THE P O VI. TR Y li VHINIiSH. 7 



kbie, but A, pi-oiitable step; at the snme time we would not encourage any one to 

 go into the business of raising fowls and eggs for market with the expectation 

 of becoming suddenly rich at it. It is a business involying but little manual 

 labor, and that of a light character, but it does require daily exercise in the open 

 air ; hence it is admirably suited for women, and for those who are infirm in 

 health. To such it offers a small remuneration, and if coml>ined with other 

 light employments, as bee keeping, some branches of small fruit culture, and silk 

 production, would afford a reliable means of support to many whose ciroum. 

 stances do not allow them to engage in more laborious employments. 



We have in mind widows, who have been left with families of small children 

 dependent upon them, but without any means of support except the needle ; 

 maiden ladies, whom life's lottery has left without a household mate and pro- 

 tector ; persons of infirm health, who have neither the strength nor facilities for 

 the severe bodily or mental exertion which is required in other branches of indus- 

 try ; the families of laborers, whose scanty earnings are but barely sufficient to 

 feed and clothe the wife and little ones : All these, if so situated that they can 

 have the use of a small tract of land, may greatly lighten the burdens of life by 

 the keeping of poultry, and if we do not present this business in the glowing 

 light that some enthusiasts do, it is that such as these may find in our book no 

 incentives to extravagant anticipation, only to be followed by disappointment; 

 but may be led to begin cautiously and work carefully until experience shall 

 have taught them with the least ppssible loss — for experience teaches only by 

 losses, or what is the same, by failures to attain possible gains — the most suitable 

 methods for their estates and conditions. 



The foregoing remarks apply simply to the breeding of poultry for flesh and 

 eggs; the breeding of fancy poultry is a separate business, and one which re- 

 quires special adaptitude for success, as well as a knowledge which can only be 

 bought by experience It is not a business to be picked up in a day, any more 

 than the breeding of horses and cattle. The same principles underlie the whole 

 theory of breeding, and these principles are only to be milstered by years of 

 study and practice; therefore we would advise those of limited means who have 

 aspirations in this direction, to begin with one or two varieties of fowls ; learn 

 their habits and needs, and increase their number only in proportion as this 

 knowledge is obtained. It is a knowledge which cannot be obtalnedfrom books, 

 although books may be of such assistance that no poultry breeder can afford to 

 do without them ; but th6 information which they give must be mingled with 

 personal experience, and thus digested and assimilated before it can be of much 

 practical value. 



This business has grown to great dimensions within a few years, owing to the 

 facilities afforded by the express companies for the interchange of fowls and 

 eggs, by which they may be senthundreds of miles with perfect safety, as far as 

 the fowls are concerned, and with but little risk to the eggs. This business started 

 with the introduction of the large Asiatic breeds, whose superior size and other 

 desirable qualities made them generally attractive, and now we have, in the es- 

 tablishments of our fanciers, representatives of almost every breed of fowl 

 known. 



