Can Poultry be made to Pay 



103 



Of these the Dorking and Surrey fowls are beyond all 

 question the best for the table, in delicacy and weight 

 of flesh ; the game the most savoury, although defi- 

 cient in size ; the Brahmapootra not so delicate in 

 flavour as the others, but hardy, weighty, and easily 

 fattened ; the Houdan having the good without the 

 bad qualities of the Dorking — precocious and small- 

 boned, being non-sitters, and almost uninteiTupted 

 layers of large eggs. The Brahmapootra seems 

 to be a useful stock on which to build other 

 varieties. Of these, the cross with the Dorking 

 is most strongly recommended ; and a cross with 

 the Houdan produces table chickens of a fine size. 

 At the last Chelmsford and Essex Poultry Show, the 

 birds which took the first and second prizes for dead 

 poultry, trassed as by poulterers, but not drawn, were, 

 the one 13 lb. 12 oz., the other, 13 lb. 10 oz., the pair 

 at five months old. They were the direct offspring of 

 a Brahmapootra cock bird and Dorking hens. For 

 stock it would be a better plan to put a Dorking cock 

 with Brahmapootra hens, and the pullets of this union 

 with Dorking cocks in no way related to the ancestors 

 of the pullets. Very hardy and weighty table birds 

 may thus be produced. By answers to inquiries, and 

 by reference to the books of a fann, including the last 

 six years, I find that the average price paid by higglers 

 for barn-door fowls of the average weights first men- 

 tioned is 2s. for coop-fed, and is. 8d. for yard-fed 

 birds. The cost of feeding and rearing the prize birds 

 at Chelmsford was probably very little, if at all, more 

 than that of raising the others. With regard to feeding, 

 our system of leaving chickens to shift for themselves 

 until such time as they are ready or wanted for the 

 coop is all wrong. No attempt at after-fattening 

 will increase frame if the feeding of infancy has been 

 disregarded. Again, the indiscriminate emptying of 

 apronfuls or sievefuls of grain in a heap on the ground, 

 whilst it serves to gorge the powerful, leaves chickens 

 and weaker birds to starve, picking up here and there 

 a grain, whilst spaiTOws and small birds have a large 

 share in the feast. I see that Mr Mechi published 

 last month the results of an experiment in the cost of 

 feeding a single hen, shut up and without access to 

 any food but that which was given by hand. The re- 

 sult shews that 5 lb. of barley, at the average of id. per 

 lb (or 40s. the quarter) will make I lb. live weight of 

 poultry food, worth gd. per lb. I say it is quite prac- 

 ticable to feed poultry more cheaply, andjconsequently 

 to sell them cheaper than shewTi by this method — that 

 is, supposing them to be at large ; but I am sure Mr 

 Mechi will pardon me for saying that I think this 

 statement of feeding in confinement is rather low, a 

 circumstance which may arise from the fact that the 

 bird pined at first. I have tried the same experiment 

 with two pens of birds, consisting of a cock and two 

 hens, confined for a long time to [separate but very 

 small wired pens. I tried it in March last year, and 

 in the month just ended, and I found that [my birds 

 consumed about 3^ pints to his 2^ pints in the 

 week ; but then I dare say the barley I used was of 



foreign growth, and of much lighter buUc. Birds 

 having a free run would cost very considerably less. 

 I must not occupy your valuable time with the details 

 of what is necessaiy for the housing of birds, and for 

 their places of laying and incubation. It will be 

 enough to say that they should be, what they are sel- 

 dom in farm-yards — namely, cleanly, convenient, and 

 attractive. A hen's nest should be on the ground, if 

 there is no danger from rats, for laying and also for 

 hatching ; and the roost should be low, particularly 

 when they are heavy birds. I believe the sore and in- 

 jured feet which are not unusual in large poultry are 

 often caused by their jumping down almost perpendi- 

 cularly from a high roost. Fowls will always choose 

 the highest perch, probably because it is the warmest, 

 and when this is in a large open shed, as a cart-lodge, 

 they have room for some length of flight before reach- 

 ing the ground, but in a small poultry-house they come 

 down very heavily. If the perches are arranged in 

 steps one above the other they will jump them one at 

 a time until they reach the highest, but they will not 

 come down that way. I do not approve of artificially 

 warming the fowl-house ; it should be well built, and 

 brick is better than wood, being warmer, and more 

 easily cleaned ; but I think if the introduction of hot- 

 air pipes is allowed it must produce such a warmth 

 that on going out into the cold air the fowls are 

 apt to get chilled, and to have an attack of the roup. 



On the point that the demand for poultiy is re- 

 stricted by the market system, I would call attention 

 to the fact that poultry produce stands at a costly rate 

 to the consumer, and at a poorly remunerative one to 

 the producer, by reason of the irresponsible middle 

 men through whose hands it passes before it reaches 

 the retail-seller. Again, in its perishable nature the 

 producer is liable to much loss in a dull or a glutted 

 market. In this matter I would venture to suggest 

 the establishment in London, and the great towns of 

 the United Kingdom, of wholesale markets, either 

 apart from or in connexion with the meat markets, 

 subject to police and other regulations, to have sales 

 by auction, so that no part of the consignment need 

 be returned to the producer, or destroyed as unfit for 

 food ; to extend the same principles of markets and 

 sales to other towns in the kingdom on their market 

 days. One of the reasons already given for the 

 neglect of poultry stock was, that farmers' wives have 

 ceased to be hen-wives. Perhaps in the altered state 

 of society it is unavoidable. It is, however, to be 

 regretted. But poultry-growing, as a part of farm 

 stock, and an item of our daily food, will need hen- 

 masters rather than hen-wives. I mean that if it were 

 carried on by the husband as a regular part of his 

 business, he would feed his poultiy the same as he does 

 his horses and his stock, but when it is left to the 

 wife there is often a complaint of the quantity of food 

 required for the poultry, and a little sly barn robbery 

 the result of waste. I ha\e tried brank or bucl;- 

 wheat, which is very good, and so is Indian corn. 

 Cheapen a necessary of life, and a demand follows in- 



