40 POULTRY BREEDING IN 



to prove to sceptics that improvements are not only abso-_ 

 lutely necessary in all that relates to our comfort, particu- 

 larly towards an increase in our food, but also that they 

 are perfectly unavoidable, as many farmers who at first 

 resisted the improvements in farming by drainage, ma- 

 chinery, and applied chemistry, have found to their cost. 

 Therefore, in adopting the expression of artificial means, 

 as more readily understood, I do not mean to convey that 

 it is an entirely distinct mode of breeding poultry, but 

 solely an addition to the mode already adopted, and with- 

 out which poultry breeding can neither be carried on to a 

 large extent nor with great profit. 



My intention at first was to divide this treatise in two 

 parts — the first to rearing poultry in a natural way, the 

 second by artificial means — with a view to please those 

 of my readers who object to any artificial means ; but in 

 vain have I endeavored to draw a line where natural 

 means end and artificial means begin. The fact is, the 

 domesticated fowl's life is as much artificial as our own 

 mode of living. In truth, with the progress of civilization 

 we insensibly and gradually create for ourselves artificial 

 wants, which by degrees become absolute necessaries, 

 and amongst a thousand others I may mention tea, coffee, 

 potatoes, sugar, tobacco, &c. ; and for the cheap produc- 

 tion of such necessaries we create artificial labor (ma- 

 chines), steam-power, and artificial manure. Yet with 

 all this evidence of steady progress and improvements 

 before them, and in the current of which they are drawn 

 and carried onwards without knowing it, there are num- 

 bers of even well-informed persons who ridicule anything 

 new as preposterous — a sure failure, not wanted ; the 



