CHAPTER II 



EVOLUTION OF THE POULTRY INDUSTRY 



Antiquity of poultry culture. The beginnings of poultry keep- 

 ing were a part of prehistoric human life. Our Aryan ancestors 

 had poultry, but whether they domesticated it after having made 

 some progress in civilization, or at an earlier period, or received 

 it from an earlier or an alien race is not known. From the greater 

 ease of taking and holding in captivity such birds as the fowl, duck, 

 and goose it is quite reasonable to suppose that these may have 

 been domesticated before any of the mammals, and by people in 

 a most primitive state. The distribution of domestic fowls, ducks, 

 and geese over the earth has followed in a general way the 

 migrations of peoples of Aryan origin. An important exception 

 appears to be the case of the Chinese poultry, which, according 

 to their tradition, was received from the West about 1400 B.C. 



Pre-modern poultry culture. Prior to the middle of the nine- 

 teenth century, poultry culture was essentially primitive and appar- 

 ently conducted on the same general lines in all lands. Accounts 

 of poultry keeping in this long period are rare and historically 

 of little value. Unsatisfactory as these writings are as sources of 

 complete information, they give an impression of the conditions 

 that they reflect which is undoubtedly correct in its general features, 

 and which suffices for the practical student, if not for the curious 

 investigator. From the remaining records of this period and from 

 the fact that in it nearly all prominent types of poultry were devel- 

 oped and brought to a high grade of excellence, it may reasonably 

 be concluded : 



First: That the common idea that poultry culture throughout this period 

 was characterized by general ignorance of good methods of management and 

 universal failure to appreciate the possibilities of profit from poultry is erron- 

 eous ; and, 



Second : That the industry was everywhere developed on a scale and along 

 lines appropriate to circumstances affecting it; that keepers of poultry in general 



