Plymouth Rock Monthly

What magazine had 40,000 subscribers in 1920? Answer: the Plymouth Rock Monthly, a periodical devoted to our favorite chicken breed. We have two “production” Barred Plymouth Rocks in our small flock of four hens, and we’ve found them to be productive, friendly and, with their striped plumage, an attractive sight in our garden. While the internet is an amazing resource for the urban homesteader, there are a few holes in this electronic web of knowledge. In short, would someone out there please get around to scanning and putting online the Plymouth Rock Monthly? All I can find are images of two covers lifted off of ebay.

The February 1925 issue, at right, promises articles on, “Selecting and Packing Eggs for Hatching”, a poetically titled essay, “The Things We Leave Undone”, “Theory and Practice in Breeding Barred Color”, “White Plymouth Rocks”, “The Embargo on Poultry”, and “Breeding White Rocks Satisfactorily”. Incidentally, the Embargo article probably refers to a avian influenza outbreak of 1924-1925 that repeated in 1929 and 1983.

By the 1950s interest in backyard and small farm flocks vastly decreased and the Plymouth Rock Club of America, the publisher of the Plymouth Rock Monthly, collapsed down to 200 members from a peak of 2,000. Thankfully, interest in keeping chickens is now on the rise again and an informative magzine, Backyard Poultry has been revived. Plymouth Rock fans can read an artcile about the breed in the latest issue of Backyard Poultry.

Speaking of poultry, the American Poultry Association will be holding their annual meet in nearby Ventura, California on October 25th and 26th. More info here. You can bet that Homegrown Evolution Root Simple will be there, blogging (tweeting?) live and picking up some fine schwag, such as the amazing patch on the left. What a nice symbol–a feather through a wishbone. We hope that the A.P.A never updates that nice logo! Get one for yourself in their “virtual shopping mall“. And take down that faded Nagel print and pick up their handy poultry breed chart for your living room.

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4 Comments

  1. We’ve got a couple Barred Plymouth Rocks “in production” up here in our Bay Area backyard, stars of our own Urban Chickens blog. Thanks so much for digging up images from the PR Monthly (gives PR a whole different connotation, no?)

  2. I have four barred rocks in my mixed flock an they are my friendliest hens by far. I recommend them for anybody who wants a good dual purpose chicken.

  3. I will have to look up that magazine in our library. It never ceases to amaze me what is stored in the archives of an academic library.

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