Plymouth Rocks. 
205 
Mr. G. E. Andrew. Mr. J. Maude, of the Montrose Yards, also secured a few good birds. Mr. \V. H. 
Treganowan, of Newport, bought one of old ' Freddy Ball's ' first sons in ' Gus Kearney,' and some four or 
five pullets, and of all the buyers he seems to have had the best results. At Essendon, the opening .Show of 
'97, he did not exhibit ; but at AVilliamstown and the Exhibition he secured every card in the young 
classes, his team showing beautiful type and quality throughout, and his three cockerels were real top-penners, 
and I am positive no breeder in Australia has three better ones in type of his own breeding in any colour. 
As Mr. Treganowan tells me he is removing his birds to his Farm at Poowong, m South Gippsland, where 
they will enjoy the same natural advantages as Mr. Maxfield's, I believe he is making a good move 
towards securing the premier position among breeders of the \Vhite variety, a point he has already partially 
attained. 
" In conclusion, I would like to bring under the notice of my readers the wonderful way in which 
the Plymouth Rock has caught on in its original home, the New England States of America. In New Hamp- 
shire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut — those States in which Yankee go 
and grit had its birth, where the famous Vermont Merino sheep was originated, whose top-crosses have done 
so much towards improving the flocks of Australia, and in which no breed, be it bird or beast, is allowed to 
live unless they are ' Dollar Earners ' — Plymouth Rocks are to be found in hundreds on almost every farm, 
and in thousands in every country district. They simply hold undisputed possession, and that after a trial of 
fully 40 years. This verdict I would ask the Farmers of this country, for the sake of their own pockets, to keep 
in mind, as I am convinced that equally as well in the Southern districts of Australia, as in the New 
England of America, no breed on earth is so well adapted to thrive and pay as the Plymouth Rock Fowl." 
The following additional notes and instructions on mating and breeding Barred Plymouth Rocks 
are kindly supplied by Mr. W. F. Weeks, of Weiitworth Falls, N.S.W., a most successful breeder and 
exhibitor of the variety. This gentleman writes : " This useful and favourite breed of Poultry is an 
American production, being the result of . a scientific combination of several breeds for the purpose of 
producing a Fowl that would possess the useful qualities of all, and at the same time be pleasing to the 
eye in combination with a fine, hardy constitution. That our ' American cousins ' were successful is fully 
admitted by the whole of the English-speaking communities, so that it is a most difficult matter to write 
anything fresh on the breed. Their qualities as Table Fowls are recognised in Victoria, they being bred in 
that Colony largely for export to England, and it is claimed that this breed has topped the market in prices 
realised for several years in the Home markets. The hens are good layers of large brown-coloured eggs, and 
although the breed is of a very active disposition, and excellent foragers, they are easily confined within 
bounds by wire netting 4 ft. in height, even though when in close proximity to a garden, as their great weight 
of body effectually prevents them from flying to that height. Plymouth Rocks are so hardy that when some 
years back I wrote to a Poultry paper, making the statement that I had reared almost every chicken 
hatched, I was laughed at by other correspondents, one going so far as to state that 'Rocks could 
only be killed by a hatchet.' So many persons look upon pure-bred Poultry as mere Fancy birds, that 
I have been compelled over and over again to reiterate that Plymouth Rocks are, without exception, the 
easiest to rear, and the hardiest in constitution when reared, of any breed I know of, and as I have 
experimented with every breed of Poultry, besides various crosses, and in days gone by, scrub stock, I claim 
to be an authority on the subject. The breeds that were blended to produce this grand Fowl will never be 
correctly known, but the American Dominique and the Black Java were the chief ones. 
" The American type of Rock is lighter in colour, and tighter in feather than the English, and appear 
smaller, but are very little, if any, inferior in weight. While striving to breed to the English Standard of 
colour, I have preferred the American stamp in the tightness of feather, for the sole reason that I have 
found the tight-feathered birds the best layers, consequently, I am sometimes told that I exhibit small birds 
by those who do not understand the breed. 
" In giving your readers a few practical hints on mating and breeding to obtain Exhibition points of 
excellence, I differ somewhat to other writers, who make out that the Rock is a difficult bird to breed to 
