CHAPTER XL 



The French Breeds. 



From the character of the rural population of France, being largely peasant 

 proprietors, and noted for their small economies, we should expect the poultry 

 interest to receive a large amount of attention in that country. That such is the 

 case is shown by the facts that several very valuable breeds of fowls are of French 

 origin; that the products of the poultry-yard are nowhere more generally used as 

 food than in France ; and that France exported to England alone, prior to the 

 Franco-Prussian war, between four hundred and five hundred million eggs 

 annually. 



Of the various French breeds of poultry the Houdans have been received with 

 the greatest favor in England and America. The name is derived from that of 

 the chief market town of the arrondissement of Mantis, department of Seine-et- 

 Oise, near Paris. The annual sales of fat poultry at Houdan, according to Teg- 

 etmeler, have reached the sum of $370,000; while in the arrondissements :of 

 Dreux and Nogent-le-Soi, of the same department, the sales reach $464,000 and 

 $325,000, or a total trade of $1,160,000 for a department a little over two thousand 

 square miles in area. It is true the breed of fowls known- as Houdans are not 

 the only breed of this region, many cross-bred fowls being found there as else- 

 where; but we should expect the characteristic breed of a region doing such a 

 large business in poultry to possess certain valuable qualities in a high de- 

 gree, and this is certainly the case with the Houdans. 



In size and shape this breed closely resembles the Dorking, even to the pecu- 

 liarity of the fifth toe ; butin addition to these Dorking characteristics itpossesses 

 the crest and non-sitting qualities of the Polish fowls, hence it is supposed by 

 some that it has actually been derived from a cross between those breeds; The 

 plumage of the Houdan, including the crCst, is white, spangled with black, the 

 spangles being frequently of considerable size, and varying in number, so. that 

 the fowl may show all gradations of color from nearly white to nearly black. 

 The comb is triple, very large in the cock, but sometimes scarcely perceptible in 

 the hen. Both cocks and hens are bearded. They are excellent table fowls; the 

 flesh being of fine quality, and, like that of the Dorking, being found well de- 

 veloped in the'finer parts, while the bones are much finer than those of the Dork- 

 ing. They are good layers of large, white eggs, and are but little iuolined to sit. 



