no THE PRACTICAL POULTRY KEEPER. 



another cannot. The success of " duck farming " is, how- 

 ever, admitted ; and we will relegate it, too, to that special 

 .name. It is also admitted that when locality, and capital, 

 and skill, and character have been adequate, there are 

 various examples of establishments for breeding high-class 

 or prize stock solely, being remunerative. This also, how- 

 ever, it may be granted, is not what is generally meant. 



On the other hand, we cannot limit the term, as some 

 would do, to the sole production of fowls and eggs for table. 

 A dairy farmer remains so still, though he finds it best also 

 to grow a few acres of wheat, or though there be a demand 

 for his Shorthorn bull calves, or though he has a range of 

 piggeries as well. Similarly, the runs of a poultry farm, 

 when matured, ought to furnish some subsidiary revenue 

 from fruit-trees, and hay or grazing ; and any successful and 

 intelligent poultry farmer ought to have, and will have, 

 stock and eggs to spare which are worth more than market 

 prices. By a poultry farm ought to be considered any 

 establishment where the principal aim is the growth of 

 poultry and the production of eggs, not entirely or 

 principally for exhibition purposes. So understood, we 

 still believe that success is possible in such enterprises ; 

 indeed, it can now be affirmed that on a greater or less scale 

 some success has actually been attained, even in England, 

 contrary to what is often so confidently asserted. In 

 America success is by no means rare, in some rather large 

 concerns, though under some difference in conditions which 

 we must point out. 



There are, however, we believe, three absolute con- 

 ditions of such success. Of these one at least, and 

 generally two, have been missing in all the " failures" of 

 which so much has been made, and quite properly so, had 

 not the argument been pressed too far. 



(a) The first is very simple, and consists in adequate 



