No. 4.] FAKM POULTRY. 409 



In a previous article on poultry keeping for the farmers 

 of Massachusetts I bad occasion to refer briefly to the fact 

 that, as a rule, farm-grown stock did not attain the best 

 development possible. I would not go so far as to say that 

 the best development is to be sought for all the stock pro- 

 duced on the farm, regardless of the cost of obtaining it, 

 though I think better development than is usual could be 

 obtained on many farms at an insignificant cost ; but I 

 would by all means urge every farmer who wishes to im- 

 prove his poultry to give to chickens, from which his stock 

 birds will be taken, all the attention that they need to bring 

 out all the merit there is in them. 



Beginning with good stock, breeding carefully and grow- 

 ing his fowls well, a farmer can in a very few years have a 

 stock of uniform high excellence that will be an ornament 

 to his farm, will be far more profitable than the old, care- 

 lessly bred stock, will be a source of pride to him, and 

 stimulate his neighbors to follow his methods. 



And here we come naturally to the consideration of 

 another point, — the relation of the farmer as a breeder to 

 other farm poultry keepers, especially to those in his imme- 

 diate vicinity. It is of quite as much advantage to him to 

 have his neighbors generally keeping just as good foAvls as 

 the fowls he has improved to his liking. One may take a 

 selfish sort of pride in having better poultry than those 

 about him, but it is not really much to his credit, unless 

 they too have good poultry. It is to the advantage of the 

 farmer and breeder of poultry also to have the kind of poul- 

 try he keeps popular throughout his vicinity. I doubt 

 whether there is any one condition affecting the improve- 

 ment of poultry which has a surer and steadier influence for 

 the preservation of practical qualities than to have the stock 

 almost universally kept in a locality, and all the poultry 

 keepers alike interested in getting practical and profitable 

 results. 



It remains to speak of the satisfaction of breeding poultry. 

 The mere grower of poultry gets little pleasure out of his 

 work with it. The breeder alwaj^s finds something in his 

 work to compensate for the; drudgery of some of the tasks 



