PROFITABLE POULTRY KEEPING. 



CHAPTER I. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



The Poultry Mania — Cochins Thirty Tears ago — Poultry Keeping often a Hobby 

 — Recent incrfase of interest in Poultry Keeping — Farmers and Poultry — 

 Farms ia France — Consumption of Eggs — Prices of Eggs — Value of Fresh 

 Eggs — Poultry in Paris. 



There is an old adage, and one the truth of which is proved 

 in our experiences almost every day, that " there is nothing 

 new under the sun," and probahly many of those who can 

 remember the poultry mania of thirty years ago, may have 

 been led to think that the undoubted revival of interest 

 in poultry which has taken place within the last few years, 

 is simply a repetition of that mania. Then, as now, 

 poultry sold for fabulous prices, and it was no uncommon 

 thing to hear of a bird having realised $200, or a setting 

 of eggs $25 ; and the fact that last year (1882) a game cock 

 was sold at Birmingham for $500, and at the Crystal 

 Palace show a game bantam cockerel was claimed for $250, 

 would at the first sight appear to warrant such a con- 

 clusion as we have named. But on considering the matter 

 a little further, we find a marked difference in every respect, 

 save only the large prices paid for specimens. The mania of 



