THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



Eggs being therefore collected in France 

 from a large number of small occupations, what 

 has given the export trade and Paris trade such 

 a development is the fact that the collecting 

 mechanism is so well organised and efficient. A 

 gentleman in the trade, writing to the Grocer, 

 has described it for the benefit of English pro- 

 ducers. Every small town or large village has 

 a weekly market, and to these the merchants of 

 the district send their vans with market cases, 

 and buy all that are offered ; if bad eggs are 

 brought, the delinquent is subject to a fine, and 

 for a proved second offence may even be im- 

 prisoned ! The eggs are brought just as they 

 are in these cases to the central warehouse, 

 where they are "candled," and next morning 

 are sorted and packed, according to size, in 

 boxes containing twelve "long hundreds." By 

 evening train the same day they leave for the 

 boat. Thus the eggs bought from the farmers 

 on a Wednesday are packed on Thursday, catch 

 the Friday boat, and are in London market the 

 following Tuesday, and so of other days in the 

 week. They are packed carefully with white 

 rolled straw, in white deal cases, arriving in a 

 nice, clean-looking, saleable condition. 



The home consumption of eggs in France is 

 also very great, and this has made the foreign 

 trade so sensitive to prices and other factors. 

 About 1866 Madame Millet Robinet calculated 

 the consumption in Paris alone at 120 per head 

 of its population ; and as the late Mr. Gibson 

 Richardson soon afterwards found that 6,000,000 

 eggs were sold weekly in the Paris markets, 

 some of these being of low quality used in 

 manufactures, the calculation must be pretty 

 accurate for that time. In 1S99 the Paris 

 Municipal Council published a return, showing 

 that the consumption per head the previous year 

 had increased to 212 per head. The consump- 

 tion in France for omelettes alone must be 

 something enormous. This home demand, as 

 we see presently in the case of America, keeps 

 up prices for the better quality, and the large 

 export to England was formerly replaced in part 

 by a considerable import from Italy. This was 

 greatly checked by tariff changes ; and when 

 prices in England somewhat decreased, owing 

 to English producers beginning to skim the 

 cream of the best market, as above described, 

 a quantity of the French eggs found a better 

 home market in Paris. 



A large part of the French e.xport of dead 

 fowls to England is for the December, and 

 especially the Christmas market, to which many 

 turkeys are sent over ; but the whole of this 

 export is very little, as already shown, in com- 

 parison with the egg trade. 



Of the Belgian trade, a considerable portion 

 is of Italian eggs, merely sent through the 

 country ; but it is impossible to ascertain what 



proportion. Eggs are also shipped 

 Belgium. direct, but it is curious that many of 



these are laid by Italian fowls — 

 what, in fact, we call Leghorns, imported from 

 Italy in the summer, kept to lay for about twelve 

 months, and then killed. The Belgian table 

 fowl -par excellence is the Coucou de Malines, of 

 which a number reach London in December ; 

 but more dead poultry go from Belgium to 

 Germany than to England. In Belgium the 

 rearers of lean chickens chiefly meet the fatters 

 at certain established markets, where the fatters 

 buy what they want or can get, and take them 

 away. 



The most remarkable growth in European 

 poultry industry during the last twenty years is 

 undoubtedly in Russia, where the Government 

 has made considerable efforts to 

 Russia. encourage this industry. In 1S99 



it held a great international ex- 

 hibition at St. Petersburg for the purpose of 

 making the people acquainted with foreign 

 breeds, many of which, especially German and 

 Belgian exhibits, were taken home by Russian 

 buyers. There was a monthly International 

 Poultry Journal, with departments in Russian, 

 French, German and English, which must have 

 been subsidised, or it could not have been carried 

 on. The Grand Duke Nicholas stated a few 

 years ago that poultry was recognised as the 

 branch of production which had most rapidly 

 advanced, and the export to England was only 

 a portion of Russia's export trade. This is, of 

 course, returned in roubles, and dividing these 

 by ten (which is almost exactly correct) to gi^'e 

 the figures in pounds sterling, the exports for 

 i8q8 (the last figures available) were: — 



Description. 

 Live fowls 

 Dead (owls 

 Dead game 



Eggs 



Yolk of egg 

 White of egg ... 

 Down and feathers 



Value. 

 /637,ooo 

 141.648 

 6,131 



30,612 



3.542 



197.951 



;f 4,130,270 



It is of course the vast southern districts of 

 Russia which produce poultry and eggs, the pro- 

 ducers being nearly all very small men, from 

 whom their fowls and eggs are collected by 

 travelling dealers or higglers. The birds have 

 little attention and little food beyond what they 

 pick up : hence the cost and prices realised are 

 both very low. In the spring no more than 



