226 



Tlie Country Gentleman s Magazine 



%^t ^airjj ani) Poultrji-larii. 



POULTRY FROM A COMMERCIAL POINT OF VIEW. 



By Mr M. K. B. Edwards.* 



WHATEVER we have to pride ourselves 

 in as a nation, it certainly is not the 

 quality or quantity of our poultry ; and as long 

 as we continue to look abroad for this stupen- 

 dous supply of eggs (500,000,000), the less we 

 say about our poultry or poultry shows the 

 better. Until within the lastyearor so the prices 

 asked by the breeders of the best stock for 

 really good birds has been so exorbitant as to 

 preclude the farming and cottage classes from 

 purchasing, however much they might be 

 inclined to iniprove the stock ; but now good 

 stock birds are to be had at 7s. 6d. to los. 

 each, and this cannot be considered a great 

 price for a huge Brahma cock weighing 9 or 

 10 lb., and eggs from these birds are now ad- 

 vertised in any number from 3s. to 5s. the 

 sitting. 



BREEDS. 



I will now direct my remarks more par- 

 ticularly to several newly introduced breeds 

 of foreign fowl, and endeavour to point out 

 the particular advantages these several breeds 

 of fowl possess in a pecuniary or commer- 

 cial point of view. I will commence with the 

 Brahma as being probably the most generally 

 useful and important of the comparatively new 

 introductions. The advantages that this breed 

 possesses pre-eminently over all other birds 

 are its extreme kindness, docility, great size, 

 and being a good layer, especially through 

 the winter months, when eggs are most scarce 

 and valuable. The Brahma is a good winter 

 layer, and equal to the Cochin as a sitter and 

 good mother to rear strong and hardy 

 chickens, and when crossed with the Dorking 



• Paper read before the Breconshire Chamber of 

 Agriculture. 



produce admirable egg-layers. It is not un- 

 common for Brahma cocks to attain the 

 weight of 12 lb. and 14 lb., and hens 10 lb. 

 and 12 lb. each bird. This is about the weight 

 of two couples of common barn-door fowl. 

 The Houdan is the celebrated French fowl 

 (the Dorking of France). The advantages 

 this breed possesses are its early maturity 

 and great readiness to fatten, being particu- 

 larly light in the bone and delicate in flesh; 

 it is also a precocious layer of large white 

 eggs throughout the year, never desiring to 

 sit. It is no exaggeration to say that the 

 Houdan will fatten upon the same food that 

 will scarcely keep other fowls in ordinary 

 condition. The Crbve Cceur is a magnificent 

 jet black bird of very considerable size, and 

 possibly the most precocious fowl known to 

 fatten. These birds are now well established 

 in this country; so much so, indeed, that it is 

 easier to purchase thoroughly pure and good 

 specimens for stock purposes here than it is 

 in France. Among the most celebrated of 

 the English breeds come first the Dorking, 

 followed by the game and Hamburg. The 

 disadvantages the Dorking possesses are the 

 delicacy and difficulty in rearing the chickens, 

 and the liability of the breed to disease, save 

 in exceptionally warm and dry localities. 

 The Hamburg varieties have been established 

 for centuries amongst us, and may be looked 

 upon as an English fowl. Such precocious 

 and determined egg-layers are these birds 

 that they have earned the well-merited name 

 of every-day layers or everlasting layers. It 

 is not at all uncommon for Hamburgs to lay 

 from 250 to 280 eggs in the year, and 

 occasionally 300 is obtained from a single 

 bird. 240 would, I think, be a fair 



