A COMMERCIAL POINT OF VIEW. 85 



POULTRY AND EGG-PRESERVING COMPANY. 



Whatever differences of opinion may exist as to whether 

 poultry can be kept profitably in England from a strictly 

 commercial point of view or not, it is certain that this 

 subject will never be satisfactorily decided by any amount 

 of mere theoretical assertions pro or con ; nor will the 

 problem ever be solved in a national point of view by the 

 success of one or more private persons, whose balance- 

 sheet would be discredited by many sceptics, as we have 

 had ample evidence, in improved farming, the results of 

 which were published year after year by Mr. Mechi and 

 other pioneers. Moreover, to render poultry breeding 

 profitable in England, it must be evident to most persons 

 that the system cannot be carried on as it is now ; also 

 that the trial must be made on a somewhat extensive 

 scale to allow of growing or purchasing food at a cheap 

 rate, and of a subdivision of labor, and last, but not least, 

 for establishing a profitable outlet for the produce. Now, 

 there are many undertakings which cannot well be tested 

 on a small scale in order to prove what the result would 

 be on a large one, and we believe that poultry breeding 

 in England is one of them. 



It is too much to expect that any private gentleman 

 would run the risk of an outlay of some thousands of 

 pounds to ascertain the value of a new plan of breeding 

 poultry in order to benefit the nation ; but as the subject 

 is really one of national importance, it is highly desirable 

 that it should command a fair trial. This can be best 

 accomplished by a public company, whose accounts would 



