A COMMERCIAL POINT OF VIEW. 1 25 



without exception, all were favorable as regards the 

 practicability of the undertaking when carried out on an 

 extensive scale, as then the working expenses would be 

 at their minimum and the returns at the maximum ; that 

 they do not consider it difficult to rear chickens in-doors, 

 as their winter and spring chickens are all reared in out- 

 houses. Some, however, hold it to be beneficial for 

 fowls to get wet, with which I differ, as they are not 

 amphibious, and require only dry dust to clean them- 

 selves. The separation system is much approved of, as 

 it enables the races to be kept pure, in which they find 

 the greatest difficulties in farm-yards : the arrangement 

 for nests, feeding, warming, and ventilation are likewise 

 commended — in fact I was told several times, " Ah, you 

 Englishmen, when you do anything you do it well and on 

 a grand scale." 



II. Analysis of my Observations. 



Fiction, when well told and supported by imaginary 

 statistics, bears often more semblance to truth than reality 

 itself; this fact was never better illustrated than by the 

 interesting account given by some ingenious and inven- 

 tive mind of certain Gallinocultural establishments, whose 

 illusive existence was stated to be in the vicinity of 

 Paris, and where the exclusive diet of the fowls was 

 horseflesh. The story seemed so plausible, and the 

 details so rhinute, that it was accepted as a fact, and in 

 due course published in numerous scientific and other 

 papers of this and other countries ; indeed, the fact that 

 fowls are omnivorous, and that they have a predilection 



