128 THE PRACTICAL POULTRY KEEPER. 



breeders in England taken the matter up, and even now it 

 is only done by a few, who mostly advertise their stock as 

 so bred. In America they are sharper, and the farmers 

 themselves (i.e. the successful ones) do it. What would 175 

 eggs do even here ? In America they get it. One man 

 records 210 each from n white Wyandottes. Mr. R. S. 

 Norton got 178 each from 280 fowls white Wyandottes 

 and barred Rocks. Mr. WyckofF actually got, one year, 

 196 each from 600 white Leghorns. 



A second reason is the kind of market demand for fowls- 

 Very few large fatted fowls or ducks are wanted ; the chief 

 call is for "broilers" of about i^ to 2 Ibs. These need no 

 fattening, only feeding in their pens, and are ready at three 

 months old. It is manifestly less trouble and risk to raise 

 chickens to such a small age, and allows much more 

 crowding, because if they can be kept healthy till then no 

 more is wanted. Hence the crowded "broiler" plants. It 

 is pretty clear, however, that these entail great risks, and 

 have been carried too far as regards want of space and air.* 



A third reason undoubtedly is the keener intelligence 

 and greater energy of American farmers ; for it is largely 

 farmers, originally, who have taken to this business. The 

 outlay in their great ranges of poultry houses, brooder 

 houses, and broiler houses can only be explained on the 

 supposition that much is done personally, by working early 



* In some recent papers we see an account of an enormous plant 

 arranged to turn out 300 broilers per day, which is proudly announced as 

 " the largest in the world," as it probably is. It has been started by Mr. 

 Loughlin, a city business man, who has already made two respectable 

 fortunes, and no less than 60,000 dollars have been sunk in it, showing 

 that people " embark " in such projects in America too. The establishment 

 is, however, the most excessively crowded of any which we have seen 

 described, the chicks being kept (indoors) up to a month old, at the rate of 

 $ix per square foot of floor. We need hardly say that it has not been tested, 

 and that its ultimate success would be to us a very great surprise. 



