88 
CHAPTER VIII. 
POULTRY AS NATIONAL FOOD. 
We have now described all that is necessary regarding the management of fowls for home supply. 
During various railway journeys, it has much gratified us to observe the steady increase in the 
number of fowl-houses in small town yards and gardens of late years, and still more to ascertain, 
as we have often done, the generally satisfactory results of these little concerns, when sound 
directions have been fairly attended to ; though there is still room for much progress in this respect, 
and there might be a far more general enjoyment of the luxury of a fresh egg at less than the usual 
price of stale ones. In our next chapter we shall show that the “fancy” department of poultry- 
keeping, which is often ignorantly affirmed to be prejudicial to the accomplishment of these objects, 
is in reality most closely connected with them ; and in this chapter we propose to briefly treat 
upon poultry as a portion of the food supply of the country. This aspect of poultry-keeping 
is a very important one. It is probable, if not certain, that the various products of poultry, 
properly managed, form the cheapest animal food which can be produced, and every one 
knows how peculiarly adapted eggs are for the nourishment of a young family. When one 
considers, then, how many there are who never get sufficient animal food from one year’s end 
to the other ; how many families there are in country districts whose next great want is some 
additional interest and occupation, for want of which they are drifting into the slums of the 
great towns ; and finally, how peculiarly adapted poultry-keeping is for just such families, and 
for many of their surroundings, the importance of this question will be seen, and no apology 
need be offered for the great and increasing interest which the subject has awakened. 
We have often regretted that there was no possible means of getting at the number of 
poultry kept in Britain in a private way for purely family purposes. It must obviously be 
enormous, and we have often tried to estimate it upon different bases, but never could arrive at 
any result worth even mentioning. All one can say about it is, that the quantity of food produced 
in this way must be very large, and is certainly increasing year by year. It is also noticeable that, 
since sound practical teaching upon poultry management has been more widely disseminated, very 
little comparatively is now heard as to “ every egg costing sixpence,” a sneer which formerly was 
constantly thrown at almost everybody who kept hens. People have found out that it is not so, 
and the consequence is that large increase in private poultry-keeping just referred to. Quite 
accidentally we came the other day across the actual figures showing the results of an experiment 
of this kind. A small house and yard were put up at a cash expenditure of 7 s. io|d., not 
reckoning labour and a little waste material utilised (which in most cases can be found about a 
house for such purposes), but the odd halfpenny being religiously put down as the cost of a tallow 
candle. On October 13th, 1885, four pullets were purchased at a cost of 12s. and is. for carriage, or 13s. 
in all. No cock \vas kept on account of neighbours. The fowls were cross-bred, selected on the 
sole conditions that they were to be well reared, and “ hatched in March,” for reasons we have 
before pointed out. The first egg was laid on November 1 3th, and these four pullets or hens produced in 
November 8 eggs, in December 31, January 42, February 47, March 78, April 60, May So, June 84, 
July 82, and up to August 21st (when the experiment was terminated by a removal), 34; or 546 
