390 
Supplement to the “ Tropical AgricuUurisV 
[November i, 1890 
must take an interest in liis fo^yls ; he must )je 
on the look-out to see what they lack in the 
way of comfort, and supply that lack ; he must 
he thoughtful for tliem. A thoughtless, careless 
person is less likely to succeed in this business 
than in many aiiothei'. 
There are few households, except in the most 
densely-populated parts of our towns where a 
<^reater or lesser number cannot be kept with 
advantage and profit. I do not advise my 
readers to keep fowls under conditions I’endeiitig 
lii!e ' a misery to the poor creatures, and a dis- 
comfiture, if not a positive danger to the health of 
their owners as is sometimes attempted ; but in 
connection with a great number of town houses, 
room can be contrived for a few. 
Fowls in confinement require more care and 
attention than those that have their liberty,_ and 
in those cases overcrowding should be specially 
guarded against. In small runs the number of 
birds kept must be limited in accordance . with 
tlie available space, but where they have an un- 
limited range a much greater number may be 
kept, and at a cheaper rate, as they find for them- 
sel\es much necessary food when allowed to 
roam about, but even here overcrowding under the 
most favourable circumstances must be avoided 
for fear of bringing on contagions disease as 
chicken cholera, &c. 
Perhaps the greatest Idunder the ambitions 
poultry-raiser can make is trying to I'aise too 
many fowls. Because a farm contains a hundred 
acres, the owner may think that he cannot over- 
stock it with poultry, and so try to raise from 
five hundred to one thousand fowls. Where fowls 
have unlimited range they will go quite a dis- 
tance in search of insects. About a quarter of a 
mile, however, is the limit of their wanderings, 
and when fowls are left to their own inclination 
they will separate in flocks of perhaps a dozen 
to each flock. This should teach us a lesson. We 
can learn many lessons from nature, and in their 
natural state fowls never move in large numbers 
while foraging, and would not at any other time if 
they could have their own selection of roosting 
places. But the owner thinks to economize in 
space and material, and will crowd a hundred 
into one house, and then wonder wliy they get sick. 
Poultry-raising on a large scale will not suc- 
ceed from year to yesir on a small area. Even 
on a large farm each flock of t«’'enty-flve fowls 
should have its separate roosting-place. They 
will manage for themselves during the day if 
allowed their freedom. Plenty of range is ab- 
solutely necessary to the well-being of fowls, all 
the advice to townspeople to keep a few fowls 
to the contrary notwithstanding. Fowls may do 
well awhile iri a cramped city cot, Imt time will 
]u-ove that it cannot be succes.sfully continued 
fi'om year to year. Besides, the keeping of poultry 
in cities only adds much more impurity to the 
air where too much cleanliness cannot exist if 
We liave any regard for human healthfulness. 
II MIIMDITY AtTIT SMXUAhlTY. 
According to M. Kioner of Tlaute-Alaace, 
heredity inlluencf! is controlled by two factor.s — 
the )»arcnts wliosi^ characters arcs tran.smittod to 
llie off<|)ring, and tlie environment, which aids 
in moulding or modifying tlie latter. As an 
instance of the influence of environment is 
mentioned the difficulty of replacing a local race 
or breed by an imported one. The imported stock 
becomes gradually modified and assimilated in 
character to the local race, though by the exercise 
of care and selection on the part of the breeder 
the original characteristics may be preserved. 
It is inexpedient, thinks M. Kiener, to mate 
together large sires and .small dams, whilst it is 
beyond question that the use of small sires upon 
large dams has yielded excellent results. Many 
e.xamples are quoted to show that neither of the 
parents enjoy a monopoly in the transmission of 
characters. In other words the offspring may 
derive its peculiarities from either parent, or 
from both parents. Thirty years’ observation 
has convinced M. .Kiener tliat the milking pro- 
pensity, for example, is quite as transmissible 
through the male as through the female line, and, in 
view of the large number of offspring of one bull as 
•ompared with those of one cow, he argues that 
the milking aptitude is xrreferably propagated 
through the male. He adds that bulls of good dairj^ 
character are distinguished by the possession of 
fairly developed teats. Ancestral influence is 
undeniable, though under what combination of 
circumstances it is most likely to manifest itself 
it is difficult to say. The influence of the male in 
close in-and-in breeding is of the highest impor- 
tance; and manystrikinginstancesaregivenin proof 
of this statement. For the transmission of heredi- 
tary disease it is not necessary that more than 
one of the parents should be the medium. The 
experience and observations of many years has 
led M. Kiener to the conclusion that it will never 
come within the capacity of the breeder to control 
the sex of the offspring, though some consider 
that more than one circumstance can be made to 
rule the sex and cite instances in proof of their 
theories. The age of the parents does not appear 
to M. Kiener to exercise any influence on the 
se.x, and he considers that the more robust parent 
does not necessarily determine the sex. 
The t>rogress of the study of Embryology has 
placed beyond doubt the circumstance that in the 
animal kingdom the bisexual or hermaphrodite 
condition is the usual and primitive state, the 
unisexual condition being the result of more or 
less suppression of the one kind of sexual apparatus 
in favour of the other, which consequently 
developes the more fully. The embiyos of verte- 
brate animals are first hermaphrodite^a condition 
whicli is very commonly permanent among in- 
vertebrates, and is occasionally more or less so in 
the case of vertebrates. In plants hermaj)hro- 
ditism is the rule — the unisexual condition the 
exception. 
If the proportions of the sexes at birth be 
taken as a standard, it is found that normally the 
two sexes about balance each other in case of the 
luiman species and the domesticated animals, 
tliough with a slight preponderance of males. 
Statistics of tlie European countries give an 
average of 105 boys to every 100 girls. According 
to the observations of M. Cornevin (Professor at 
the Veterinary School at Lyons) the ratios in the 
case of farm animals are : — Horses 101 males per 
100 females, cattle 104'6 males, sheep 115'4, pigs 
104 '9. Change in the environment appears to be 
one of the most potent causes in the determination 
of sex, and, as regards the human race, observa- 
tions on this point are easily made. In hot 
