INTRODUCTORY. 



While the Act establishing this Department and defining the duties of 

 the Commissioner does not especially mention Poultry as one of the sub- 

 jects to which his attention should be directed, its importance as one of 

 the productive industries so closely connected with Agriculture, in the 

 opinion of the Commissioner, justifies the attention which he is about to 

 devote to it in this little work. Indeed, so much depends upon the intel- 

 ligence and care bestowed upon the small industries of the farm that he 

 would feel that he was not fully discharging his duties to the people of the 

 State, did he not supply the information at his command on a subject so 

 closely connected with their health, comfort and profit. 



The following pages will be devoted to practical information suited to 

 the use and application of the wives of farmers such information as it is 

 hoped will aid the housewives of Georgia in not only substituting, to a 

 large extent, eggs and poultry for pork on their table?, but stimulate them 

 to the production of a surplus of these wholesome articles of diet to be 

 sold to the less fortunate dwellers in towns and cities. 



The work is not intended for the fancier, nor for those who pursue the 

 business on a large scale, but for the farmer's wife. There will be much 

 in the work which to the fancier will seem crude and unnecessary ; but 

 in order to instruct those without experience or knowledge of the busi- 

 ness, it is necessary to present the appearance (to the well informed) of 

 presuming very far upon the ignorance of the reader. 



One of the secrets of the success of French agriculture is the attention 

 bestowed upon the small industries of the farm, and one of the principal 

 obstacles to successful agriculture in the Southern States is the neglect of 

 these industries. The dairy, garden, poultry yard, apiary, and fish ponds, 

 should, not only contribute largely to the food supply of the family but 

 should, by the sale of surplus products, materially supplement the princi- 

 pal sources of income of the farm. 



The hope that the information conveyed in this little work may induce 

 the bestowal of more and better attention upon the important industry of 

 which it treats, and thus increase the health, pleasure, profit and comfort 

 of the families of Georgia, induces its publication. 



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