Mr
Frank Gary
Crosswicks
- N.J. - USA
8-11-1983
Dear
Mr Gary,
Received
your welcome letter today and first of all please accept my sincere
condolences on the loss of Mrs Gary. I remember you mentioning some time back
that she had had a spell in hospital I think. I can appreciate how you would
feel after being together such a long period. I am 62 years of age so I guess
you must have been married somewhere around 1920. I think keeping your
interest in the chickens will be of great help in keeping active and keep on
with your work with the Standards. You really do have a great track record on
that score. The American Bantam Association owes you a lot for the work you
have done with the Standards. I have very recently written to Fred Jeffrey and
apologised for my absence on the correspondence scene. I appreciate both yours
and his concern on my well being.
Your
gesture on giving the receipts from the sale of your library etc to the cause
of the rarer breeds is to be commended and should no doubt be appreciated by
members of the ABA I myself have a pretty extensive collection of poultry
books and literature, in fact a room full of it as well as books on Australiana
i.e. books written about Australia by Australian authors. Also there are my
books on Amateur Radio as I have held a Ham
Radio Operators License since 1939. Have not been terribly active in that
field over the latter years but in earlier days talked a lot over the air
waves with chaps in the US. Just had a quick look thru my acknowledgement
cards and found that I talked with a chap in: Succasunna NJ in 1950, a chap in
Red Bank, 1970, and another fellow in Closter NJ, 1969. May get back to it one
of theses days.
I
checked with our State Library here about them taking over my collection when
I pass on but I made the stipulation that it had to be kept as a unit. However
they appear to have problems when it comes to a situation like that. As My son
is really the poultry breeder in the family he has agreed to take it over. I
told him and his wife if they didn’t look after it I’d come back and haunt
them. I didn’t want it split up as its pretty hard to get a decent
collection together out here. There does not appear to be too many
comprehensive Poultry book collections in Australia. A lot of mine came from
either the States or England I did however pick up a few out here. Thank you
for your comment on the color patterns. As you are aware the British Standard
is not a great lot of help but when I get working properly it which will be
very shortly I will keep you posted on progress and probably seek your advice.
I think you are aware that we have no National Poultry Body in Australia so at
our Pekin Club meeting last Sunday we decided that as a Specialist Club we
should set the Standard. The British
Standard is the accepted one for Pekins here in Australia but I think
eventually the Suggested Standard in my book will be accepted by the Pekin
Club and recommended by them. It is in actual fact the same as we discussed
during our earlier correspondence and what you set up for the ABA
Standard.
The
only thing we have a scale of points out here which would go into it. The
problem was originally that when I put this suggested Standard to the Pekin
Club meeting of committee we had one DISSENTER who vetoed the thing before it
got off the ground. However he no longer comes to the meetings. I got the
thing in print out here anyway and although I know that some of the stick in
the muds don’t altogether agree with it no body as yet has taken me to task.
Its pretty hard to teach an old dog new tricks. However the Committee is right
behind the color business and I have to come up with a draft for the next
meeting in February.
They
are breeding quite a few Black and Blue Reds and Brown Reds over in West
Australia and the photographs look OK. One of the chaps sent over some eggs
and I’ve just hatched six chicks. The chicks didn’t come out as our OEG
Black Reds come with a stripe down the back so I don’t know how they got
them. I think more by chance than anything else.
However
we will see how they shape up. I think if they are going to make these colors
they will have to start with OEG bantams to get the color right in the first
place. What happens in Australia is that with OEG They put Black Red into Pile
to darken up the males and Black Reds with Blue Reds etc. It can get a bit
confusing if you don’t watch what you are doing. In the OEG Bantams the
Black Reds have Wheaten females There are Black and Blue Tail Wheaten and the
Partridge hens come amongst the Piles. We have classes for both Dark Leg and
Light Leg in these breed.
Had
a letter from Professor Skinner of the University of Wisconsin the other day
and he tells me they are on with the latest edition of the APA
Standard.
You
suggest I might get on to book about Origin etc etc of the Domestic Chicken
before the others. I have been toying with that idea myself as I have plenty
of material that I’ve collected, some of it only hypothetical but
nevertheless a lot of it fits together and I have come up with some
conclusions which I feel do make some-sense. There does not appear to been any
serious work done on the subject. I wrote to Professor Carter of the
University of Texas a few years ago as he wrote the Chapter on Pre Columbian
chickens in the Americas in the book Man across the Sea. He had concluded his chapter by saying that a
lot more research was needed to establish the fact as to whether there were
chickens in the Americas pre Columbian. In his reply to my letter he said that
after writing that Chapter he didn’t do any more work on the subject. So
there you go. I was thinking that if you have a cassette player at your
disposal it might be an idea for us to exchange cassettes as we do seem to
have a bit to talk about let me know when you reply what you think of the
idea.
Had
a bit of excitement in the house tonight as a small Black snake ran across the
living room. Had nothing to hit it with so it got away. That’s not a regular
occurrence, but we do see them around from time to it’s been a very hot day
today and that’s what gets them moving. It’s midnight and I’ve got to
turn the eggs in the incubator so must do that and get some sleep. So until
next time all the very best. Good to hear from you.
Sincerely
Yours,
P.S.
Regret to hear that reading for you is getting more difficult. So the cassette
might be a great help.