On the Rearing and Management of Poultry. 



179 



of the peculiarities of the best breeds of fowls, I will next say a 

 few words on the selection of breeds. 



The breeder must in the first place ascertain whether he can 

 obtain most profit from the sale of eggs or from the sale of 

 chickens. How is he to come at this ? I say, without going 

 into details, if he can obtain two shillings each for chickens, that he 

 may select fowls which are best adapted for the table ; if he cannot 

 obtain this price, then he must select such as are known good 

 layers — such as seldom show any propensity to propagate tiieir 

 own species by incubation. 



Table Fowls. — If it be found desirable to breed for the table, 

 then the Dorking is what I recommend : and, moreover, 

 the greater the number of chickens that can be reared from 

 the same number of eggs, the greater is the profit ; success, 

 therefore, to a great extent, depends on the qualities of the hens 

 as sitters and as nurses. Here again the Dorking stand pre- 

 eminent, for better sitters and nurses connot be produced. 

 Som^e fanciers of repute recommend a cross with this breed 

 and the Malay or the Cochin-China. I cannot subscribe to 

 this recommendation, unless the objects to be obtained are an 

 increase in offal, and a decrease in the qualities of the hens as 

 sitters, especially if with the former. If a cross must take place, 

 as some writers say, to renew a degenerating race (be it observed 

 I do not admit of this, from the very simple and obvious fact of 

 the Dorkings of this day being as heavy as any Dorkings that 

 have come under our notice of past dates), let the cross be with 

 a well-shaped bird, of small bone, and undeniable flesh. The 

 Spanish, possessing these qualities in an eminent degree, is the 

 only bird I would recommend to cross with the Dorking. 

 Attend to what the late very talented naturalist, H.D.Richard- 

 son, says in his work on domestic fowls, when speaking of the 

 Spanish : — " As table birds they hold a place of the very first rank, 

 their flesh being particularly white, tender, and juicy ; and the 

 skin possessing that beautiful clear white hue, so essential a re- 

 quisite for birds designed for the consumption of the gourmand.'* 

 W. C. L. Martin, " late one of the scientific officers of the Zoolo- 

 gical Society of London," is, in his treatise on poultry in Knight's 

 Farmers^ Library and Cyclopcedia of Rural Affairs, no less 

 liberal in his remarks in praise of the Spanish fowls. I there- 

 fore have the best authority to substantiate my own opinion of the 

 high value of the Spanish as birds for the table. I have conse- 

 quently recommended them in preference to all others to cross 

 with the Dorkings. 



Many people, when buying fowls for the table, make the colour 

 of the legs the criterion whereby they judge of the quality of the 

 flesh ; I may therefore be allowed to state that Sover, in his 



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