220 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



CHAPTER XXIII 



Poultry rearing for profit — Statistics of imports — Breeds that should 

 be adopted — Records of exhibition birds — Major-General Hassard 

 — Pheasant- rearing and the production of pheasants' eggs as a 

 profitable agricultural industry — Remarkable statistics — Prices of 

 eggs — Names of noted dealers — Accounts of profit and loss — 

 Numbers of eggs laid and young pheasants reared — Expenditure 

 on the establishment of a pheasant farm. 



Amongst the minor industries recommended to be 

 practised by farmers to alleviate in some measure 

 the prevalent depression in agriculture, are poultry- 

 rearing and egg-production. I can thoroughly 

 endorse most of what has been said on this matter, 

 but as I have written so largely on this subject, and 

 have appeared as an exhibitor successfully in the 

 show-yard for so many years, I do not feel it either 

 desirable or useful to repeat a more than ' thrice 

 told tale.' Sufficient to say that I believe by a good 

 selection of birds a fairly profitable return can be 

 made, especially if the ladies of the household will 

 give their attention to the undertaking, and they 

 would find it a most interesting and instructive 

 occupation. But their attempts must be supported 

 by their lords and masters, by giving them some- 

 thing better from their granaries than the miserable 

 siftings and defective grains of their cereal crops. 



