THE GALLINACEOUS TRIBES 



223 



useless or worse than useless. Not only farms 

 but also whole villages have been depopulated 

 of poultry by the introduction in this way of 

 diseased fowls. The damage thus caused in 

 Belgium, Germany, and Holland, for instance, 

 has amounted at times to millions of dollars, 

 with the result that many persons, after being 

 duped in this way, have abandoned the trade. 

 The peasantry of Italy and Hungary are 

 largely occupied in the raising of poultry. On 

 the vast plains of those countries the birds 

 grow quickly and easily, and find all their 

 stomachs need. Merchants buy the pullets for 



" Nero" 



a trifle (five cents each), a price on which the 

 Italian peasant finds that he makes a profit. 

 These merchants have so-called poultry yards 

 where the little creatures are piled up pell- 

 mell. Fresh from the heaths and plains where 

 they enjoyed full liberty, what wonder if they 

 contract diseases in these confined quarters, 

 where they are fed on food to which they are 

 unaccustomed ! Here, however, they remain till 

 orders come from other countries, to which they 

 are then dispatched in baskets, each basket con 

 taining fifty birds. The journey usually lasts 

 from three to four days, and the condition in 

 which the poor things arrive may be imagined. 



can be gained from the fact that one merchant 

 of Ai.\-la-Chapelle receives weekly, during the 

 summer season, twenty thousand pullets thus 



Black Cochix-China Cock 



packed. There are even special trains for the 

 transportation of poultry and eggs. A few 

 weeks after the birds arrive at their desti- 

 nation disease shows itself, and if haste is 

 not made to separate the healthy from the 

 unhealthy fowls, a whole poultry yard will be 

 infected in a few days. 



Those who wish to devote themselves to 

 poultry raising should make deliberate choice 



Black Minorca Cock 



An idea of the enormous trade that Italy as to the external appearance of the breed 

 arries on with the northern countries of Europe they prefer. But a choice once made should 



