October 18, 1977

Dear Mr Plant:

I must apologize to you for the long delay of this letter. I have been in England and it seems correspondence has gotten considerably stacked up. Regarding your efforts to amass a history of Cochins, especially of Cochin Bantams, I would have to refer you to several publications some of which you may find difficult to obtain but at any rate we will see what we can do.

I believe to understand the total story of Cochins you have to first consider the large fowl and then admit that the Bantam Cochins may not be a result of a miniaturizing effort applied to the large fowl but rather an independent effort to develop a miniature of similar configuration. There are several books that I would then call to your attention. One is a paperback entitled The Asiatics by the Reliable Poultry Journal Publishing Company of Quincy, which does not carry a date but was printed in the very early 1900’s, about 1903 I believe. There are, of course, the classic books such as The New Book of Poultry by Lewis Wright, The Poultry Book by W.B.Tegetmeier, The Poultry Book that is attributed to Harrison Weir and edited by Johnson and Brown, The Poultry Book by Wingfield and Johnson carrying Weir’s illustrations and the version of the New Book of Poultry that was edited by Sidney Lewer. These give a pretty good background on the large fowl. From there we would have to go over to Bantams and Miniature Fowl by Silk, Bantams by W.F. Entwisle, Bantams Down to Date by Joseph Shakespear, Bantams by C.A.House, and Bantams as a Hobby by T.Proud.

Some good information can also be found in the numerous articles by John H. Robinson that appeared in the Reliable Poultry Journal while he served as their editor in the early 1900’s. When he transferred over to Everybody’s Poultry Journal, he continued this effort and the period of about 1928 to 1932 saw that magazine carrying many short but very informative bits and pieces on many of the breeds and varieties. John Robinson was probably the best informed poultry historian of all times. He knew the background of the people as well as the chickens and therefore could put the two of them together and relate it to such things as political influence, popularity of the fancy, etc.

Certainly as far as background material on the development of the Asiatics, and particularly the Cochins, in the United States one needs to consider the semi-fiction book, A History of Hen Fever by George P.Burnham. Burnham was a despisable soul fighting with nearly everyone who would allow him the opportunity but, nevertheless, this book has more than a smattering of truth in it. I believe it does help us to understand what was to follow.

There is a small booklet offered by the American Bantam Association entitled Cochin Bantams and this too might prove to be a helpful tool for you.

Your project is an admirable one and I only regret that you are not nearby as I have someplace in the neighborhood of 11,000 pieces of poultry literature in my home. This is not, unfortunately, well catalogued and my work schedule is such that I can‘t devote long periods of time to its organization and indexing. However, if there are materials that you can use that I can sort out, I would be glad to Xerox bits and pieces and send them to you. I am told that Dr. Longnecker of the National Agricultural Library has reproduced certain pages of some of the classic books and sent them to you. Is this correct? Did he include the section on Pekin Bantams from Wright’s book?

Do you plan to use drawings, illustrations or other figures in your publication? If so, there may be an opportunity for me to assist you in this field because I have access to large numbers of slides, pictures and drawings both in my own collection and in that of the University of Wisconsin.

Forgive me for making this such a long letter at a late date but circumstances have dictated the time and interest dictates the length of the letter. Please let me hear from you further as this project progresses and if there is any way that I can be of assistance, please allow me to do so.

Sincerely yours,
John L. Skinner
Poultry and Small Animal Specialist