EVOLUTION OF THE POULTRY INDUSTRY 21 



meet this demand, so little confidence had either authors or pub- 

 lishers in the permanent value of these books that in over forty 

 years there were issued, bound in boards, only three poultry 

 books by American authors.^ In all that time only one American 

 book (Felch's " Poultry Culture ") appeared which secured exten- 

 sive recognition as an authority. The favorite work with Ameri- 

 can poultry keepers was an English book, " The Practical Poultry 

 Keeper," by Lewis Wright. The information in this book was 

 not always adapted to American conditions, but the book as a 

 whole furnished the most complete and logical treatment of the 

 subject from a modern point of view, and as such had a great 

 influence. 



It is not practicable here to go into a discussion of reasons for 

 the scarcity of good books by American authors, but one most 

 important reason should be mentioned. The common lack of 

 confidence in the permanent value of books written during this 

 period was due to the general recognition of the unsettled condi- 

 tion of the industry. This will be discussed more particularly in the 

 next chapter. The point of interest here is that, because of the 

 changes which have taken place, the literature of the first half- 

 century of the modern period has ceased to be serviceable for 

 instruction in so many particulars that the student of the subject, 

 reading those books to-day, needs constantly to guard against teach- 

 ings that progress has made obsolete. For this reason it is wise to 

 postpone acquaintance with the literature of that period until one 

 has acquired a fair general knowledge of present conditions and 

 practice, and is thus qualified to distinguish between what is obso- 

 lete and the considerable quantity of valuable matter to be found 

 in the literature of the period. A little of the same caution is 

 advisable even in the study of more recent literature, for some 

 writers on poultry draw more freely on past literature than on 

 current experience. 



Instruction and investigation. Public educational and experi- 

 mental work was not seriously undertaken in America until near 

 the close of the nineteenth century. The very abundance and 



1 I. K. Felch, Poultry Culture; I. K. Felch, H. S. Babcock, and J. Henry Lee, 

 The Philosophy of Judging; The Standard of Perfection (pubUshed by the 

 American Poultry Association). 



