WRIGHT'S BOOK OF POULTRY 



INTRODUCTION. 



MR. LEWIS WRIGHT AND "THE BOOK OF POULTRY." 

 By S. H. Lewer. 



M"«- 



"R. LEWIS WRIGHT was the son of a 

 -known printer and publisher in 

 Bristol, and it was at the early age of 

 nine, towards the close of 1847, that, in conjunc- 

 tion with a brother, young Lewis first engaged 

 in poultry-keeping. The difficulties in the way 

 were considerable, for there was but a small 

 stone-paved back yard to their father's town 

 residence. Still, a start was made, and three 

 of the coarse Minorca hens then so common 

 in the West Country, together with a cick, 

 formed the stock of the young fanciers. The 

 birds were of the hardiest description, and 

 capital layers, though they did not breed too 

 true, for the progeny showed signs of other than 

 pure Minorca blood. These chicks, however, 

 were the delight of their young owner's heart — for 

 the brother soon tired of the hobby — and Lewis 

 Wright used to watch them by the hour, until, 

 as he told me, " I could almost have acted a 

 chicken myself" This close observation of their 

 ways and individual peculiarities, doubtless cul- 

 tivated a quickness of perception which stood 

 Mr. Wright in good stead in later days. 



It was about this time that poultry shows 



were beginning to be held, and Mr. Wright 



often told me of the admiration 



An Experi- ]^indled within him by the first really 



ment in . , . ^ , 



Socialism representative gathermg 01 poultry 

 which he visited, and the sense of 

 dissatisfaction caused thereby at the scarcely 

 exhibition, although hardy, character of his own 

 stock. The ne.xt move was an attempt to 



realise an ideal of some present-day reformers 

 — the holding of all things in common — and 

 occurred through Lewis being sent to a day 

 school. His schoolmaster was a kind-hearted 

 man, who approved of pets for his scholars, 

 and consequently had allowed the boys to 

 construct a hen roost in his coal-cellar. To- 

 wards the providing of inhabitants for this 

 curious fowl-house it was by mutual consent 

 arranged that each boy should contribute a 

 hen. This was duly done, but somehow or 

 other the big boys' hens did all the laying, 

 and Mr. Wright found that his first and only 

 experiment in Socialism did not favourably 

 impress him with the system ; for under it, 

 even the laying qualities of a well-tried strain 

 seemed to dwindle and decay ; since apparently 

 never an egg did his hen lay after her ad- 

 mittance to the co-operative hen-roost. 



Upon leaving school the demands of the 

 printing business and some scientific studies 

 left but little time for attention to 

 Breeding poultry, and so for a while these 

 Brahmas were renounced, and it is perhaps 

 doubtful if the hobby would have 

 been taken up again had not Mr. Wrigh": 

 found on his marriage, at the age of twenty- 

 si.x, that his wife, accustomed to country life, 

 wanted a few hens, so as to ensure a sujjply 

 of really new-laid eggs. Again the old stone- 

 paved yard was called into requisition and 

 the abandoned interest renewed, and a yeai: 

 subsequently, on removal to Kingsdown, Mr. 



