865 
CHICKEN AND POULTRY FARMING 
IN GERMANY. 
Herr Gruenhaldt, of Sehloss Walmiinster, PostTeterchen, Lorraine, 
a Hanoverian by origin, was long engaged at Heidelberg in the 
invention and construction of incubators, and in hatching out 
chickens for those who sent him eggs and employed him in that way. 
He is now in the occupation of the Sehloss, or chateau, in question, 
and with the option of purchase ; the land attached, beyond gardens 
and orchards, is inconsiderable — in all some thirty English acres. 
The soil is rather of a stiff and retentive character. The Herr is a 
married man, with one daughter, and of scientific tastes, employing 
in his house, for bells, telephone, and for regulating the temperature 
of his incubators, thirty electric batteries or jars ; he is also a photo- 
graphic artist, and executed excellent illustrations of his surround- 
ings and operations, a few of which have been utilised for the wood- 
cuts that accompany this paper. 
I have no precise knowledge as to the proposed arrangements, but 
I rather gather that Herr Gruenhaldt intends to institute courses of 
practical instruction in the art he professes. 
The village of Walmiinster is twenty English miles north-east 
of Metz, and has a population of about 100 souls, little farmers 
and their belongings, who speak a bad German dialect ; but at the 
Sehloss pure German only is spoken. All the incubators for use 
and sale, together with all the other appliances used in poultry- 
raising, are made at home. 
Practically all the chicken and poultry food is purchased, as 
buckwheat, Indian meal, fish made into baked cakes, &c. Three 
cows are kept, but from four to eight gallons of milk are used every 
day for the poultry food. Windfall fruit, cabbages and garden refuse 
are used largely, being pitted for winter, and afterwards boiled. 
There are no horses ; communication with the railway-station, 
distant three and a half English miles, is kept up by telephone, and 
by post-cart which passes twice daily. 
The stock advertised as always on hand is from seven to ten 
thousand head of poultry, chiefly chickens, with turkeys, geese, ducks, 
guinea fowls, and rabbits — the common tame rabbit. The geese are 
the large Italian, which are said to grow to twenty-five pounds. The 
ducks are Aylesbury and a sort of half-wild duck. The chickens 
are of various breeds, as Plymouth, Dorking, Cochin, Bramahs, 
Houdans, Langshans, &c. ; but the various breeds are to be reduced 
to four, the multiplicity causing confusion in the execution of the 
various hotel and other orders, viz., two French breeds, one English, 
and one German. Herr Gruenhaldt has a high opinion of a small 
white German breed called " Ramelsloher," from a village of that 
name near Hamburg ; they are excellent for table, good winter 
layers, and hardy. In that village all the inhabitants raise chickens 
in winter ; they are hatched out in the natural manner, but kept 
VOL. I. T. S. — 4 3 L 
