Notes  on  Continental  Poultry -keeping. 
185 
published  last  year.*  I have  therefore  reprinted  the  excellent 
contribution  to  the  subject  by  my  friend  Mr.  C.  L.  Sutherland, 
from  his  Report  on  West-central  France  to  the  Royal  Commis- 
sion on  Agriculture,  as  well  as  quotations  from  my  own  Reports 
to  the  same  Commission,  and  notes  derived  from  other  sources. 
The  text  up  to  which  I shall  write  may  be  thus  stated  : — 
In  the  same  manner  as  the  successful  cultivation  of  land 
requires  a rotation  or  at  least  an  alternation  of  crops,  so  does 
successful  poultry-keeping  require  a rotation  or  at  least  an 
alternation  of  land.  Nothing  poisons  land  so  quickly  as 
poultry ; and  it  is  my  belief  that  the  failures  of  large  “ poultry- 
farms,”  as  they  have  been  termed,  are  chiefly  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  necessity  of  shifting  the  poultry  from  one  spot  to 
another  in  a systematic  (not  a haphazard)  manner  has  either 
not  been  sufficiently  kept  in  view  or  has  been  impossible. 
Change  of  ground  for  poultry  is  of  course  well  known  as  neces- 
sary to  their  being  successfully  kept,  but  the  reasons  generally 
given  by  writers  are  somewhat  different  from  the  cardinal 
principle  which  I conceive  to  be  involved.  Thus,  Mr.  Baily 
commences  his  well-known  book  f as  follows  : — “ Just  as  change 
of  air  is  at  times  necessary  to  the  human  being  in  order  to 
preserve  or  regain  health,  so  is  fresh  ground  necessary  for 
poultry.  The  constant  occupation  of  the  same  spot  becomes 
injurious  to  them.”  This  sentence  embodies  a very  prevalent 
view,  while  I maintain  that  a large  number  of  fowls  kept  on  a 
limited  area  require  a systematic  change  of  land  for  the  reason 
which  I have  already  given.  Mr.  Sutherland  remarks,  in  the 
following  quotation  from  his  Report,  that  “ so  well  is  the 
necessity  for  change  of  ground  understood  in  the  districts  where 
poultry-raising  is  a special  industry,  that  great  sacrifices  are 
made  by  the  breeders  to  secure  fresh  ground  on  which  to  rear 
their  chickens,” — a statement  which  comes  very  near  my  own, 
with  the  exception  that  I insist  upon  the  necessity  of  a systematic 
change  instead  of  a haphazard  one,  and  for  poultry  of  all  kinds 
-and  ages  instead  of  simply  for  chicken. 
A “ poultry-farm  ” may,  however,  be  successful  as  such 
without  being  so  in  a pecuniary  sense  ; and  on  this  point  it  is 
my  conviction  that  “ commercial  ” poultry  will  only  pay  as  an 
-accessory  to  something  else,  whether  it  be  a farm  or  a house- 
hold— to  eat  scraps  which  would  be  otherwise  lost,  and  to 
utilise  time  which  would  be  otherwise  wasted.  Where  there 
are  large  poultry  farms  that  have  paid  for  any  length  of  time, 
so  far  as  my  experience  goes,  they  are  either  establishments 
* ‘Journal  of  the  Koyal  Agricultural  Society  of  England,’  Second  Series, 
vol.  xviii.,  pp.  104  and  503. 
t ‘Fowls.’  By  John  Baily.  This  is  a very  practical  book  from  the  English 
point  of  view,  and  its  price  (2s.  6 d.)  brings  it  within  the  reach  of  every  farmer. 
