408 



THE BELGIAN POULTRY INDUSTRY. [March 1896. 



THE BELGIAN POULTRY INDUSTRY. 



The Foreign Markets section of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has recently issued a bulletin relating to 

 the kingdoai of Belgium, where the poultry industry occupies a 

 prominent place among the minor branches of rural activity of 

 that country. 



It is but natural; the bulletin states, that in a land characterised 

 by small holdings {petite culture), diversified industries, and the 

 densest population in Europe, every means should be utilised for 

 increasing the income of the rural labourer. Large numbers of 

 Leghorn fowls are imported from Italy. French and English 

 breeds of fowls are also raised, but the two distinctively Belgian 

 breeds are the Malines and the Campine, each named after the 

 locality where it predominates. The Malines fowl stands in high 

 repute among the Belgian poultry raisers, and it is not difficult 

 to explain why this breed is considered of great value and its 

 type well fixed. It attains a very large size, as large as any 

 table fowl, the quality of its meat is excellent, and although the 

 hen is not an extraordinary layer, she Jays a fair num^ber of 

 eggs during the year and is a good mother. The chickens are 

 -very hardy and mature rapidly. As is the case in many poultry 

 districts in Belgium, as well as in France and England, there are 

 in the vicinity of the capital, at Beyghem, Wemmel, Humbeck, 

 Cappelle-aux-Bois, Muysen, and other places, poultry breeders 

 who confine their labours to the hatching of chicks, and to selling 

 the young birds alive on the market of Malines to specialists 

 whose care is to fatten them for table use. It is these specialists 

 that every traveller in Brussels has seen arrive in the morning 

 with their little carts drawn by dogs carrying their stock of fine 

 fattened poultry, the " cuckoos of Malines." Brussels is an 

 excellent market for fine table poultry. Its inhabitants have 

 long been noted as being fond of this species of food, and ever 

 since the year 1370 they have been facetiously termed " Jdeke- 

 fretters," that is chick en- eaters. 



The other breed possessing a popularity in Belgium almost 

 equal to the Malines is the Campine. As the former is raised 

 for its excellence as a table fowl, the latter owes its popularity 

 to its laying powers. Although the meat of this fowl is fine and 

 delicate, there is not enough of it, the breed being quite small. 

 The Campine is nearly allied to the well-known Hamburgs. It 

 is a wide ranger, lively, alert, and is both an excellent layer and 

 a good mother. The popular name of this variety in its home 

 is " pond tons les jours " (every-day layer). The nmnber of eggs 

 obtained per hen under favourable conditions is from 180 to 220 

 per annum, 



