INTENSIVE AND SEMI-INTENSIVE POULTRY-KEEPING 



By The Editor 



THE INTENSIVE SYSTEM 



EXCEPT for a few bold pioneers, such as 

 Majors Wathen and Mansfield, and those 

 backyarders and fanciers who, owmg to 

 lack of space, had perforce for years practised 

 intensive poultry-keeping without 

 "The City styling it such, the present sys- 



tem of intensive poultry culture 

 m the British Isles may practically be said 

 to date from the interest aroused by the 

 poultry plant installed by Mr. Randolph 

 Meech at the Festival of Empire held at the 

 Crystal Palace in the summer of igii. 



Styled then " The City System " by Mr. 

 Meech, though later receiving the now better- 

 known prefix of " intensive," it was, we believe, 

 frankly based by its promoter on American 

 ideas, which were subsequently still further 

 developed by visits to leading establishments 

 in the United States, which were interestingly 

 described in The Feathered World of Sept. 29, 

 191 1, and onwards. 



In the States, due largely no doubt to the 

 rigorous winter climatic influences prevail- 

 ing, intensive poultry culture is of older 

 origin. One of its leading exponents, Mr. 

 Philo, of Elmira, N.Y., has been practising 

 it for about thirteen years. Prior to that he 

 had kept poultry in the ordinary way for 

 twenty-five years ; but his conversion to the 



system of closely confining birds in small 

 houses (the average size used being 6 ft. long, 

 3 ft. wide, and 3 ft. 6 in. high) came about 

 in a curious way, and was told by him to Mr. 

 Meech. It appears that, having occasion to 

 change his residence, he was only able to re- 

 tain a few of the best of his stock. These, 

 for lack of other accommodation, were confined 

 in piano cases and like receptacles pending the 

 preparation of their new quarters. To Mr. 

 Philo's surprise, these closely confined birds 

 gave far better results in eggs than any which 

 he had previously received from them, and 

 from this chance occurrence sprang the incep- 

 tion of the Philo system, which has now de- 

 veloped into an enormous industry, with some 

 5,000 laying hens and a big trade in appli- 

 ances, eggs and chicks. 



Other American poultry-keepers favour 

 larger pens of birds, varying from 30 to as 

 many as 500 fowls in a single laying house 

 (the Corning establishments in New Jersey in- 

 deed running as many as 1,500 birds in each 

 of their buildings, which are 160 feet long), 

 and the same differences of opinion as to size 

 of flocks hold good here; but in all, the fact 

 is recognised that the restriction of liberty 

 necessitates a greater care in diet so as to make 

 up for the loss of natural food, combined with 

 good housing, extreme cleanliness and ample 

 provision for exercise for the birds. 



