THE STATE AS FARMER 17 



But at every point science and still more 

 science is required, and this cannot be secured 

 unless we deal with areas large enough to 

 support the labours of a scientific man. 

 Such scientific man may issue his bulletin 

 and write his treatise. But more is required 

 in the form of personal inspection and joint 

 effort to bring poultry as a whole within the 

 bounds of civilisation. The problem may be 

 found fairly simple where large areas of grass- 

 land are available for coops to be dotted 

 over the meadow or hillside. No general law 

 can be laid down in a case where so much 

 depends upon the taste and inclination of 

 the helper. Poultry keeping requires for its 

 real success something of the enthusiasm of 

 the beekeeper in those to whom the task 

 belongs. But the feature of the new collecting 

 agency, which is valuable in this connection, 

 is that the enthusiast and the cynic are 

 equally waited on for the abundance of eggs 

 in one case and in the other for those few 

 which may escape the wiles of the terrible 

 rat. And, in addition, we have the good 

 sporting chance that year by year the rat- 

 infested area may be reduced, and the poultry- 



