POULTRY BREEDING AND 

 MANAGEMENT 



CHAPTER I 

 HISTORICAL ASPECT 



Present races of fowls were domesticated, or reclaimed 

 from the wild state, away back about the time that man was 

 learning the rudiments of civilization. When man himself 

 became "tame," he set about taming the wild things of the 

 forest and the plain, in order that they might better supply 

 his needs for food, for raiment, and for labor. "A bird in 

 the hand is worth two in the bush, ' ' was undoubtedly the im- 

 pelling motive that led to the domestication of the wild fowl. 

 Savages were content to depend upon the hunt for their 

 daily food supply. Centuries after the ancient peoples of 

 Asia had domesticated the fowl, the Indians on this contin- 

 ent had failed to domesticate the turkey, which is now the 

 most highly prized bird for food, and possibly the most 

 highly valued of any kind of animal food. 



Civilized man desired a more certain food supply, how- 

 ever, than that of the hunt. To exercise his God-given 

 dominion over the earth, man had to bring to his assistance 

 plants and animals that hitherto existed only in the wild 

 state. With domestication, came improvement in produc- 

 tive qualities. The eggs of the wild fowl had no other use 

 than reproduction. She laid a few eggs and hatched 

 them. There was no demand for them for human food, or 

 for use in arts and manufactures. The wild ancestor of our 

 domestic hen laid probably a dozen or twenty eggs a year. 

 The difference between that and eight or ten dozen repre- 

 sents the achievement of centuries of poultry culture. 



