14 



PRACTICAL POULTRY PRODUCTION 



DEVELOPMENT 

 Growth of incentives. Judging from the nature of poul- 

 try keeping among our semicivilized races of recent times, 

 it is probable that the domestication of fowls was first ac- 

 complished for the sport of cock fighting rather than for any 

 economic reason. As the value of fowls as a source of food 

 production became recognized, however, they were kept 

 more and more for this purpose primarily. In consequence, 

 from those early times until recent years the keeping of 



Figure 3. — Interior view of a modern cold-storage"plant. 



poultry has been a matter of supplying food for the family. 

 There was no incentive to keep a larger flock than would 

 supply eggs and meat needed for the family, for the reason 

 that transportation facilities were not such as to allow the 

 surplus to be taken any considerable distance for disposal. 

 When there was such a surplus it came to be largely a medium 

 of barter or exchange with neighbors or with the merchants 

 of near-by villages or towns. With the advent of steam rail- 

 roads, however, and, more lately with the coming of cold 

 storage, it has been possible to ship poultry and eggs long 



