340 Home Production of Poultry, 



cents each, they represent a sum of 525 millions of francs. 

 Allowini? each layer to produce 60 egg^s a-year, there should be 

 117 millions of fowls. To this number must be added 10 per 

 cent, for the cocks, hatchers, the sick, &c. — say, in round 

 numbers, 11 millions. From this there results a total of 128 

 millions devoted to laying and reproduction. It is calculated 

 that the annual production of chickens equals the number of 

 producers — say, 128 millions. At 3 francs each, this amounts 

 to 384 millions of francs ; to which add the value of the eggs, 

 525 millions of francs — that is, 909 millions of francs." Here 

 is a sum of about 38,000,000/., or nearly a sovereign per head 

 for the entire population of France, given as its annual returns 

 from Poultry ! The 'Universal Dictionary' may have guessed 

 at its "7000 million" eggs, and the whole calculation may thus 

 be founded on a fallacy ; but then Mr. Geyelin, in his ' Poultry 

 Breeding in a Commercial Point of View,' published last year, 

 affords us confirmatory evidence from a pamphlet procured in 

 the great fowl region of Houdan : " It is to be desired that our 

 excellent and pure breed of Houdans should be propagated in 

 every other country as much as it is in our own, where the 

 poultry-trade has taken such a development that it forms one 

 of the principal sources of riches. A few exact statistics of this 

 trade in our immediate neighbourhood will give a correct idea 

 of its importance. At the markets of Houdan, Dreux, and 

 Nogent le Roi, there are sold annually upwards of 0,000,000 

 heads of^a^ poultry, namely, — 



Per Week. 



Houdan 40,000 



Dreus 50,000 



Nogent leEoi .. .. 35,000 



6,000,000 



This does not include the sale of chickens and poultry [? eggs], 

 which forms a separate trade." Reckoned at M. Pomme's price, 

 3 francs apiece, we have here 18,000,000 francs, or 750,000/. 

 worth of table-birds of a single breed, all sold at three neigh- 

 bouring country markets. Yet these 6,000,000 of fat Houdan 

 fowls just treble in number the 2,000,000 fowls which our 

 Leadenhall and Newgate manage to dispose of. However, 

 Lavergne's more sober statement of 10,000,000/. a-year from the 

 French poultry-yards is sufficiently in advance of the humble 

 achievements of this country, surpassing our estimated pro- 

 duction, as it does, by twelve to one. We never had a " good 

 King Henry" who wished "that every peasant could put a 

 fowl into the pot : " it is not everybody with us that loves eggs 

 a la coque, eggs sur le plat, eggs in omelettes, eggs in some savoury 



