FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 




PouttRy Department: 
(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
PLYMOUTH ROCKS. 
Tuts celebrated fowl, which is attracting so much atten- 
tion of late from farmers and fanciers, is not, as is supposed 
by many, in any way related or connected with those of the 
same name originated about twenty-five years ago by Dr. 
J. C. Bennett. 
The modern Plymouth Rock was originated on the farm 
of the late Joseph Spaulding, Esq., of Putnam, Conn., by a 
cross between the ‘‘ Black Java” and ‘‘Dominique.’”’ Their 
color is dark steel gray all over, with distinct white bars 
across each feather; the cocks should be a little lighter 
colored. Legs a bright yellow, with a dark shade running 
down the front, and perfectly free from feathers. Combs 
single and standing erect, and should be perfectly straight, 
with even seratures. 
They are very close 
feathered, having 
little superfluous fluff, 
and are very heavy 
for fowls that look so 
s\ small compared with 
“\ the Asiatics. Cocks 
m weigh at maturity ten 
to twelve pounds, and 
hens eight to ten 
pounds. They are the 
best for table use of 
any fowl, except, per- 
haps, the Dorking, 
and as they become 
better known will 
stand in this country 
where the latter does 
in England, at the head for a table fowl. They are per- 
fectly hardy and mature early, making very good breeders 
at eight months old; flesh yellow, and very juicy. 
G. P. Burnham, in one of his ‘‘ Reminiscences of the Hen 
Fever” to the Fanciers’ Journal, says of this fowl: 
‘‘Among the best stock shown at Boston, were the new 
style ‘Plymouth Rocks.’ This name for fowls originated 
twenty-five years since, with Dr. J. C. Bennett, who in his 
work on poultry, published by Phillips & Sampson a quarter 
of a century ago, describes this variety briefly thus: ‘The 
Plymouth Rock fowl is produced from a Cochin China cock 
with a hen crossed between a fawn-colored Dorking, Malay, 
and Wild Indian.’ The cocks were speckled red and dun, 
the hens dark brown, and some of them Dominique. I 




291 

never saw half a dozen alike wm color, however, among the 
originals. They were first bred at Plymouth, Mass. 
‘The Plymouth Rocks of to-day are an entirely different 
bird. They are bred, I judge, from crossing the Dominique 
with the China fowl. In color they are uniformly Domi- 
nique, but are generally smooth-legged, and those exhibited 
this season were very fine, stately, showy birds. They are 
duly classed in the standard, are bred largely in Essex 
County, Mass., and have many admirers. It is claimed for 
this variety that the new strain mature earlier, are excellent 
layers, come to good size, the chicks are hardy, and alto- 
gether they are an acquisition to our American poultry, this 
last cross being a judicious one, as the good qualities of both 
The 
the China and the Dominique fowl are well known. 
name adopted by the origi- 
nators of this late variety 
is a good one, but Dr. Ben- 
net started it years ago for 
a very different kind of 
fowl. 
“The ‘Wild Indian’ 
hen above alluded to (in 
Dr. Bennett’s ‘Plymouth 
Rocks’), was unquestion- 
ably a Malay fowl. The 
doctor procured her from &, 
a ship at Boston from Cal- 
cutta, and she was a very 
remarkable specimen; a : 
genuine virago in temperament, and of most pugnacious 
qualities, fighting and vanquishing any other fowl in his 
yards, male or female, that came in her way. He produced . 
a very superior strain of Games from this hen, crossing her 
to an Irish or Earl of Derby cock subsequently, to which he 
gave the name ‘ Wild Indian Games.’ The old hen was 
finally sold for one hundred dollars to a Mr. Griggs, of 
South Carolina. 
‘“The original ‘ Plymouth Rocks’ run out long ago. The 
new variety is a better sized and shaped bird, and having 
only two distinct strains of true blood in their composition, 
promise fairly to prove a valuable addition to Americanized 
poultry. Though an acknowledged Yankee manufacture, I 
notice that they are recognized as a ‘breed’ in the new 
American standard.” 

SCIENTIFIC BREEDING OF LIGHT BRAHMAS 
FOR EXHIBITION. 
ARTICLE VI. 
CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF THE BREEDING STOCK AFTER 
THE CLOSE OF THE BREEDING SEASON, AND 
DURING THE MOULTING SEASON. 

As soon as practicable, after the first of June, the cocks 
should either be given a separate run for each bird, or, as 
recommended in our last article, each one may be put in a 
yard with the young cockerels. The hens may all be put 
together in one yard; this should be done in the evening, 
and there will be less quarreling and fighting; otherwise 
some valuable birds may be ruined for the show-pen from 
losing an eye, or by being completely scalped, both of which 
are liable to happen, as we know to our sorrow, from hastily 
putting strange birds together in broad daylight. If put 
together at night they will rarely fight so savagely as to 
injure oneanother. All hens that are intended to be shown 
