THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



alone, would soon have worked a tremendous 

 difference in the receipts. 



A third case of failure we select, because 

 it has been specially mentioned by Mr. Teget- 

 meier, and points a moral which it is very 

 necessary to enforce. It was a poultry-farm 

 started on 114 acres belonging to Sir Robert 

 Buxton, at Rushford, in 1882. A brick incu- 

 bator house was built and stocked with eight 

 200-egg machines ; the ground was fenced by 

 wire : the land, it is said, well adapted for 

 poultry. To quote the further description 

 e.xactly : "Ample provision was made for the 

 artificial supply of heat for the rearing of the 

 chickens, which were not to be overcrowded 

 on the land, and were not to exceed from 

 60 to 100 per acre. The breeding birds were 

 to be located in runs separated by wire-work, 

 and not more than from a dozen to twenty 

 kept together. The manure was to be care- 

 fully collected and utilised. There was to be 

 an intelligent poultry-keeper ; two labourers, 

 their wives, and a boy under him. Although 

 the poultry was chiefly to be bred for the 

 market, a careful selection was to be made 

 of the best stock. . . . It is difficult to imagine 

 a poultry farm conducted ufider more advan- 

 tageous co7iditio?is." 



Such an assertion as the last, from any 

 man pretending to a knowledge of poultry, is 

 simply astounding ; for nothing could possibly 

 be worse, more absolutely certain to end in a 

 dismal failure. Just observe the conditions. 

 Here was a sudden rushing into large opera- 

 tions, in practical ignorance of the whole busi- 

 ness ; a stock collected of no special excellence ; 

 an " intelligent poultry-keeper " and two men 

 and two wives and a boy to pay for, and on 

 whose management and work all depended ; and 

 as the foundation of all, to be run by one or 

 other of the above, or all combined, eight 

 200-egg incubators and corresponding heated 

 brooders, with only the knowledge and experience 

 in incubators of that day I What does almost 

 pass belief, is the folly that could launch out in 

 such a way. Beyond doubt, there is no shadow 

 of a hope for any such adventures in poultry- 

 farming as here described. 



Wherever success is to be attained, it must 

 be reached by methods widely different from 

 this. It must be recognised that the business 

 is not an easy but a difficult one, 

 Conditions demanding apprenticeship and per- 

 Success. sonal knowledge of it, and commer- 



cial aptitude as well. It demands 

 steady and progressive preparation and founda- 

 tion beforehand, which will itself absorb time 

 and capital, if only for subsistence in the mean- 



time, because one cardinal condition of success 

 in an egg- farm is a stud of birds bred for laying, 

 which cannot be purchased right off at any 

 commercial figure, though good breeding stock, 

 which shall be its foundation, may and should 

 be. And, moreover, the intending poultry- 

 farmer has to make or find his market. We are 

 constantly asked where produce " can be sold " 

 at good prices, and people seem to think there 

 is an absolutely unlimited market always wait- 

 ing at top prices, to absorb any fresh supply at a 

 day's notice. There is no such market : a new 

 supply has to " work in " by degrees, and make 

 its own reputation, so that mercliants and dealers 

 may know by experience what they can rely 

 upon. All this work is gradual, and as it pro- 

 ceeds, so should expansion keep pace with it 

 Of course, all this may go on together. Begin- 

 ning in quite a small way to breed a stock of 

 good layers from a pen of good layers, may give 

 practical apprenticeship, and send difew birds and 

 eggs to market ; the first few paying as they go, 

 though not enough to make a living. Then, as 

 things open out, may stock and plant and 

 operations be extended ; or perhaps on the other 

 hand the operator may find that he is not suc- 

 ceeding, and not likely to succeed, in which case 

 he had better find that out before sinking much 

 money in the attempt. All the time he must 

 be breeding up his layers, and as soon as things 

 get beyond his own hands, training each one of 

 his staff, and so on. It will all work together, 

 and eventual success will mainly depend upon 

 how this preliminary work is done ; and those 

 who are deterred by the prospect of such slow 

 proceedings, are simply those who ought to be 

 deterred, and who would only incur ruin by pro- 

 ceeding in a rash way. A large paying business 

 is only to be built up out of a smaller business 

 which already pays, and which will teach ex- 

 pedients and methods as one goes along. 



The scale to which such poultry-farming 



might be capable of extension, would difier 



widely in various cases. Labour remains the 



great difficulty, for there is an 



?i''ffi.':,H^"' amount of hard work which few 

 Difficulty. . r T c 



have any idea of. In bussex, many 



of the people engaged in the industry work 



hard from dawn to dark ; and organising power 



is required, as well as practical knowledge, to 



manage subsidiary labour. We have been 



repeatedly struck by statements from successful 



poultry-farmers in America, to the effect that 



they did well up to a certain point, where they 



could manage all by themselves, or with a 



labourer immediately under their own eye, but 



that when they got beyond that, efficiency fell 



off, and profits with it Our own experience 



