372 



POULTRY 



be provided. For laving liinl- it i- found tint soft 

 food is very beneficial, ami it -li<nilil ! L/IM-M in 

 the morning, "itli liuid corn in the later part of 

 the day. Sitting hens should IK- pio\ idc.l for apart 

 from other stock, an they requite t4> lie in a quiet 

 place. Tin- time of iiicul>ation i- twenty-one days. 

 When tin- brood has made it* appearance the lien 

 and chickens should be placed out in a coop, and 

 the latter fed evrry t wo hour* fur tin- first fortnight, 

 every three hours for the next two weeks, and after 

 that four times a day until tliry reach m.-ituritv. 

 Artificial incubation and brooding are very largely 

 adopted !>y poultry breeders, and have lieen brought 

 to a remarkable state of ]>erfection, the machines 

 now sold working with great regularity and pre- 

 cision (see INCTHATION). The a<lvantage of in- 

 cubators is that they can be used at any period of 

 the year, and an' nut dependent upon the weather, 

 a* is the case with hens. The Hearson and West- 

 meria incubators are the best, and the Westmeria 

 brooder has proved remarkably successful for all 

 kinds of poultry. This plan of* working is largely 

 employed in France and America. 1'oultry are 

 polygamous, and from four to ten hens should be 

 placed with each cock bird, according to breed and 

 the season of the year. 



Poultry-farming. Many attempts have been 

 made to establish poultry-farms, but they have 

 always ended in failure, ami it has come to be re- 

 garded as an axiom that poultry will not pay. The 

 reasons for this failure have been twofold : first, that 

 the amount of space necessary' to keep the fowls in 

 health when in large numl>ers, and the consequent 

 increase in labour, were too heavy charges against 

 the enterprise ; and second, the placing of a large 

 number of birds together, under conditions which 

 were unhealthy, induced disease, and so ruined the 

 scheme. The great mistake has been mode in 

 attempting poultry-farming as a separate industry, 

 rather than as part of a larger enterprise. Where 

 it can lie grafted upon other work, an addition 

 to the business of farming or fruit-crowing, it can 

 be, and has been, made successful tn several not- 

 able instances. In these there is no separate charge 

 for land ; the labour is not on account of it alone ; 

 a large portion of the food needed by the fowls is 

 obtained by themselves from the ground, and such 

 as is given is at the first cost ; the produce can 

 generally be sold with what other is going to 

 market, and especially if dairying or fruit-growing 

 be also entered into, those who purchase milk or 

 butter or fruit being genet ally willing to buy the eggs 

 and chickens ; and, finally, the land is enriched by 

 the manure of the- fowls, whilst its cm|>loyment for 

 other purposes will prevent its In-mining foul, the 

 great danger when only poultry arc kept on the 

 land, for disease is speedily induced by foul ground. 

 The force of event* during recent years has com- 

 pelled many British farmers to take up what were at 

 one time regarded ax minor pursuits, and branches 

 of farming which ill themselves are not sufficient to 

 give a living for which reason they were neglected 

 for larger things have received attention. Or, as 

 it has been expressed, 'commercial poultry will 

 only pay as an accessory to something else, 

 whether it be a farm or a household to eat 

 scraps which would otherwise lie wasted . . . and 

 to give to the land, in the shape of manure, 

 properties which cannot otherwise be obtained 

 except by a heavy outlay.' When we look to 

 France, where poultry are bred to such an enor- 

 mous extent, we And that poultry-farms as 

 such have no existence, but that fowls are 

 kept by every farmer and cottager. The same 

 remarks apply to Italy, Denmark, and Ireland, 

 from all of which countries Knglatid receives large 

 supplies of eggs nnd |>nltry. In the wine district* 

 of France fowls nre |>ermitted to wander amongst 



the vines all the year round, except just when the 

 fruit is forming, and they do a most serviceable 

 work in cleaning and manuring the ground. The 

 ]M>ultry houses are place.1 in the vineyards, and in 

 many cases are made sufficiently narrow to pass 

 between the rows of plants. 



In France, in the Surrey and Sussex district* of 

 England, and also at Aylesbury, where so many 

 ducks are fattened every year, systems of fattening 

 are extensively carried on, but as a rule, in France 

 especially, those who rear the birds do not fatten. 

 Fattening is a business by itself, birds licing pur 

 chased from the breeders when aliout eight weeks 

 old. They are put into pens and fattened for 

 a period varying from three to ten weeks, either 

 by hand or with machines. Some of the latter 

 are very elaborate, but as a rule they are simple. 

 The head of the fowl is held in the left hand, and 

 a brass nozzle, attached to a piece of india-rubber 

 tubing, and connected with a cylinder, is inserted 

 into the mouth of the bird. In this cylinder is a 

 supply of liquid food, made of buckwheat or some 

 other meal, milk, and a little fat, and it is so 

 arranged that when a ]>edal is pressed by the foot 

 a portion of the food, varying according to the 

 stage of fattening for it is increased in quantity 

 each day until the process is completed is injected 

 through the tube and nozzle into the bird's crop. 

 By this means the fattening is carefully and skil- 

 fully conducted, and there can be no doubt of the 

 result, as every one who has tasted a well-fattened 

 French fowl will be able to testify. In the La 

 liresse, Le Mans, and La Sarthe districts of 

 France the number of fowls fattened every year 

 is enormous, and the best specimens realise very 

 high prices. The flesh is beautifully tender and 

 white, and much more abundant than would be 

 possible on an unfattened fowl. In Surrey and 

 Sussex the method adopted is somewhat different, 

 in that the birds are either fed by hand or with 

 heavy crank cramming-machines, powerful enough 

 to force semi-liquid food into the crop of the fowl. 

 Here the process does not lost more than three 

 weeks. Wnen the birds are killed they are iiiime 

 diately plucked, and placed, before they become 

 quite cold, on shaping boards, so mode as to give 

 them the best appearance. In Ireland there in 

 very little fattening carried on, and consequently 

 the poultry from that country are poor and sell at 

 about the lowest price on the English market. 



Where jmultry are kept in large numbers tho 

 best method of housing is by means of movable or 

 portable dwellings, for these can be transt'ened 

 about from place to place, giving the fowls fresh 

 ground and distributing their manure, which is 

 very valuable indeed, over the land. Under no 

 circumstances should more than fifty lie kept in 

 one Hock ; and it will lie found in practice that they 

 will not wander far from their home, or mix with 

 each other, even if the houses lc placed in adjoin- 

 ing fields. The ordinary methods of management 

 are applicable here. There can be no question that 

 the increase in the size of farms, which has taken 

 place within the last half of the 19th cent in y. has 

 done much to discourage poultry-keeping, and the 

 opposite tendency ought to have fi reactive ellcct, 



(see PEASANT P-ROPIUKTOKS). Much might U- 

 done in the way of encouraging |>oultry keeping by 

 cottagers, who could maintain them with the 

 minimum of cost and the maximum of results. A 

 very important factor in successful poultry-keeping 

 is the selection of right breeds, and it is essential 

 that the produce should be marketed as speedily 

 as |K>ssible. An egg two days old is worth twice as 

 much as when two weeks laid, a fact which should 

 always lie liorne in mind, but is too often forgotten. 

 In the great cities and densely ]mpulated districts 

 there is a constant demand for fresh eggs, and at 



