Fig. 52. Partridge Wyandotte pullet
The Rhode Island Red. Among the earliest of the local types developed in America was a red fowl which soon became the prevalent type in the egg-farming section of Rhode Island and quite popular in the adjacent part of Massachusetts. Most of the stock of this race was produced by a continuous process of grading and crossing which was systematic only in that it was the common practice to preserve none but the red males after introducing a cross of another color. A few breeders in the district bred their flocks more carefully than others, but the race as a whole was not really thoroughbred until after it became more widely popular.
Although the formation of this race began about 1850 (perhaps earlier), it was fifty years before it became known outside of the limited area in which it was almost the only type to be seen. Indeed, the first birds of this race to attract the attention of the public were exhibited about 1890 as Buff Plymouth Rocks and Buff Wyandottes. At that time very few of the Rhode Island Reds were as dark in color as the average specimen now seen in the showroom, and buff specimens were numerous. Birds with rose combs, birds with single combs, birds with pea combs, and birds with intermediate types of comb could often be found in the same flock. So it was not a very difficult matter, among many thousands of birds, to pick out some that would pass for Buff Plymouth Rocks and some that would pass for Buff Wyandottes. These varieties were also made in other ways, mostly by various crosses with the Buff Cochin, but for some years breeders continued to draw on the Rhode Island supply.
Fig. 53. Columbian Wyandottes. (Photograph from R. G. Richardson, Lowell, Massachusetts)
Some people in the Rhode Island district thought that a breed which could thus furnish the foundation for varieties of two other breeds ought to win popularity on its own merits. So they began to exhibit and advertise Rhode Island Reds. At first they made little progress, but as the breed improved, many more people became interested in it, and soon it was one of the most popular breeds in the country. The modern exhibition Rhode Island Red is of a dark brownish red in color.
The American idea in England; the Orpington. At the time that the Chinese fowls were attracting wide attention in America and England some were taken to other countries of Europe. In almost every country they had some influence upon the native stock, but as each of the old countries had one or more improved races that suited most of those giving special attention to poultry culture, the influence of the Asiatics was less marked than in our country.