AS POULTRY EXPERT 87 



" / have severely tested their perfect efficiency." 

 Again, on page 25, he says: "Where eggs alone 

 are required, my experience leads me to think that 

 there are no fowls," etc., — and on page 27 he 

 writes: "If I may state the results of my own 

 experience it would be precisely opposite to this 

 opinion. I have found that my half-bred chickens 

 (of which I have reared for curiosity several 

 varieties) have been less hardy," etc. The italics 

 are mine, and have been used to prove my point 

 that by the year 1853 Tegetmeier had not only 

 had considerable experience of fowl breeding, 

 but that already he displayed some of his chief 

 characteristics as a writer — those above mentioned 

 and a thoroughness founded on knowledge, great 

 practicality, and a desire to record only the 

 truth, as well as to learn all he could of it. 



By this time (1854) Tegetmeier had become 

 recognized as an authority on poultry questions, 

 and when the new edition of Wingfield and 

 Johnson's Poultry Booh was under consideration, 

 it was to him that the publishers applied to 

 undertake the work of editing and re-arranging 

 it. The book was issued in parts, with coloured 

 plates, in 1856, but it was never completed, such 

 portions as were published eventually forming 

 the basis of Tegetmeier' s own more ambitious 

 and comprehensive work of the same name. 

 His famous Poultry Booh, which comprised 

 directions for the breeding and management of 



