THE NEED FOR POULTRY 21 
than ever before. The price of eggs advances steadily, and must 
continue to advance with the price of all other foods. 
For THE AMATEUR 
The popular notion that one needs a large garden or a meadow 
for the purpose of egg production is not easily dispelled. No 
doubt, the larger the garden or the greater the dimensions of the 
meadow, the better for fowls kept on a large scale, but let it be 
said once for all that birds will live and thrive and produce profit 
in the ordinary back-yard, on the housetop, or indeed anywhere 
that light and sun are available. It is possible, though perhaps 
hardly desirable, to get fair results from hens hung up in a cage 
outside of a wall. I knew a man who did something of the sort. 
He kept a couple of fowls in a large cage that he had fixed to the 
window-sill of his flat. He took the birds inside in bad weather 
every night, and put them outside in the morning. And he got 
eggs. Needless to say, such methods are clumsy and cannot be 
advocated, but they do show what can be done in very confined 
spaces. On the tops of flat houses many splendid fowl-houses 
exist, even in the city and environs of London. Given a flat, 
open space anywhere that light, air and sun can penetrate, it is 
just a question of the number of fowls that may be kept. The 
ordinary back-yard, the small garden, the bits of waste lands that 
abound even in the heart of great cities could all be utilised for 
poultry culture. To-day there are thousands of so-called back- 
yarders keeping their dozens and half-dozens of fowls with extra- 
ordinary results. Not only do those enthusiastic men and women 
find the produce of the birds useful for domestic purposes, but 
many of them are able to supply the household with eggs and to 
sell sufficient to yield a profit. And, believe me, there is no egg 
half so sweet as the home-grown egg. If one goes into a shop 
and pays even top prices, one is not certain that he has got an 
egg he can eat. The shopkeeper may do his best and yet fail. 
He cannot guarantee either the date or the history of the egg. 
Roughly speaking, not one egg in six of the best quality as sold 
