September
16, 1988
Dear
Mr Plant,
I
received your second tape and I can say you this tape was quiet and clear
spoken and very well to understand. I must apologise writing back so late. But
many letters came in and it costs less time to answer a letter as to answer a
tape.
What
you told about the real Australian breeds of poultry is very interesting. For
us in Europe we only know the Australorp as an Australian breed of poultry. 10
days ago I permitted myself a free day and I went first by train to Utrecht to
see over a lot of books and found a pretty book about quails, pheasants,
jungle fowl and other wild fowl. Later that day I took another train to
Amsterdam and found a book The King of
Fowls by Mark Marshall, second edition published by Saiga Publishing
Co. England 1981. First published in 1958 in Australia. You must know this
book or the original Australian copy. It contents forwards, an introduction, a
ballad by Young Tarpot and chapters on Australian Game Fowl, Old English Game
Fowl and varieties and the Australian Pit Game
Fowl, 5 color plates and some black drawings by the author. I have not
read it all now, but it seems very interesting for me. I do hope that you can
read my letter yourself this time; or are you still waiting for the
transplantation?
About
20 years ago I got a years file of Grit
and Steel with some vary good articles on Japanese breeds of Game fowl.
But also a lot of local game news, useless for me.
What
you say about more languages we learn, I must say English is a world wide
language and the Dutch area is small only the Netherlands, half of Belgium and
some of South Africa. So we have to learn more and the best is English, but I
also learned some German and some French, which is nice for reading poultry
book from these countries. English is my best foreign language, I understand
German very well and my French is poor.
I
am sorry for you that you had to miss the lecture about the investigation of
Mr Langdon (I hope I understand this well).
Don’t
apologize for my trouble to listen your tape. To speak slowly and clear is
very tiring and on the last part of the tape I can hear you are tired and the
tape is less understandable. But you and I do the best we can and we can hope
that in the future you are able to use the typewriter again.
I
got the 1988 Yearbook of the ABA and there was in an article of George Carter
Before Columbus. The point is Chickens were carried to America at one time
from India and at another time from Japan, and there could well have been
other introductions which have escaped notice. The article was reprinted from
North American, Ellsworth, Maine. There is nothing new in the article, Carter
corresponded with Hoffmann about the Muscovy duck and later Hoffmann asked
Carter’s opinion about Finsterbusch’s theory about the Malay type fowl and
the jungle fowl. I think most amateurs with a little interest in fowl know
about the different types of fowl. In fact 3 groups, the jungle types, the Malaioid types and the Cochin types. And all the different
mingled types of poultry.
Bill,
I wish you the best with your eyesight and I really hope that meanwhile your
problem is solved. I am entering my busy time now, doing one or two judge jobs
a week and doing my work on the chickens and the house in my spare time. But
understand, I love it do it, and that takes us busy.
Sincerely,