PREFACE. 9 



him most profit. He spent £17 in food, but at the 

 end of the twelve months had realised a clear gain of 

 £20, and after returning the 26 stock fowls had still 

 some left with which to resume operations. No doubt 

 from this he will go on, and, with ordinary good fortune, 

 soon be on the road towards becoming a small holder. 



In another case, that of a 200 acre farm, where 

 both rearing and fattening are conducted on a large 

 scale, the detailed accounts of sales of poultry for a 

 whole year exhibit equally encouraging results, viz., 

 after paying interest at 5 per cent, on £600 capital, 

 there rernained a substantial profit of £268. The 

 prices obtained by rearers range from Is. 8d. in sum- 

 mer to 3s. 6d., or even 4s., each fowl, the highest 

 point reached being in May. After June this scale 

 recedes at a rapid rate. A prosperous farmer, whose 

 chickens were sold to a Heathfield higgler at 3s. 6d. 

 each in April, made the apparently astonishing state- 

 ment to Mr. Eew, that if 100 hens are properly looked 

 after they will yield a larger return in twelve months 

 than 100 breeding ewes. 



What should prove most encouraging to small cot- 

 tagers in the rearing of chickens for the market, is, 

 that fowls are almost omnivorous ; not only do they 

 eat grain and vegetables, but they absolutely require 

 variety of food, including mea;t or fat, and so scraps 

 from the household may always be mixed with daily 

 rations, and thus all leavings are utilised. In some 

 instances numbers of coops, representing as many 

 broods of chickens, are set out under the hedges in , 

 public highways, and it is not surprising that the 

 chickens reared under these circumstances should 



