POULTRY FARMING. 109 



opposite opinions have been expressed upon it, and we have 

 been subjected again and again to very pointed attack on 

 the part of certain professed authorities, on account of the 

 opinion we have held, and still hold, that it is capable 

 of being, more or less, answered in the affirmative. On the 

 other hand, it is strange how inveterate seems the notion 

 that poultry farming is an easy outdoor business, in which 

 an unlimited demand makes success certain. From both 

 points of view a little discussion seems desirable. 



We have never had any doubt at all as to the inevitably 

 disastrous result of " embarking " in poultry farming on the 

 part of the many novices who seem disposed to such a 

 course. People would not think of going into any other 

 business in that way ; and poultry farming is a peculiarly 

 complicated business, especially demanding apprenticeship 

 and personal experience, as well as commercial " push " and 

 aptitude. It moreover demands, as of necessity, gradual 

 and progressive preparation, if it is to succeed, because one 

 cardinal condition of success is a staff of birds cultivated for 

 prolific laying. We have from the first preached that ; but 

 it is only lately that this kind of breeding has really been 

 seriously taken up in England at all. 



There are, however, various kinds of operation that 

 might be termed " poultry farming," and we had better be 

 definite. Some of these are admittedly remunerative. 

 The large fattening establishments in Sussex, briefly 

 described in Chapter V., might be so tsrmed ; but we 

 exclude them, because the birds are not as a rule raised on 

 the ground, and so little ground is needed for mere, pens 

 that it can hardly be called a " farm " in any sense. Where 

 ducks are hatched as well as fattened in large numbers, it 

 may, however, fairly be called a farm ; and it seems strange 

 that there should be any absolute law of nature ordaining 

 that one kind of poultry may be profitably reared, but that 



