536 



POULTRY CULTURE 



At first, prizes were given to common barnyard, or dunghill, 

 fowls, and to poultry of other kinds, not as individuals but as 

 flocks, or, in some cases, as representatives of flocks. In one of 

 the earliest reports, a farmer who exhibited a few turkeys for no 

 particular merit was awarded a bounty because the birds represented 

 a flock of eighty. Classification was made for popular varieties, but 

 if entries were not made in these classes, the poultry committee of 

 an agricultural society, in its discretion, awarded bounties to exhib- 

 itors whose exhibit represented real effort to develop poultry cul- 

 ture as a farm interest. The practical phase of poultry exhibits at 

 agricultural fairs soon disappeared, and they became, for the most 

 part, poorly patronized displays of thoroughbred stock of very ordi- 

 nary or very poor quality. This continued to be the general con- 

 dition for many years. When, after a time, efforts were made to 

 improve poultry departments ^at fairs, development was naturally 

 (through imitation) along the lines of the fancier's shows. 



Modern poultry exhibitions. The modern poultry exhibition 

 combines sporting, commercial, and educational features, with com- 

 mercial interests on the whole most potent, sporting interests tend- 

 ing to decrease, and the educational influence tending to increase. 

 The dominance of commercial interests is most noticeable in the 

 larger shows ; in small local shows the sporting and educational 

 features may be prominent and the commercial tendencies hardly 

 apparent or entirely absent. As shows increase in size, the com- 

 mercial aspects develop, partly of necessity for expenses increase 

 amazingly and partly because the growing importance of the show 

 gives commercial value to prizes won there, and so induces com- 

 mercial breeders to exhibit, as well as fanciers. The larger and more 

 important the show, the greater the commercial value of a prize 

 won there. So competition at the great shows, and especially in 

 the leading popular classes, tends .more and more to become a con- 

 test of commercial breeders for the lion's share of the trade in eggs 

 for hatching and in stock for exhibition or for breeding. In such 

 competition the amateur fancier has little chance to win more than 

 an occasional prize, for with the commercial breeder, who is a pro- 

 fessional fancier, to win is necessary. He cannot afford to let prizes 

 go to others if by any legitimate method he can secure them for 

 himself, nor can he afford to be satisfied with a part of the more 



