22 POULTRY CULTURE 



breadth of periodical literature superficially meeting the demand 

 for information was in part responsible for this, but the principal 

 reason was that neither the general public nor the educators and 

 investigators had outgrown the old idea of the insignificance of 

 poultry. Though still in the rudimentary stages, these agencies 

 are already making an impression on the industry. Work in either 

 line requires, first of all, more careful consideration of facts than 

 has been usual among poultry keepers, the reduction of actual 

 knowledge to a form suitable for instruction, and a proper analy- 

 sis and summary of the known facts in any problem as a basis 

 for further investigation. The influence of these requirements is 

 already apparent in many directions. 



Individual influence. In the developments of the modern period 

 personal taste and talent have figured on a much more extensive 

 scale than formerly, because modern conditions furnished a vastly 

 greater field for their exercise. One of the most notable differences 

 between the ancient and the modern period in poultry culture is 

 the difference in the relation toward poultry culture of men deeply 

 interested in it. The conditions of poultry production through- 

 out the whole of the early period were such that all poultry keepers 

 and fanciers, not excepting writers regarded as authorities on the 

 subject, were amateurs ; the opportunities open to the individual any- 

 where for exploiting his interest in poultry were too limited to admit 

 of making a trade or a profession of any line of work with poultry. 1 



The conditions which brought about the rapid development of 

 the industry created a field for the profitable use of the knowledge 

 and skill of the poultryman. It became possible for men to make 

 a living by judging poultry and by writing for poultry men, as well 

 as by breeding poultry. By their activities along these lines, and 

 in the opportunities that these incidentally gave them for meeting 

 people interested in the subject over a very large territory, m^ny 

 men have had great influence on the development of poultry inter- 

 ests. Hundreds of such men have been known throughout the 

 English-speaking world, and a lesser number more extensively. 

 This is in striking contrast to the former period, in which many 



1 This statement may not apply strictly to a few producers in localities supply- 

 ing the markets of such cities as London, Paris, and New York, but we have no 

 certain knowledge of the fact as to these cases. 



