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CHAPTER I. 



POULTRY HOUSES AND RUNS. 



all matters connected 

 with poultry-keeping, 

 the fowl - house is 

 generally the first to 

 be considered ; and 

 healthiness in the 

 house and surroundings 

 is certainly one of the 

 most important of all 

 considerations connected 

 with the undertaking. It 

 may be well to point out at the outset 

 that this healthiness may be sought in 

 either of two somewhat different direc- 

 tions, if not absolutely upon two different prin- 

 ciples. The last way of putting it would indeed 

 be carrying the matter too far, since in every 

 case />/a-e air remains the first and essential 

 point. But this may still be sought in the way 

 of either free and hardy exposure, or combined 

 with warmth and shelter from the weather ; 

 and there are circumstances which may make 

 either of these general methods advisable. 



It is but comparatively recently that the 

 possibilities and advantages of the open-air 

 method have been generally recognised, though 

 even in the first edition of this work impressive 

 examples were given of Dorkings and Spanish 

 becoming hardy and healthy under the Spartan 

 regimen of an entirely out-door life. The 

 results of this, when fully carried out, wc see 



best in pheasants and other game birds, whose 

 health, vigour, and extraordinary gloss and 

 elasticity of feather far surpass 

 H^^^dmess that of house-kept birds. On the 

 Delicacy. other hand these races, in confine- 

 ment, are abnormally " delicate," 

 and the mortality is great : they die off, just 

 as aborigines do when missionary convention 

 has put them into trousers and closed rooms. 

 We, on the other hand, trained by long here- 

 dity, find the clothes and the closed rooms a 

 necessity, and perish under "exposure." 



We thus learn that there are two entirely 

 different kinds of "delicacy." One animal,- or 

 human being, may be supremely hardy towards 

 any merely inclement conditions of open-air 

 life, while delicate towards the least vitiation 

 of air or pasturage. Another race or family, 

 by its training, will be "delicate" to the 

 exposure, but hardy towards the consequences 

 of confinement and crowded life. These may 

 appear truisms to many ; but there are some 

 who never seem to have given a thought to 

 them, or to their real bearing upon questions 

 of practical management and rearing ; and so 

 we have presumed authorities maintaining that 

 the proper and only profitable way to rear 

 turkeys, even in this country, is to give them 

 unlimited range and free exposure, in the 

 neighbourhood of woods especially, and regard- 

 less of poachers, foxes, wanderings, and such 



