CHAPTER XxXI 
POULTRY: CHICKENS, TURKEYS, DUCKS, GEESE, PIGEONS, 
AND GUINEA FOWLS 
We are apt to underestimate the importance of poultry- 
raising because the industry, as most of us are acquainted. 
with it, is conducted on such a small scale; but it is scattered 
over a large part of the country and in the aggregate it is 
really very large. Poultry and eggs rank among the first 
six or eight of the agricultural products of the country, their 
value being exceeded only by that of corn, beef cattle, dairy 
products, cotton, wheat, and swine. The principal domestic 
fowls are chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese, — chickens 
being by far the most important. . 
CHICKENS 
Origin and Development. — Domestic chickens belong to 
the order of scratching birds, which includes also the prairie 
chickens, grouse, turkey, and guinea fowl. The remote 
ancestors of our chickens were wild birds; and it is probable 
that there were two distinct species, one of them being the 
so-called jungle fowl of India, and the other a much larger 
and more “ blocky ” bird that is no longer found in the wild 
state. The people of southern Asia tamed these birds and 
began breeding them many centuries before the Christian 
era, and the history of the earliest varieties is not known. 
But if there were two species in the first place, they were 
probably crossed in such a way as to develop breeds of two 
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