25o Poultry Rearing and Fattening. [aug., 



bred males, such as the Dorking, Indian Game, Buff Orpington, 

 Faverolles, or White Wyandotte with the cross-bred and 

 mongrel hens kept by the majority of farmers. This plan has 

 b^en adopted in several of the districts over which the poultry 

 societies conduct their operations, and when the farmers have 

 co-operated with their societies in carrying out these improve- 

 ments the results have proved far more satisfactory than in 

 cases where individual efforts at improvement have been made. 

 A society can promote uniformity by recommending and pro- 

 curing for its members male birds of a single breed, whereas if 

 the farmers are left to select for themselves each one has his 

 own choice, and many breeds are used, with the result that when 

 the chickens come to be delivered to the society for marketing 

 they are far from uniform and do not command a uniformly 

 high price. 



The breeds which are most largely used by the members of 

 co-operative poultry societies in the south-east of Ireland are 

 the Buff Orpington and the Faverolles, and these breeds are found 

 most suitable for crossing with the ordinary farmyard fowls. The 

 Dorking is also used in some cases, but yellow-legged breeds are 

 not in favour. The English methods of rearing and fattening 

 are now being copied to some extent in Ireland. In England the 

 rearing and the fattening are separate industries, though 

 dependent upon one another, and are carried on by two classes 

 of people, namely, " the rearers " and " the fatteners." In Ireland 

 the rearers are the farmers, labourers, artisans, &c, who keep 

 poultry, and the fatteners are the co operative societies. The 

 co-operative societies are made up entirely of the farmers, 

 labourers, and artisans, and therefore the rearers also receive all 

 the profits of the fattening business. 



The rearing of chickens is an art in itself, and can only be 

 acquired with practice. Those who raise only a few flocks of 

 chickens in spring have no idea of the skill required to raise 

 chickens all the year round in the way they are reared in the 

 table poultry districts. In order to keep the fattening centres 

 supplied and to retain their customers they must be raised at 

 all seasons, and to this end it is necessary for the wives and 

 daughters of farmers and cottagers who have to do with chicken 

 raising to study their business closely. The first essential for 



