POULTRY BREEDING. 237 



and the rest of it ; but at the same time it is essentially 

 the work of a small farmer, yeoman, or cottager, who 

 can do very well by as much poultry as his wife can 

 look after. In Ireland almost every peasant rears a 

 clutch of geese, a brood of turkeys, or keeps at least 

 a few fowls, and the animals do exceedingly well. This 

 is because they roost either actually in the peasant's 

 cabin, where there is a fire, or in a lean-to shanty into 

 which the heat penetrates. They thus receive personal 

 attention when young, and are not left to take care of 

 themselves and fight against cold and wet. This is a 

 strong example in favour, so far as poultry is concerned, 

 o{ la petite culttcre ^g^Anst large farms; and certainly in 

 this country also, yeomen's or cottagers' fowls seem to 

 do better than those raised on a larger scale. It is likely 

 enough that farmers dislike their labourers keeping any 

 large quantity of poultry lest they are tempted to purloin 

 corn ; fowl-growing and egg-selling are businesses in 

 themselves, extras, as it were, on a small homestead. 

 France, with her army of small farmers, proprietors or 

 leaseholders, naturally raises a vastly greater quantity of 

 poultry per square mile than can be the case in England. 

 The majority of our barndoor fowls, it must be admitted, 

 are mongrels, but we have some fine poultry in this 

 country — better, I think, than in France. The French, 

 however, not only dress their poultry better for the market, 

 but cook it better than we do. They stuff their fowls 

 with fresh butter before roasting them, and baste them 

 continually. One rarely tastes a good roast fowl in 

 England, more for want of culinary knowledge than 

 want of good poultry. 



