Po UL TRY F.A RMING. \ I *J 



27 acres is remarkable as having been bought at the age of 

 thirty-three by a young man who began life as a labourer, 

 but started first rearing a few fowls by his cottage, then 

 extending operations and also fattening them, till he 

 reached his present position. His farm, also, is all in grass, 

 on which five cows and a few sheep are also kept ; butter is 

 made, and the skim-milk used for the chickens. All the 

 time he has worked " as long as there was daylight," and to 

 this his success was due. 



The third of Mr. Rew's cases is that of the largest rearet 

 he met with, but who also fattens. His farm is of 200 acres, 

 of which two-thirds were grass, and there are 8 acres of hops 

 and 3^ acres of wheat, the main cereal crop being oats, 

 which are fed to the fowls, besides large quantities of 

 purchased food. He had 10 cows, 18 two-year-olds, TO 

 yearlings, and 10 calves, besides 7 horses. He had farmed 

 for eighteen years, and took up poultry ten years ago 

 because he was " bound to find something beyond corn and 

 stock to make his farming pay." He rears .about 8,000 

 chickens for fattening, buying about 2,000 more ; for the 

 year given the sales were 10,443 fat fowls, and the labour 

 bill came to ^250. The capital invested was ^600, on 

 which five per cent, interest was charged. Besides this the 

 net profit shown was ^"268, and in some years considerably 

 more had been made. 



These cases are certainly more than merely a poultry on 

 the farm " as fairly understood. Poultry are not the sole 

 product, it is true, but they are the mainspring of the 

 operations. Not only do all the oats grown go to the 

 chickens, but a great part of the produce of the cows. 

 Mr. Rew expressly reports that " cows and chickens are, as 

 I learnt from several witnesses, complementary to each 

 other," as the chickens need the skim-milk, which indeed has 

 in most cases to be largely supplemented from other farms. 



