INTRODUCTION 



There are numerous poultry books on the market. Some are 

 valuable works, except that they are out of date. Others have 

 been written by persons who knew more about theory than of 

 practice. Still others were printed because the author had a 

 system to advocate, a farm to advertise, or an axe to grind. 

 Obviously, in reading these so-called systems the beginner gen- 

 erally obtains erroneous ideas, which sooner or later bring about 

 costly mistakes, often failure. 



In the chapters that follow the author has no hobbies to ride, 

 no theories to advance, nothing to offer, in fact, except the prac- 

 tical information which he has acquired from many years of 

 actual experience raising fowls on a commercial scale, and from 

 the associations of other poultrymen with whom he has come in 

 contact in a business or friendly way. His effort has been to 

 give facts and state principles clearly, so as to establish a solid 

 foundation for the study of poultry culture. The real study, 

 of course, commences with the actual work with the fowls, and 

 cannot be acquired from the printed page alone. 



No phase of agriculture or animal husbandry has made such 

 enormous progress in the past thirty years as poultry culture. 

 Consequently, literature written on this subject a quarter of a 

 century ago, or even a decade ago, is now mostly obsolete. Not 

 that fowls have changed their habits to such an extent, but 

 because we have learned more about their habits, and how to 

 derive the greatest benefits from them at the least possible 

 cost. 



Poultry raising on a commercial scale could not be attempted 

 on the methods practised by our grandfathers. It was not until 

 the invention and perfection of appliances for the artificial rear- 

 ing of little chicks in large numbers that poultry keeping really 



