Poultry from a Commercial Point of Viezu. 



227 



average yield from this breed. For table 

 purposes they cannot be much considered, 

 owing to their small size. The first thing to 

 be considered by those who keep fowls should 

 be to obtain that breed most suited to the 

 climate of the locality as well as the accom- 

 modation and convenience of the individual 

 poultry keeper. To the farmer who pos- 

 sesses an unlimited grass run, with farm stead 

 well sheltered and soil dry, the Houdan or 

 Brahma Dorking would be found the most 

 generally useful and profitable breed to keep. 

 To the cottager who is obliged to confine his 

 fowls within a narrow space the Brahma or 

 Creve Coeur will probably be found the most 

 profitable and satisfactory, combining egg- 

 producing power and flesh-forming propensity 

 in the same bird, and less likely to suffer by 

 confinement than any other bird, as they are 

 bound to thrive in a space where Houdans, 

 Dorkings, or Hamburgs would pine and die. 



PROFITABLE MANAGEMENT. 



There are certain rules that must be prac- 

 tised to make fowls profitable. The first is 

 to keep your stock young, and clear off your 

 birds at that age at which they leave the 

 largest profit. Secondly, to hatch your 

 chickens as early in the spring as possible, 

 so as to give them advantage of the entire 

 summer, to hasten them to lay in maturity, 

 and so obtain as early a supply of eggs as 

 possible, and at a season when they command 

 the highest price. Thirdly, to keep a breed 

 of fowl that is hardy and comes early to 

 maturity, easily fattened for the table, and a 

 precocious and prolific egg-layer. Fourthly, 

 comfortable housing, together with a regular 

 supply of sufficient food to keep them in 

 laying condition. Now I think that most 

 present will agree with me when I say that 

 the observance of these essential rules is 

 the exception and not the rule among 

 the general run of poultry-keepers. I 

 will illustrate the profitable management of 

 a small poultry-yard by describing that which 

 1 see practised, at an imaginary model farm, 

 where fowls are kept as they should be, and 

 made to return a clear annual profit averag- 

 ing los. to I2S. per bird, or a total annual 



profit of ^37 from sixty laying hens, and an 

 equal number of fatted chickens. I visit this 

 farm early in November, and I find a fine 

 healthy stock of Brahma, Dorkings, Houdans, 

 and silver-spangled Hamburgs. I am taken 

 to the hen-house, which I find to be a simple 

 structure, built in a sheltered situation facing 

 south-east. The building is perfectly dry 

 and free from damp, airy, well-ventilated at 

 the top, and rather light. At the time I 

 visit the yard, the pullets hatched during the 

 past March are commencing to lay, to replace 

 the older hens hatched the year previous ; 

 and after they have done laying, which are 

 now being fattened and killed oft' at the age 

 of nineteen months, these pullets continue to 

 lay off and on through the coming winter and 

 following summer, laying an average of 180 

 eggs per bird between this time and the fol- 

 lowing autumn, at which time they in their 

 turn are killed off to make room for that 

 year's succession of pullets then commencing 

 to lay. These eggs, one-half of which are 

 produced during the winter months, and fetch 

 i5d. per dozen, and in the summer gd. per 

 dozen, realize a total of 15s. per bird, and 

 each one fatted and disposed of in autumn at 

 the age of nineteen months will reaUze 2s. at 

 4d. per lb., their average weight exceeding 

 6 lb. This gives a total of 17s. as the re- 

 turn from each laying hen killed at the age 

 of nineteen months, exclusive of the value of 

 their manure made during the time. Some 

 few are allowed to live another year, and are 

 killed twelve months later, as these older 

 birds make the best brood mothers, and lay 

 an increased number of eggs the second 

 summer ; and in cases where poultry keepers 

 are unsuccessful in rearing chickens, and have 

 not the necessary accommodation for doing 

 this, they will find it to their advantage to 

 kill oft" their hens at the close of their second 

 laying season instead of the first. 



THE SYSTEM OF FEEDING. 



The system of feeding practised at this 

 farm is as follows : — The fowls leave their 

 roost at the first rising of the sun, and are out 

 and about for two hours picking up the early 

 worms, &c. ; at 8 o'clock they get their 



