324 NORFOLK SOCIETY. 



what it was five years ago. This has been, to a great extent, 

 eiTected by improved management alone. A few years ago, 

 poultry was considered an adjunct to every barn yard ; but 

 very few took the trouble to treat it on a systematic principle. 

 Fowls were strictly kept upon their own shifts, without any 

 recognition that they had wants, or that an attention to 

 their necessities and comforts would be productive of any 

 benefit whatever. Breeds were suffered, through the same 

 carelessness, to degenerate into varieties offering no distinctive 

 type of their origin ; and no one acquainted with fowls will 

 wonder that this degeneracy affected their size, as well as 

 other properties. By the assignment of a proper value to 

 fowls, and a scientifically-conducted system of managing 

 them, their weight has been increased at least one half, while 

 their producing properties have been conserved, to say the 

 least ; it would not be difficult to attest the statement that 

 they have been greatly augmented. The larger number of 

 fowls kept within the county will account for the remaining 

 increase, which may be greater than what is specified. 



The advantage proceeding from regular treatment and man- 

 agement, is, that a less quantity of food would feed it fat if 

 given systematically, and accompanied by other conditions cal- 

 culated to promote cleanliness and secure comfort. 



It will not be difficult to deduce the conclusion that pecunia- 

 ry profit must be the natural result of increased produce, cheap 

 and orderly management in the poultry yard ; neither will it 

 be hard to discover that these consequences lend an importance 

 to poultry keeping, which ought to keep it before the society 

 as one of its most prominent interests. 



Your committee might specify many particulars corrobora- 

 tive of the importance of this branch of economy, but will sim- 

 ply allude to one, and that one which promises to confer much 

 benefit on Norfolk county. The names of the principal fowl 

 breeders within its bounds are, perhaps, better known among 

 amateurs in poultry-raising in the south and west than at 

 home, on account of the large quantities of fowls exported to 

 those quarters by the farmer. The specimens imported are of 

 the best classes of all distinctive varieties ; and the trade grows 



