6-2 



THE CAMPINES 



September hatched birds; and, furthermore, their mark- 

 ings were very irregular — as imperfect as was that of 

 the Silvers we knew eight years ago. 



We probably shall never be able to state definitely 

 how the first clear-back Silver (winner of Challenge 

 Cup, 1904) was bred. But this production of Dr. Gom- 

 mers, and my own experiments, indicate one possible 

 way. Possibly, and probably, all the Belgian clear- 

 backed sports (so-called) have originated through cross- 

 ing with the Frise de la Hollande. 



In breeding, as in the science of the derivation of 

 words, the simple and obvious explanation is almost 

 always the wrong one. When a clear-back Silver Cam- 

 pine male was first seen alF exclaimed, "Hamburg cross!" 

 The same cry was raised when the clear-back Golden 

 appeared. I knew then this explanation was wrong, for 

 I had failed to produce an English-type male from the 

 Hamburg cross. I said so publicly, but met with incred- 

 ulity. Many fanciers maintained that they knew how 

 the original Silvers had been bred — even although they 

 could not produce such a male themselves. The chal- 

 lenge I invariably issued was, "Produce an English-type 

 cockerel by Hamburg crossing, and I will believe you.'' 

 I have now disclosed two methods by which the 

 English-type Golden male can with certainty be pro- 

 duced. 



There were certain peculiarities noticed in the off- 

 spring of the Gold and Silver Campine crosses. Among 

 others, a tendency to fine barring, like that of the Ham- 

 burg. This is perhaps explicable on the assumption that 

 the same laws govern the barring in both breeds. A 

 well-known poultry authority pointed out one of my 

 own Gold pullets to me, and said, "This barring clearly 

 proves a Hamburg cross." The secret of production 

 was a commercial asset to me at that time, so I did not 

 disclose the pedigree of the bird in question. One of 

 the products of mating (c) was unwittingly shown at 

 the Crystal Palace among the Silver cockerels, and he 

 won third prize. This particular bird sired the 1912 win- 

 ners in Gold Campines, among his offspring being 1st 

 Crystal Palace Gold cockerel, 1st Crystal Palace Gold 

 pullet, and the Gold pullet which created such a sensa- 

 tion at the Royal Lancashire Show (Preston meeting) 

 1912. 



There was a very considerable tendency to red-eye 

 and to sprigs on comb among the progeny. Further- 

 more, one eye differed in shade from the other. Curi- 

 ously enough, it was always the same eye which was 

 darker or had more brown pigment than the other. The 

 barring was remarkable for its regularity; in this respect 

 the offspring inherited the perfect barring of the orig- 

 inal Silver cock, and not the nondescript markings of the 

 Golden hens. In the majority of the Goldens, the in- 

 tensity of color was remarkable; but there were a few 

 specimens — male and female — which I can only describe 

 as gold-splashed. We have not yet been able satis- 

 factorily to account for their appearance. Bred inter se, 

 they gave pure Silvers, pure Golds, and gold-splashed 

 birds. I have not b^een able to pursue this line of breed- 

 ing this year, but hope to take it up again later on. 



The following comment on the above article is by 

 John H. Robinson, editor of Farm-Poultry, Boston and 

 is taken from the June issue, 1914, of that publication; 



Mode of Inheritance in the Production of the English- 

 Type Gold Campine Male 



Of particular interest in the foregoing valuable art- 

 icle is the observation that "Throughout the whole series 

 of experiments it was immaterial whether cross-bred 

 Silver or pure Silver hens were used; whether cross-bred 

 Gold or pure Gold hens were employed, the male bird 

 was the determining factor.'' It is not quite clear whether 

 this is intended to apply to Mr. Mattock's experiments 

 only, or to those of Mr. Jones as well, but from the 

 connection it appears to have been the author's inten- 

 tion to apply it to both series of experiments. 



The peculiar interest of the statement is that if it 

 correctly interprets the facts, they furnish additional evi- 

 dence in support of what a correspondent in a recent 

 issue dubbed "Spillman Mendelism." From a first glance 

 at these tables it would appear that the ground color — 

 gold in the one variety, and white in the other variety — ■ 

 of Campines behaved in transmission as it has been 

 claimed by Spillman and his followers that the barring 

 in Barred Rocks and fecundity in hens behave. 



When Mr. Mattock mated a Silver male and a Gold 

 female, he got all Silver progeny. In a similar mating 

 Mr. Jones got the same result. When Mr. Jones mated 

 a Gold male and a Silver female, he got Silver males 

 and Gold females. Mr. Mattock, in the second mating 

 in his series, mated a Gold cock to cross-bred Silver- 

 Gold hens from his 1907, with the same result that Mr. 

 Jones got from pure Silver females with a Gold male. 



The 1907 and 1908 matings by Mr. Mattock, and the 

 A and C matings of Mr. Jones, gave results which sup- 

 port his statement that the male bird is the determining 

 factor, and which suggest that a Gold hen cannot trans- 

 mit her ground color to either male or female 'offspring, 

 while a Silver female may transmit her absence of 

 ground color to her male but not to her female off- 

 spring. 



When we come to the 1909 mating by Mr. Mattock, 

 however, we find that a mating of a Silver cock with 

 Gold females from a Gold cock with half-Gold females, 

 produced Gold females. It is obvious here that the Gold 

 females transmuted their color to their daughters. Be- 

 yond this point, Mr. Mattock's table is apparently in- 

 complete and unsatisfactory. A comparison of his state- 

 ment of results with Mr. Jones' statement cannot fail 

 to suggest that his statement of results in 1908, and fol- 

 lowing years, mentions only the material he used, leav- 

 ing out of consideration what he discarded. 



Wherever Mr. Jones has either one or both parents 

 cross-bred he gets a greater variety of results than from 

 a first cross. This is in accordance with common ex- 

 perience and expectation. It is unfortunate that Mr. 

 Mattock's table does not show all the results he (pre- 

 sumably) got. 



What strikes anyone with a slight acquaintance with 

 the methods by which new varieties have been produced 

 as singular, is that neither Mr. Mattock nor Mr. Jones 

 made the step after the first mating that most exper- 

 ienced breeders would say was the logical next step. A 

 view which their successful result, when obtained, con- 

 firms. Upon what we may call common knowledge of 

 breeding a breeder versed in this knowledge would have 

 assumed at once, after getting the results Mr. Mattock 

 got in 1907 and Mr. Jones in his C mating, that the 

 matmg most likely to produce what was sought would 

 be a mating of the cross-bred Silver-Gold male to a 

 Gold female, preferably to his dam. 



