1877 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
461 
Improved Plymouth Rocks. 
The very handsome breed of poultry known as 
“ Plymouth Rock,’ 1 Is deservedly becoming very 
popular among those who keep fowls for profit. 
These fowls, as may be seen from our illustration 
on this page, which has 
been carefully drawn from 
a trio of living birds, pos¬ 
sess many favorable char¬ 
acteristics. First among 
the good qualities of a 
fowl, is size. This the 
Plymouth Rocks have in 
an unusual degree. There 
are many excellent breeds 
of poultry, which are all 
that can be desired except 
as to size, and the lack of 
this is fatal to their popu¬ 
larity ; for, after all, profit 
is the chief object with 
most people in choosing 
a kind of fowl to keep. 
Hardiness of constitution 
and vigor; pleasing form ; 
handsome and attractive 
plumage, and prolific pro¬ 
duction of eggs, are all 
very desirable qualities in 
fowls, and these all belong 
to this breed. It will prob¬ 
ably be noticed that the 
birds pictured in our illus¬ 
tration, are remarkably 
heavy-bodied. This is a 
peculiarity which belongs 
In an especial degree to a strain bred by Mr. F. H. 
Corbin, of Newington, Conn. This form of body, 
which is more like that of the Dorking than any 
other fowl, occurred accidentally, we believe, and 
the fowls with which this peculiarity originated, 
in Mr. Corbin’s yards, were bred from with care, 
and their desirable shape has been permanently 
fixed. The future of the Plymouth Rocks will 
depend greatly upon the care or fortunate success 
with which they are bred. Difference of taste 
leads breeders to favor different styles, aud thus 
“ strains ” are originated. If these styles are made 
to depart too much from a 
rigid standard, there is 
danger that an important 
and essential point may 
be sacrificed for some 
minor fancy. To prevent 
this, and to induce or 
to enforce care and con¬ 
sistency in breeding, it 
would be well that a very 
close adherence to the 
standard be insisted upon 
in all exhibitions, and 
that a very rigid one 
be adopted. In the ease 
of the birds here repre¬ 
sented, they come fully up 
to the accepted Standard 
of Excellence of American 
breeders, and meet it in 
every respect. The points 
required are: the breast 
to be “broad, deep, and 
full,” and the body to be 
“large, square, and com¬ 
pact.” The form of these 
birds is therefore nearly 
perfect, and if all breed¬ 
ers of the Plymouth 
Rocks emulate Mr. Cor¬ 
bin’s skill in taking ad¬ 
vantage of favorable accidents in breeding, and 
in fixing them upon his strain, or in using care 
in selecting birds for breeding, as any skillful 
breeder may readily do, the future history of 
this breed will be a very gratifying one. Among 
some of seventy breeds recognized in the Ameri¬ 
can Standard of Excellence, there are only two of 
American origin, viz., the old-fashioned Dominique 
and the Plymouth Rock. The latter originated in 
Connecticut, and after some years of careful breed¬ 
ing, has been brought to such a condition of merit, 
that it is now one of the most popular breeds, and 
promises to be one of the most suitable for farmers, 
and attractive to amateurs. The birds here shown 
are entered in the American Poultry Record ; the 
cock is Caesar (5,970), the hen in the foreground is 
Pauline (5,972), and the one in the rear is Juliet 
(5,971). This strain of Mr. Corbin’s has been favor¬ 
ably noticed by the best poultry authority in the 
country, a compliment which it certainly deserves. 
Duroc or Red Swine. 
The farmers of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
parts of New York, have long been acquainted 
with a breed of hogs known as “ Jersey Reds.” 
These have been a very favorite kind of swine on 
account of their fine, small bone ; long, deep, round 
body ; good feeding qualities, aud hardy constitu¬ 
tion. Some years ago, these excellent hogs were 
taken in hand by some breeders more than usually 
careful, and have since been considerably improved, 
so that, at the present time, this breed will chal¬ 
lenge comparison with any other whatever for all 
the valuable points which make swine desirable of 
profitable. We have noticed of late that these red 
hogs have become widely distributed, a large sale 
of them having occurred in Kentucky, where they 
were favorably received by the very critical buyers 
of that well-known breed¬ 
ing State. When at the 
N. Y. State Fair, at Ro¬ 
chester, in September 
last, we saw a good speci¬ 
men of these swine, which 
was exhibited by Wm. M. 
Holmes & Son, of Green¬ 
wich, Washington Co., N. 
Y., who make breeding 
them a special business. 
We have been favored 
by Mr. Holmes with a 
photograph of this ani¬ 
mal, from which we have 
prepared the engraving 
here given. The picture 
is, therefore, no fancy 
one, but an exact por¬ 
trait of the animal, so 
far as photography and 
careful drawing in copy¬ 
ing can produce it. In 
all photographs, there are 
some exaggerations, the 
effects of which are so well 
known, that they have no 
detrimental effect on the 
subject,any more than the 
converging lines of a per¬ 
spective drawing would 
mislead a person into supposing they were not 
really parallel. Thus the central portion of the 
photographic picture is an exact copy of the object, 
while the extremities are always more or less en¬ 
larged. If proper allowances are made for these, 
we then get a life-like representation, more nearly 
exact than any artist could possibly draw one by 
hand. In this portrait, the head and ears are not 
so fine as they should have been, or are in the liv¬ 
ing animal; nevertheless, we get a very good idea 
of what this breed of swine really is. At the Na¬ 
tional Swine Breeders’ Convention, held at Indian¬ 
apolis in 1871', it was de¬ 
cided to call this breed 
the Duroc, and it is now 
so called by those who 
give attention to it. The 
history of the breed 
dates back over 50 years, 
or to 1823, when Mr. H. 
Kelsey, owner of the 
noted horse Duroc, im¬ 
ported a pair of red hogs 
from England. A Mr. 
Frink, of Saratoga Co., N. 
Y., procured a boar pig 
of a litter from this pair, 
and named it Duroc, after 
the famous horse; hence 
the origin of the name, 
under which the breed has 
become popular in that 
locality. The pigs them¬ 
selves are reasonably sup¬ 
posed to be related to the 
Berkshire ; the old Berk- 
shires were frequently 
reddish, or sandy-colored, 
and spotted with black, 
and had lopped ears. The 
Durocs may be properly 
considered to more nearly 
represent the old Berk- 
shires, than the trim, smooth, prick-eared, blue- 
black and white-faced and white-footed modern 
Berkshire, as these points are all brought from 
foreign blood ; while the red hogs have never lost 
their ancestral character, except so far as it has 
been improved by selection and good breeding. At 
least this is claimed for these hogs by their ad- 
DUROC SWINE, BRED BY WM. M. HOLMES & SON, GREENWICH, N. Y. 
