196 



Tlic Coimtry Gentleman s Magazine 



colour, not seldom accompanied by a style 

 and spirit which an artist may feebly imitate, 

 but never equal, while, all the time, they are 

 cherishing those feelings of sympathy and 

 kindness which makes them no worse mem- 

 bers of society. 



We repeat, however, that such persons 

 require no argimrents to bring them over to 

 support an innocent, pleasing, and instruc- 

 tive amusement. It is with harder natures 

 we have now chiefly to do. Honourable 

 and useful individuals, nevertheless, because 

 cautious and practical, we must acknowledge 

 them to be, who, while having no objections 

 to keeping poultry, yet refuse to do so at 

 a pecuniary loss, or at a profit too small to 

 repay their trouble. They are no despisers 

 of a good fowl, well prepared for the table, or 

 of a rich, fresh egg, but it wounds their 

 practical natures to pay cent, per cent, above 

 the market value for the former, or twopence- 

 halfpenny for the latter. To such weighty 

 and even prudent scruples we dare not object, 

 only we beg to question the accuracy, or at 

 least the necessity, of the prices which have 

 begat them. 



Now, whether such poultry establishments 

 as M. Sora's, near Paris, with its 100,000 

 fowls and handsome yearly return, do actually 

 exist, or are mere myths, we do not much 

 care ; but generally we say that, if two 

 different purchasers, the "cadger" and the 

 city poulterer, coming between the first owner 

 and the consumer, contrive to have each a 

 fair profit, we cannot see why fowls and eggs 

 should not, with judicious management, repay 

 the expense and labour of the producer. This 

 strong probability, moreover, is much strength- 

 ened by the vast and increasing demand on 

 foreign supply. The number of eggs im- 

 ported into this country in 1863, accord- 

 ing to the Board of Trade Returns, was 

 266,929.680; in 1864 it was 335,298,240; 

 while, so far as the Returns are published for 

 the present year, the increase is in quite as 

 great a ratio, being 10,000,000 for January 

 and February over the return for the same 

 months in 1864. No doubt a fowl or egg 

 may be bought cheaper, and perhaps pro- 

 duced at less cost also, in many places on the 



Continent than in most places in Britain. 

 But against this put the increased value of the 

 foreign article, caused by the profits of dealers 

 and the risks of transit, before it comes into 

 the hands of the British consumer, and we 

 can hardly help concluding that the home 

 producer should be able to sell with a profit 

 as cheaply as the foreigner. It is not a 

 question, nevertheless, that needs very much 

 the help of general conclusions, for it has 

 been settled by the testimony of experienced 

 amateurs and practical breeders alike, that 

 poultry may pay and have paid. On e\ery 

 hand you may collect proof of this statement. 

 Ask the cottager or the hind's wife, who is 

 allowed {now very seldom) to keep hens, if 

 they pay, and she will compliment your ignor- 

 ance by asking in return if ye "ken nae mair 

 than that yet." The industrious farmer's wife 

 will tell you, " I'm no sure if anything pays 

 better." As for exhibitors, they hardly like to 

 say what their profit or loss is, although we 

 are generally answered by the somewhat sig- 

 nificant words, "We can't say we lose by 

 them." The " Henwife," of whom we poultry- 

 fanciers are all so proud, who can boast of 

 hatching in one year upwards of 1000 

 chickens, declares that " rearing for the 

 market only would even give a profit;" and 

 by a minutely constructed balance-sheet proves 

 that her own splendid yard is far from being 

 an unprofitable one. Such testimony is all 

 the more valuable that the stock at Inchmar- 

 tine is very various, and forms a fine combi- 

 nation of the useful and ornamental. 



We can humbly add our own experience as 

 regards a small yard where only 07ie kind is 

 kept, and sixty or seventy chickens are 

 hatched, and that is, that without one adver- 

 tisement or sale by auction we have, within 

 the last six months, paid ^4 for fresh blood, 

 and drawn ;j^2i for birds sold. This, after 

 allowing jQ^ for keep, leaves a nice little 

 balance on the right side, without taking into 

 account a pretty liberal supply of eggs from 

 thirteen hens for home consumption and 

 hatching. 



Unquestionably some people make nothing 

 by their poultry, and just because they deserve 

 nothing better. Laziness or greed is in such 



