BULLETIN No. 214. 



THE BIOLOGY OF POULTRY KEEPING.* 

 Raymond Psarl. 



There are certain phases or branches of agriculture which 

 are from their very nature speciahzed and locally restricted 

 either in space or time. The growing of beef cattle is not 

 adapted to the conditions of the city back-lot not could it be 

 considered sound economic policy for the Saskatchewan wheat 

 grower to set out an orange grove. There is, however, one 

 kind of farming, which in one form or another, knows no lim- 

 itations of space, and only those limitations of climate which 

 forbid any sort of agriculture whatever. This is poultry keep- 

 ing. No plot of ground is too small to keep a few hens on, or 

 at least to try to keep them on, and no ranch, however large, 

 is complete without a flock of hens to furnish eggs for the table 

 and perhaps a few over to sell. It may be safely said that there 

 is no phase of agriculture which is so universal and wide spread 

 over the whole world as poultry husbandry. The adaptability 

 of the business is marvellous. Poultry raising may be, and 

 probably has been, successfully combined with every other kind 

 of farming known to man. One farm recently visited would 

 seem to have about reached the limit in the way of oddity of 

 the combination. This was a fox and 'poultry farm. Raising 

 foxes was one part of the business, and raising chickens and 

 turkeys the other part. Needless to say the two lines of en- 

 deavor were kept strictly apart. 



When combined with other things as an integral part of 

 diversified farming poultry keeping is usually one of the most 

 profitable activities of the farm, and can be made so in every 



* A lecture given at Columbia University on Jan. 31, 1912, in a course 

 of "Lectures on Economic Agriculture." 



Papers from the Biological Laboratory of the Maine Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, No. 49. 



