222 THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF 



chickens. Breeding poultry for the table 

 occupies a great deal more time than the 

 management of a flock of laying hens. The 

 specialist poultry-keeper, however, is compelled 

 by the nature of his work to breed chickens 

 more extensively, and to rear them as well 

 as he can. In these days in which poultry 

 are kept so extensively, a flock of barndoor 

 or mongrel hens is out of place; such birds 

 produce comparatively few eggs, they are 

 worthless for table purposes, and they fail 

 to pay. On the other hand, a flock of well- 

 bred hens of either of the utilitarian varieties 

 can be depended upon to lay and produce 

 excellent table chickens. The demand for 

 live poultry is always extensive; buyers are 

 not confined to the rural districts — indeed, 

 they are more numerous in country towns 

 and the suburbs of large cities — and as the 

 great majority of private poultry-keepers 

 take some pride in their birds they prefer 

 hens of a pure variety, for which they are 

 willing to pay larger sums than are realised 

 by the sale of table chickens. 



The average poultry-keeper can scarcely 

 hope to obtain more than 6s. a couple for 

 the chickens he breeds, but by breeding good 

 hens as a specialist does he can sometimes 



