P OULTRY-F ARMING ON A LaRGE ScALE. 95 



for the most part sought to develop other qualities than those which are of most importance to 

 the commercial poultry-keeper. He seeks principally for "feather;" and as his best birds in point 

 of colour will seldom be also the best layers or fatteners, these points are comparatively neglected. 

 It can hardly be doubted that from these causes some pure breeds, taken as a whole, have actually 

 deteriorated in economic value of late years ; that some Houdans and Brahmas, for instance, do 

 not lay so well as these breeds formerly did ; and the point to be specially kept in mind is, that 

 the commercial producer, by making his selections in the same way as the fancier, but with 

 reference to other points, may attain the same success. It has been repeatedly proved that by 

 selecting as breeders only the best milking cows, in a few years the yield of milk on any farm 

 may be considerably increased ; and in the same way, by setting all the eggs from a hen which 

 lays a large annual number of eggs, and from the progeny using as breeders only those which 

 partook most of their mother's good qualities, in about four years a race might be easily established 

 which would yield considerably over 200 eggs yearly. We are not sure that between 250 and 300 

 eggs per annum might not be reached, as rare individual hens have been known to attain to even 

 this high standard ; but at all events, that a vast improvement might thus be rapidly effected is 

 absolutely certain, and attention to this part of the subject is of the greatest moment. It is 

 probable that with any large fowls which could be obtained at starting, the average yield of eggs 

 would hardly exceed 140 per annum ; and if in a few years this could be increased fifty per cent, 

 which we are convinced might be the case, the difference in profit need not be pointed out. It 

 may be objected to this, that such improvement would demand an intelligence and care which 

 no farmer could be found to give. We question if it be so. There are farmers enough who have 

 intelligence and skill sufiicient to breed good cattle and sheep, and who know the difference in 

 actual cash return between a bad and a good stock ; and once let them see a certainty of success 

 in poultry-culture, and we are convinced the care and the skill will not be wanting there also. 

 Without them, at all events, success will never be reached by any one ; but is this failing at all 

 peculiar to poultry .' Does not the same rule hold good in all other things > 



It still remains to consider the interesting question, how far the cultivation of poultry is 

 possible, or rather would be commercially profitable, in large establishments devoted to that 

 specific object alone, or what would be understood as " poultry-farms." Perhaps on no question 

 connected with poultry have opinions been so much divided ; but after much additional experience 

 ill the management of fowls, of study as to what they can be made to produce, and of calculation 

 as to the amount of labour per head required to keep them in thriving condition, we have seen no 

 reason to alter our own judgment arrived at years ago, that such establishments may be made 

 soundly remunerative to the man of business. We might say indeed, unlike most other writers upon 

 poultry, that none of our earlier published opinions have needed to be seriously modified. At a time 

 when the National Poultry Company's establishment at Bromley, in Kent, projected by Mr. Geyelin, 

 was still in existence, we wrote " that his plans should fail was a practical necessity," and that they 

 must break down altogether, especially in regard to chickens ; and we declined to give any detailed 

 description of them upon that ground. Mr. Tegetmeier's more pretentious " Poultry Book " of the 

 same date, oft the other hand, contained a drawing and full description of the place, with the obser- 

 vation that "as far as the experiment has been tested it appears to have been successful," adding only 

 that " the success of the scheme, as far as regards the number and fertility of the eggs, and above 

 all, the rearing of the chickens, are points that cannot be regarded as definitely settled until after 

 the experience of several breeding-seasons," a remark which no one practically acquainted with 

 the subject should have made. We had also then discovered and stated that the number 

 of fowls should not exceed 120 per acre, years before any one else had adopted any such 



