HISTORY OF ANCONAS 
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The first History of Anccnas was written and published by me in small 
booklet form in 1911, to supply the demand for information about this then little 
known breed. 
At that time Anconas were not pictured in the American Standard of Per¬ 
fection, nor were they to any extent exhibited at the poultry shows, or advertised 
in the poultry magazines. 
Wherever Anconas had become known they excited much admiration by 
their pronounced beauty, alertness, quick development, and remarkable egg 
production, and soon a larger and more comprehensive treatise on the breed 
was urgently called for. 
This I supplied early in 1915, when I issued a 100-page book, well illustrated, 
and filled with Ancona data down to that date. The book was given a splendid 
reception by the Ancona fraternity, the poultry press and poultry judges, and 
the large edition was entirely sold before this present edition was undertaken. 
Since the 1915 edition was published, the official Egg-Laying Contests have 
been wonderfully extended and developed wherever poultry is kept, and in all 
parts of the world these contests have proven that the claims made by Ancona 
breeders have not been exaggerated. In this revised edition I have brought 
these remarkable records of Anconas in official contests down to date. 
Until very recent years Anconas had no part in the immense volume of 
business conducted on commercial egg farms. Now, however, this breed is one 
of the leaders in that great industry, and at the present rate of increase bids 
fair to soon stand at the head in numbers, as it already does in net piofit pei biid. 
A radical change was made in the American Standard of Perfection for 
Anconas in 1923. This was done at the request of leading Ancona breeders 
and The United Ancona Club, to keep pace with the improvement and advance¬ 
ment of the breed during the past few years. 
I have endeavored to bring this edition of the History of Anconas right 
to date in every particular, and present only such statements as can be verified. 
My experience of over twenty years breeding Anconas, editing and publishing 
an exclusively Ancona magazine since 1910, and serving as Secretary of the 
Club since its organization, has made me very familiar with Anconas from 
every angle, and I hope that in presenting to the poultry craft this revised 
edition of the History of Anconas I have done the breed justice, and made a 
book instructive, interesting, and of historical value. 
ROY W. VAN HOESEN 
Franklinville, New York, U. S. A., 1923. 
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