EVOLUTION OF THE POULTRY INDUSTRY 13 



were as well versed in management as conditions and the scale of operations 

 required ; and that persons especially interested in poultry, though relatively 

 less numerous, were, probably, quite as skillful as now. 



We are coming to a better appreciation of these facts as, after 

 many efforts to force the development of the industry in accord- 

 ance with " factory " ideas, we return to the simpler methods of 

 earlier times. 



Persistence of primitive conditions explained. Before the appli- 

 cation of steam as a motive force gave a new and tremendous 

 stimulus to trade and manufacturing and brought about a great 

 movement of population to the cities, only a very small per cent of 

 people were so situated that they could not either produce what 

 poultry and eggs they needed or procure cheap supplies from nearby 

 sources. ' The value of products of this class was usually not great 

 enough to warrant transportation from a distance. Except in the 

 vicinity of a few large cities, a poultry keeper producing beyond 

 the needs of his own family would not often find a profitable outlet 

 for the surplus. Under such conditions poultry culture was neces- 

 sarily almost everywhere a home industry producing for home 

 consumption, and that is still the status of the industry in every 

 agricultural section which has not easy access for its products to 

 large cities or to manufacturing or mining sections. 



Quality of common poultry. The ordinary native stocks of fowls, 

 ducks, geese, and turkeys in America, at the time of the general 

 awakening of interest in improved poultry and for some years after, 

 were, even when compared with the average mongrel stocks of 

 to-day, small birds of distinctly inferior table qualities and usually 

 inferior also in egg production. This degeneracy of stock was 

 due to the common practice of selecting for the table first. When 

 a bird was wanted for food it was usual to take the largest and 

 best. The result of this sort of selection, continuously operative, 

 was that the poorest specimens of each year were left for next 

 year's breeding. That such practice, persistently followed, did not 

 quickly run the stock out was due to these saving circumstances : 

 (i) the natural tendency of the stock to improve under (2) the 

 very favorable conditions which small flocks at liberty on farms 

 enjoyed, and (3) the occasional introduction of blood of improved 

 native stock. 



