186  Notes  on  Continental  Poultry-keeping. 
where  Show  poultry  of  high-priced  strains  are  bred  (as  at 
Crosne),  or  they  are  adjuncts  to  a farm  or  a forest  (as  at 
Svendborg). 
One  other  remark  may  be  received  with  surprise  by  some 
readers,  namely,  that  in  my  opinion  it  is  a mistake  to  assert 
that  poultry-keeping  is  so  much  more  general  in  France  than  in 
England.  It  is,  no  doubt,  impossible  to  prove  the  accuracy  of 
this  opinion,  because  in  England  we  have  no  poultry  statistics  ; 
but  we  do  know  the  number  of  fowls  kept  in  France  and  kin 
Ireland,  and  the  number  of  eggs  imported  into  the  United 
Kingdom.  In  fact,  the  formidable  total  of  these  importations 
is  continually  quoted  to  show  that  our  poultry-keeping  is 
lamentably  deficient. 
The  agricultural  territory  of  France  is  rather  more  than  120 
million  acres,  and  the  latest  official  statistics  show  that  there 
are  nearly  43  million  fowls  in  the  country,  or  in  round  numbers 
one  fowl  to  three  acres  of  land.  The  total  area  of  Ireland  is 
nearly  21  million  acres,  of  which  three-fourths  (15,304,235) 
are  cultivated ; and  in  1882,  according  to  the  official  statistics, 
the  Green  Isle  possessed  nearly  14  million  head  of  poultry,  or 
about  one  head  to  one  and  a half  acres  of  the  total  area,  and 
nearly  one  to  each  acre  of  land  that  may  be  deemed  “ agri- 
cultural.” If  we  suppose  that  the  Irish  “poultry”  includes 
ducks,  geese,  and  turkeys,  which  in  France  number  9 millions, 
and  thus  raise  the  total  head  of  “ poultry  ” to  52  millions 
in  that  country,  still  the  number  kept  in  Ireland  per  acre  of 
cultivated  land  would  be  more  than  double  that  kept  in  France. 
With  regard  to  England,  as  already  stated,  we  can  only  guess 
either  way.  My  belief,  however,  is  that  poultry-keeping  is 
more  general  in  England  than  in  France;  but  that  in  this 
country  the  fowls  are  kept  chiefly  for  the  sake  of  their  eggs, 
even  by  comparatively  poor  people  ; while  in  France  they  are 
kept  for  the  sake  of  the  money  which  the  eggs  and  chicken  will 
sell  for,  even  by  comparatively  well-to-do  people. 
A little  consideration  will  show  how  largely  eggs  in  France 
are  sold  either  for  exportation  to  England  or  consumption  in 
Paris  or  other  large  towns,  although  the  official  statistics  on  the 
subject  do  not  bear  out  the  commonly  quoted  statements.  It  is 
quite  certain,  however,  that  the  number  of  fowls  given  in  the 
last  official  census  is  what  has  been  already  stated  by  me,  and 
is  repeated  below  by  Mr.  Sutherland  ; and  the  approximate 
production  of  eggs  per  annum  is  officially  given  as  nearly  1800 
millions,  or  the  large  average  of  91  per  laying  hen.  Now  in 
1882  we  imported  about  800  million  eggs,  of  which  about  one- 
half  came  from  France,  while  the  latter  country  itself  imported 
about  one-third  of  the  number  of  eggs  which  she  exported  to  all 
countries,  her  total  imports  having  been  about  200  millions,  and 
