May 28, 1992

Dear Mr Plant:

Many but belated thanks for sending me a copy of your Further notes on jungle fowls and Pacific, which arrived here in mid-February. I am still not fully organized with work stations at home, and things tend to get buried. Bit by bit I am getting caught up and getting things arranged in an orderly way.

I am especially pleased to have copies of the de Vries and Castellò papers from the 7th World’s Poultry Congress. For whatever reasons, I have never been able to locate those proceedings despite searching many libraries in Canada and elsewhere. They are both papers that are historically important. I enjoyed the long series by Elliot Kimball. He was indeed a character. He appeared on the poultry genetics scene when I was first starting out, and I heard him speak once. He upset many apple carts. Some of his work has withstood the test of time but much of it bas not. He suddenly seemed to lose interest in poultry, and plunged into crystallography where he made similar waves. And then he died at a relatively young age. He apparently made his living as a ghostwriter for magazines such as Saturday Evening Post. I also thoroughly enjoyed the very long series of letters and articles by George Carter. I tried two years ago to meet up with him, without success, but still hope to arrange a visit sometime. He continues to write to me occasionally insisting that he has evidence for pre-Columbian chicken bones; I hope his book will be published soon and that I get to read it.

I am revisiting the pre-Columbian controversy yet again. This time as the Inaugural Lecture for the World Meeting on Domestic Animal Breeds Related to the Discovery of America  to be held in Cordoba, Spain in September/92. That stuff is sheer fun but still not adequately proven to my mind. My health continues to improve, and I continue to crank out written things. I was to a meeting of FAO in Rome in April to give a paper about poultry conservation needs in Third World countries. I completed yet another poultry history chapter for a forthcoming book on the world’s poultry industry. And have started work on a chapter for a new book on Canadian animal agriculture - history of both livestock and poultry this time. I hope you are well and able to continue with your work. I Would appreciate hearing from you.

Best wishes.

Roy Crawford