CHAPTEE II. 



HATCHING AND BEABINQ. 



The method commonly adopted in the great table- 

 poultry districts of England, is that the work of 

 fattening occupies the position of a separate industry, 

 comparatively few fatteners doing anything in the 

 hatching and rearing of poultry. Higglers, as the 

 collectors are called,- scour the country for many miles 

 round, buying up such birds as may be offered to 

 them, bringing them, of course, to the central estab- 

 lishments, where they are fattened off. This plan has 

 undoubtedly advantages to recommend it, in that 

 poultry raisers of the district reap a considerable 

 benefit by finding a good market for their birds, which 

 are paid for on the spot and taken away by the 

 higglers, thus minimising trouble to the producers. 

 Many poultry breeders, who go in for the best quality 

 of fowls, make excellent incomes in this way. There 

 is also less danger of the ground becoming foul, as 

 would be the case if large quantities were concentrated 

 upon a given spot. We only know one or two places 

 where there is much done in the way of rearing 



