THE POULTRY-BOOK. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



IT is only within a few years that attention has been turned 

 to the subject of Poultry in a scientific or economical point of 

 view. While all over the world poultry has ever been consid- 

 ered a delicate and favorite article of food, and in this country 

 is universally esteemed a luxury, it seems surprising that 

 information concerning the different breeds, the mode of rear- 

 ing them, and other matters pertaining to the subject, should 

 not have attracted greater notice. 



In France, Egypt, and some other countries, poultry is used 

 as a common and necessary article of food. The various sorts 

 are raised around the dwellings of almost every peasant. It is 

 said, on good authority, that in France a greater quantity of 

 food is supplied for the tables of the wealthy from the poultry- 

 yard than from the shambles, and it is well known that, in 

 Egypt, artificial means are commonly used for hatching and 

 rearing chickens in vast numbers for common consumption. 

 It is probable that in all warm countries poultry may be more 

 readily raised than among us, and that it furnishes a sort of 

 food best adapted to the inhabitants of more genial climes. 



In England, of late years, there has been a growing disposi- 

 tion to investigate more thoroughly the nature and varieties of 

 Domestic Fowls, in order to determine the economical import- 



