2 8 POULTRY CULTURE 



natural and economic limitations so restrict operations that after a 

 little time the poultryman ceases to use his surplus earnings to 

 extend operations with poultry, and applies them to the develop- 

 ment of some other interest. 1 



A farmer in New York state, who has become one of the 

 wealthiest men in his section, and whose reputation as a poultry 

 breeder is international, once told the author that, though he got 

 his start with poultry and had always made what poultry he kept 

 pay well, he would consider a poultryman very foolish who would 

 stick to poultry exclusively, even though making it pay well, be- 

 cause there are so many other lines in which money, ability, and 

 time may be used to better advantage. 



Permanent poultry culture is a branch of agriculture. This 

 fact the poultry keeper and the student of poultry matters alike 

 should keep ever in mind. It is fundamental. Remarkable as has 

 been the growth of the industry in modern times, the financial losses 

 incidental to this growth have reached an enormous aggregate. 

 The greater part of the appalling total of losses in poultry keep- 

 ing could have been avoided if its true status had been generally 

 understood. Until very recently, the most conspicuous feature of 

 the exploitation of the industry was the widespread and persistent 

 effort to develop it artificially, following manufacturing methods 

 and ideas. 



The common result of the use of intensive methods on any con- 

 siderable scale was failure, sometimes after temporary or partial 

 success had encouraged the poultryman to continue or perhaps to 

 increase operations. There were exceptions in a few lines (to be 



1 Perhaps the best general illustration of this point that could be given is 

 afforded by the poultry industry in such European countries as France and Bel- 

 gium, which, though densely populated, export considerable quantities of poultry 

 and eggs. The interest of the peasants of these countries in poultry is often cited as 

 showing their appreciation of the possibilities of profit from poultry. As the matter 

 has usually been stated, it is made to appear that poultry culture is of paramount 

 interest in the lives of these peasants ; but this is not the case. Its true status 

 was shown by M. Louis Vander Snickt in an address at the Second National 

 Poultry Conference, in England, in 1907, when he made the statement that 

 " the more careful and thrifty " of the Belgian people in the Campine country 

 ultimately ceased to breed poultry and engaged in horticulture. They made this 

 change not entirely because horticulture was more profitable, but because their 

 land, after long use for poultry, became unsuitable for poultry and adapted to 

 fruit growing, as it was not in the beginning. 



