82 



POULTRY CULTURE 



one locality, the usual practice was to increase production only as 

 long as the stock kept could be handled in one flock. 



Some one in the vicinity of Little Compton, Rhode Island, 

 at an early stage of the awakening of interest in poultry keeping, 



saw the advantage of 

 retaining the style of 

 small house in use and 

 of distributing small 

 flocks over the land, 

 and adopted that sys- 

 tem. Others followed 

 his example. The 

 system was soon in 

 general use in a lim- 

 ited area in that part of 

 Rhode Island and the 

 adjoining part of Massachusetts, poultry keeping became the most 

 important interest of the district, and the district became one of the 

 largest poultry-producing communities in the world. While occasion- 

 ally individuals failed or, because of disease in the flocks, were obliged 

 to discontinue operations for a period, on the whole poultry ventures 

 flcnirished and grew to large proportions, were as permanent as other 

 branches of agriculture, and were often carried on generation after 



Fig. 82. Large colonies on the farm of A. M. Shaw, 

 Groton, N.Y. (Photograph by H. J. Blanchard) 



Fig. 83. Colony system on a Pennsylvania farm 



generation by the same families on the same farms. The Rhode 

 Island Red, a breed especially adapted to local conditions and 

 methods, was developed and long remained peculiar to that locality. 

 The development of the colony system in this section began 

 about the middle of the last century, but attracted little attention 



