12 Profitable Poultry Keeping. 



thirty years ago was almost entirely relating to one breed 

 1 — the Cochin — whereas now all varieties of poultry receive 

 a share of attention, although there are some greater 

 favourites and more valuable than others. Then, the 

 general belief was that the fowls named — which,- by the 

 way, were new, and had only recently been imported from 

 China — were the greatest layers and best table fowls ever 

 known, that their importation was of national importance, 

 and that to obtain possession of some of these birds would 

 be a sure road to wealth. How this delusion arose — for 

 delusion it undoubtedly was, the Cochin then and now 

 being the least profitable of all our breeds of domestic 

 poultry — it is not our province here to inquire, except to 

 say that we believe it was, like almost every other mania, 

 due to designing men, who largely profited by it. At the 

 present day, poultry fanciers, i.e., those who go in for 

 poultry breeding as a hobby, without caring much for the 

 economic qualities of the birds, and who are the persons 

 that pay such, high prices for first class specimens, have 

 no claim to be regarded as public benefactors, and neither 

 deceive themselves nor any one else by posing in such a 

 manner. They say plainly that they keep poultry as a 

 hobby; it ministers to their pleasure when striving after 

 an ideal standard, which may or may not improve the birds 

 so far as their profitable qualities are concerned, but for 

 that they care little. They claim the same liberty as the 

 fox-hunter or the sportsman, and are willing to pay for their 

 pleasure ; and if they pay very high prices for birds, they 

 do so in the same way as others do for fancy stock, and 

 can generally get their money back again. Therefore, it 

 will be seen at once that there is a very marked difference 

 between the poultry fanciers of thirty years ago and those 

 of to-day, and there is very little probability of any repeti- 

 tion of the collapse of the present mania, if such it can 



