528 



Eggs versus Table Poultry. 



[dec, 



however, recommend poultry-keepers who have a steady and 

 profitable demand for eggs, more especially in the neighbour- 

 hood of industrial centres, to abandon that trade for the sake of 

 table poultry, especially as in these districts, with few excep- 

 tions, the present demand is for a lower class fowl, and the prices 

 paid would not be remunerative. The development of the trade 

 in fattened chickens should be encouraged in the purely 

 agricultural districts, where eggs are less valuable, and whence 

 both classes of produce must be shipped to the best markets. 

 At the same time it should be recognized that throughout the 

 country there is a large and constant demand for chickens of 

 a lower class, usually sold lean or half-fatted, in which the egg 

 producer can find an outlet for his surplus birds at a fair margin 

 of profit. The lighter-bodied, non -sitting races, such as the 

 w^hite Leghorns, are of small value even for this trade, as they 

 never make size and are lacking in flesh. The " general pur- 

 pose " breeds, especially those with white legs, of which the Buff 

 Orpington may be taken as an example, are better for this pur- 

 pose where the soil is not too strong, as they combine winter 

 laying with fair flesh qualities. On heavy lands the yellow-legged 

 breeds of the same class may be recommended. 



Sale of CJiickens. — Large areas are to be found where table 

 chickens could be produced early in the season, and would 

 command good prices if the sale were systematized, but usually 

 hatching is not commenced early enough. In nearly all the 

 best poultry districts at home and abroad the work of hatching 

 begins in November, and is continued to April or May ; 

 whereas, as a rule, farmers do not deem it necessary to begin 

 until March or April, which is time enough for the production 

 of pullets as layers but is too late for chickens. Where early 

 birds are produced much might be done to bring breeders into 

 direct communication with fatteners in other districts, as the 

 latter are generally ready to purchase good specimens at paying 

 rates, provided they can be bulked and forwarded in sufficient 

 quantities. The carriage would be too high for small lots, and 

 the trouble involved more than they would undertake. A partial 

 explanation of the present methods is found in the fact that some 

 of the counties most favourable for chicken raising have within 

 their borders a large number of holiday resorts where there is a 



