20 POULTRY CULTURE 



poultry press collectively has been a highly efficient organ for the 

 distribution of detailed information about every phase of poultry 

 culture. On the whole, it has been a rather indiscriminate purveyor 

 of information, exploiting all sorts of ideas and articles without in- 

 quiring too closely into their merits. As a rule, it has been more 

 prone to fall in with the delusions of the public than to make 

 careful inquiries as to facts. 



In all these things it has simply reflected, on a larger scale and 

 publicly, the merits and the faults of the average poultry enthusiast, 

 who conceives it his duty to spread the interest in poultry culture 

 as far and as fast as possible. Whatever may be said of the moral- 

 ity of this sort of exploitation, or of the losses to individuals that it 

 causes, in considering factors in the development of the poultry 

 industry this must be reckoned as one of the most potent. It is 

 impossible to make any accurate estimate of the numbers of people 

 who have gone into poultry keeping with exaggerated ideas of 

 the profits to be realized, who would never have been interested 

 in it to that extent had they known the truth, but who, once in 

 it, remained until they had made a success, though not of the 

 proportions they had anticipated. 



The poultry press has literally spread broadcast, as fast as it came 

 to light, every bit of knowledge and every idea on the subject ; but 

 generally so discursively, and with so little effort to suppress mis- 

 leading or superfluous matter, that those who went to papers for 

 information were likely to turn from them in confusion. The situa- 

 tion created by so active an agency, constantly extending interest 

 in the subject yet never satisfying the curiosity created, greatly 

 stimulated the demand for books which would systematically pre- 

 sent the essentials of the subject. 



Books. With a few exceptions, recent books have been either 

 monographs or symposia on special subjects. Some of those de- 

 signed to cover the subject completely are really collections of several 

 essays on subjects in which the authors were specialists, with brief 

 and perfunctory treatments of such other topics as were taken up, 

 and with many important matters omitted. Some of the most pre- 

 tentious titles were given to works of small size and less importance. 



While the need of comprehensive, authoritative works was every- 

 where recognized, and nearly every author confessed a purpose to 



