IO6 POULTRY BREEDING IN 



and that he should feel obliged by my communicating 

 to him the result of my investigation : 



" They tell me that M. de Soras has at Mouy, near 

 to B., a large poultry-breeding establishment; but if 

 my inquiries are right he ought to have at Mouy 12,000 

 fowls, with which he supplies the Paris markets." 



I then telegraphed the following: " De Soras, M. 

 (express) B. Have you an establishment for poultry 



breeding? Reply by return of mail. 



GEYELIN." 



At the same time I posted a letter to the same effect, 

 and asking permission to visit the establishment. The 

 reply to the telegram was not known; the letter as 

 yet has not been returned ; but to make the inquiry 

 triply sure, I started myself for Mouy ; arrived at Reil 

 Junction, I was informed that such an establishment 

 really did exist at Mouy, and within half a mile of the 

 railway station, which news delighted me, to know 

 that my journey was not like a wild-goose chase ; there- 

 fore, on arriving at Mouy, I proceeded at once to the 

 poultry establishment, but not of M. de Soras, whose 

 name is not even known to any person in that neigh- 

 borhood, but of M. Manoury, ^leveur a Angy pres 

 Mouy, to whom I briefly related the object of my call. 

 I was received with every courtesy, and informed that 

 he knew of no such name as M. de Soras, nor of any 

 establishment of the kind, but that he devoted his time 

 to rearing some five thousand heads of poultry per 

 annum ; he neither fed them on horseflesh nor supplied 

 the markets of Paris ; that he sold none but pure breeds, 



