53 



CONCLUSION. 



I have not attempted in this Mttle treatise to demonstrate by 

 debtor and creditor accounts that the German method herein 

 described results in " Profitable Canary Breeding," but that it does 

 so result is evident from the constantly increasing number of breeders 

 who in that country invest money and devote their time to the 

 industry. It is estimated that a quarter of a million Canaries* are 

 yearly exported from G-ermany, and the demand is constantly 

 increasing. One thing is certain, namely, that the number of young 

 reared, even in what an English fancier would term a good season, 

 would by no means satisfy the German breeder, and as the first 

 necessity of profitable breeding is, of course, the production of the 

 greatest possible number of young from a given number of old birds, 

 and the next is to know how to turn such produce to the best 

 account, I have endeavoured to publish, for the benefit of those who 

 would care to give the system a trial, the practical experiences in 

 this direction of myself and others. A considerable portion of the 

 work has been devoted to the description of the education and exhib- 

 ition of the German Canary as a song bird pure and simple, and I am 

 afraid it is too much to hope that my book will be of any great 

 use in forwarding a similar system in this country. I trust, however, 

 that such parts have not been uninteresting, and I am sure that, 

 although the marvellous perfection of song now attained by the German 

 Canaries could only be approached by our own birds after many years 



* Period of Computation : 1696. 



