred years before, according to le- 

 gend, the common ancestors of the 

 Campine had been imported into 

 western Europe by "Johana of Con- 

 stantinople." 



Antedating this, there is another 

 tradition that the progenitors of the 

 Campine were introduced into Flan- 

 ders (northern France and Belgium), 

 about the eighth century by the 

 agents of Charlemagne. As king of 

 the Franks and Emperor of Rome, 

 Europe was a conquest to him, and 

 it is recorded that he zealously en- 

 deavored to promote agriculture and 

 required the farmers to keep a cer- 

 tain number of chickens, the millers 

 to keep a certain number of ducks, 

 and he required that certain kinds of 

 fruit trees be planted. One so keen 

 about increasing and improving the 

 productions of his subjects may have 

 sought to have an especial kind of 

 chickens propagated, even introduc- 

 ing them from some foreign country. 



That at one time or another the 

 race came from the shores of the 

 Mediterranean, there seems to be 

 little doubt. But the origin of an- 

 cient breeds we cannot know with 

 certainty. The lapse of time and lack 

 of records make it impossible to 

 trace their wanderings. So the exact 

 origin of the ancient Campine is. 

 hidden in the past. But coming to 

 more modern times, we have the 

 Friesland fowl of the Netherlands, 

 Het Friesche Hoen, formerly 

 Friesche Pel. 



Writing of this fowl, the late Louis 



Vander Snickt says: "The Friesland j^ j^^^ summ.er of 1911, we were the guest of Monsieur and Madam A. F. 



is extraordinary homogeneous," and Van Schelle, Papenvoort-par-Hoogstraten, Belgium. Hoogstraten lies east ot 



, r 11 u Antwerp and is situated in that sandy plain near the Dutch frontier, where 



it IS the mother race ot all these the Campine fowl is indigenous. At the time of that visit it was our priv- 



orrrr lavino" hrpprlc with sintp rnlnrpH ilege to visit the homes of a number of Belgian peasants and inspect their 



egg-iaying oreeas witn siate coioreu flocks of poultry. Both Golden and Silver Campines were to be seen, also a 



legs and white ear lobes." Of this great deal of Leghorn blood was evident — "Italians" the Leghorns are called 



luxjt, tv, <;(-(■ 'h Europe. So many Campines were being bought up by French buyers that 



stock the rlamburg was the hrst to Leghorns were used to an alarming extent to repopulate the poultry yards. 



Va Krorl fr> ff.!ittipr inrleeH thp r\rr^ The house in the above picture, which is a farm house in the Campine country 



De orea to leatner, iiiueeu, tne occa .^ Belgium, was largely built out of poultry profits. It is a more prosperous 



sional bringing together of Spangled appearing home than was to be seen before poultry culture became an in- 



,.,. , . ,, .„ . , dustry in the Campine district. The lower picture shows a straw poultry 



Hamburgs in the village inns of ^ouse in the Campine country.— F. L. Piatt. 



