Mr Frank Gary
Crosswicks - N.J. - USA

18-2-1985

Dear Mr Gary,

Nice to receive your letter and know that you received the book OK. Your letter was dated 21st November 1984 and I received it on I think the 21st January 1985. It evidently came per surface mail, taking just on 2 months to arrive.

Sorry to hear that your eyesight is still failing and nothing can be done for it. It certainly does make things difficult for you with your correspondence amongst other things.

I am still using Timoptol which is keeping the pressure problem in check. However, my doctor advised me late last year that the cataract is now ready to be removed and that at the same time he would put an implant lens in my eye. I was to enter hospital on the 3rd December last year. However, here in this State of NSW we are having problems with a confrontation between the doctors and the Government. It began because of the Medicare arrangement set up by our Federal Government. There are only urgent operations being done in the General Hospitals and the situation is becoming quite serious. It does in fact appear to be a stalemate an I have no idea when I will get my eye done.

Thank you for your comments on my Chicken Bone book. You are certainly correct in saying that many frustrations are encountered gathering information. The problem is I think that scraps of information are written in the form of papers etc, but have never been coalated which is necessary for it all to make any sense. I don’t think I was able to find all the relevant information on the chicken bone bit, but I am hoping that someone who may read my book will come forward with further facts and will be encouraged to continue on with the study.

If I can get on to it the next booklet will be Book 3 on the Gallus species. I have much material which I have collected as well as conclusions of my own. It’s just a matter of putting it together and getting it into print. This of course costs money as I have to do everything at my own expense and the return from sales have hardly covered costs of the books, so I made application to our State Government for some form of assistance, with a negative result.

I sent a copy of the chicken bone book to our mutual friend, Mrs Banning in the Netherlands, and received a letter from her the other day. She provided me with some further information in relation to facts I had mentioned which were quite helpful. I can add this as a supplement in the next book, referring it back to Book 2. As you say we wont discover the answers in our lifetime, but perhaps the information recorded may assist someone to further study the subject.

Thank you also for your comment on my presentation. I realise I have some shortcomings in that direction and I always welcome comment which may make my writings easier to read. As I have not had any academic training, I should endeavour to get hold of someone to proof-read my material. I think however it would be necessary to have someone who has knowledge of the subject for it to be satisfactory.

Also your comments re getting uniformity of the Standards. I very much doubt we will ever have as good as your Standard in the US. Nevertheless I feel as far as the Pekin Bantam is concerned there is an improvement.

I received a long letter from a friend of mine taking me to ask over the color standard so far. He does no agree with me in some respects. However he and I usually have a discussion rather than an argument. Over the years he and I have had many such discussions on different aspects of poultry breeding etc. I am going to discuss his thoughts trough our Pekin Club Newsletter and answer his comments that way. Some of his arguments in my opinion are not very strong. I think I can come up a counter in most cases and perhaps the discussion through the Newsletter will encourage other Pekin breeders to come forward with further comment. Perhaps we may all learn a little more from it. I have always encouraged through our Newsletter (of which I am Editor) I have always welcomed constructive criticism. I will send copies of these Newsletters to you when the discussion begins.

Yes, I quite agree with you regarding the eye color question. We have at least cut the eye color in the Pekin down to Red, Orange Red. Even then judges put up birds with Brown eyes. It’s pretty hard to educate them. I’m not sure whether I sent you a copy of the completed standard for the Brown Red, Black Red, Blue Red Wheaten and Birchen, am enclosing one with this letter. We will eventually go through all the other colors for the breed and then work onto the standard (type, etc) for the Pekin itself. It will probably follow the suggested standard I had in my book (which you and I discussed previously). It may need a few minor alterations but as far as I am concerned the format (as in the ABA Std.) is the only way.

I had hoped to do Histories on the indigenous breeds of Australia but will need some assistance. I have plenty of material. It’s a matter of sorting it all out. I have a couple of chaps in mind who may be interested in cooperating. The only problem one of them lives right up North in Australia close to 2,000 miles away. That would have its difficulties. The other fellow is close handy. It will be necessary to have someone go through all the old Poultry papers and sift out the relevant information so that I can coalate it into some sort of readable history. Hopefully I will get onto it. If something isn’t done, the information may lost for all time.

Well that’s about it for the moment. Hoping you are keeping well and the winter has not treated you too badly. Our summer has been very hot and dry.

Sincerely yours,