86 Large and Small Holdings 



As regards poultry farming, figures are unfortunately almost 

 entirely lacking. Mr E. Brown, of the National Poultry Organization 

 Society, however, has estimated that the number of fowls in England 

 increased from 15*9 millions in 1885 to 18*3 millions in 1902, and that 

 the value of the eggs annually produced is about 3^9 million pounds, 

 while the' chickens, ducklings, geese and turkeys annually produced 

 are worth 2*4 million pounds 1 . Other authorities on the subject 

 state that poultry farming has vastly increased 2 ; in some districts 

 by as much as 100 per cent, in a few years 3 . It has been developed 

 with particularly good success in Sussex, according to Mr Rew's 

 Report to the Royal Commission of 1894*. The rising price paid for 

 fresh eggs in the large towns is an indication of its increasing profit- 

 ableness 5 . Examples of flourishing poultry businesses recently built 

 up are given by Mr Rider Haggard in his Rural England*. 



To sum up, a change in agricultural production proceeded hand 

 in hand with the change in market conditions. The falling price of 

 corn and of meat of the second and third qualities put an end to the 

 mixed husbandry which had prevailed since the abolition of the corn- 

 laws. On the other hand the market for certain hitherto neglected 

 agricultural products improved, so as increasingly to compensate 

 agriculturists for their losses. Falling prices meant an increased 

 purchasing-power of wages, and in almost all classes a new demand 

 developed for such animal products as butter, cheese, new milk, eggs 

 and poultry; while the demand for meat of a high quality also rose 

 considerably. This state of things gradually proved to be advan- 

 tageous to British agriculture. Stock-breeding, dairying, horticulture 

 and poultry farming all developed from an embryonic state to 

 marvellous technical perfection. 



1 Report on the Supply of Food and Raw Material in Time of War, 1905, Vol. ill, 

 pp. 289, 290, 293. 



2 Graham, Revival etc., p. 10: " Poultry keeping has extended enormously." 



3 See an article by a recognised authority on this subject, Mr E. Brown, in Journal 

 R. A. S., 1900, p. 607 : " More fowls are kept by farmers and cottagers than was ever the 

 case before... At a village in the Craven district of Yorkshire I was told that fowls have 

 multiplied twenty-fold... the number of fowls has increased in the ratio of two to three, and 

 the production of marketable eggs and poultry as two to four," etc. 



4 Rew, Report (to the Commission of 1894) on the Poultry rearing and fattening Industry, 

 1895, p. 4 and passim. 



5 See Wholesale and Retail Prices, 1903, p. 297. Cp. also Poultry Notes, in Estate Book, 

 1907, p. 202 : " Owing to the continued low price of grain and meal, flocks of fowls can be 

 kept at an inclusive cost of 5-$-. each a year, while the price of eggs continues steady." 



6 H. Rider Haggard, Rural England, 1902, Vol. II, e.g. p. 478 (Norfolk). Cp. also the 

 evidence of the Scottish farmer Dewar, in the Report of 1894, qu. 31,783-31,787. 



