1904.] Farm Land for Poultry Keepers. 405 



much greater than ever before, as will be recognized by all who 

 observe the agricultural conditions of the country. But we are 

 far from having reached the limit of possibilities of development 

 in this industry. Without making any estimate of the number 

 of fowls of all grades now kept in Great Britain, it may safely 

 be said that it would be practicable to multiply the number 

 threefold without displacing any existing stock or crop. This 

 is a most important consideration, for where such an addition 

 can be made the increase is really an added crop, and offers a 

 greater margin of profit than if, in order to provide room for 

 the poultry, some other branch had to be abandoned. The 

 direct financial return obtained by sale of produce is not the 

 only source of revenue to be corsidered, the manurial value is 

 also important. At a moderate estimate it is calculated that 

 twenty-four hens under ordinary farm conditions will yield in 

 twelve months a ton in weight of manure, which, in a moist 

 state, has been valued by a high authority at £2 per ton — 

 equal to is. 8d. per hen per annum. To secure this amount, 

 it is essential that the manure shall be well distributed over 

 the land. The plan of portable houses, described in the 

 April number of this Journal, has been found most conducive 

 to this end. 



One of the great difficulties which farmers have to meet 

 at the present time is the lack of skilful, trustworthy, intelligent 

 labourers. This is noticeable in every department of farm 

 work, even in such as have been regarded for generations 

 as the regular operations of agriculture, and it is even 

 more noticeable in the later developments of farming. 

 Farmers have long been prone to regard poultry as unworthy 

 of their attention, and their helpers have not been trained in 

 the management of poultry. It is scarcely to be wondered at, 

 therefore, that, on the principle of " like master like man," 

 abourers arc wanting in the knowledge of poultry-keeping 

 necessary to enable them to undertake the care and oversight 

 1 >f fowls upon a large scale. So long as only a few birds were 

 kept around the homestead to supply the household needs or 

 o provide the good wife with pin- money, the question was not 

 l.t all serious ; but with an extension of operations there must 

 be either increased personal attention or delegation of the 



