Causes of Poultry Production in Prance. 9 , 
of France. We have a check upon this in the fact that in 1865 M. Lavergne estimated the home 
consumption as at least four times the export, which seems reasonable enough. Now, as England 
alone now imports over 1,000,000,000 eggs per annum, of which, roughly speaking, fully half come 
from France, there is here a very fair agreement, which is strong corroborative evidence. Taking 
all the really trustworthy figures and facts into consideration, therefore, it can hardly be doubted 
that the total number of eggs produced in France must amount to at least from three to four 
thousand millions annually, besides those used for hatching purposes. 
It would not have been surprising had such a preponderance of poultry production in a neigh- 
bouring country, as it became known, produced some vague general impression regarding large 
French “poultry farms” as concerned in it ; indeed, so much might have been expected. It is not 
so easy to understand how there came to be published by a respectable authority the categorical 
account of a vast establishment carried on by “ M. de Sora,” which produced hundreds of thousands 
of eggs annually, and of how the fowls were fed on horseflesh, &c. &c. Still less intelligible — 
except on the ground of the inveterate French habit of “ romancing,” and utter unreliability of 
“official” French information already alluded to — was the publication of a precise detailed 
description, accompanied by drawings, of a comparatively modest establishment at “Charny” for 
1,200 fowls only, under the express official authority of the French Ministry of Agriculture'. We 
were ourselves innocent enough at one time to deem that sufficient, and the credence we accorded 
to a French “official ” imprint on that occasion * we did not hear the last of for some time. The 
facts are now, however, well known ; and though Mr. Geyelin found one poultry-farm conducted by 
M. Manoury, in Picardy, where about 5,000 head per annum were raised, which is at the present 
day equalled or surpassed by M. Lemmoine and a few others, and while there are large numbers of 
farmers in France who raise their hundreds, and a few their thousands, of poultry annually, the 
great bulk of the produce is from the smaller farmers, and is due indeed to the fact that France 
is chiefly a country of small occupations. We shall see presently that the same fact produces similar 
results in Ireland. There are, however, a few subsidiary causes which have worked in the same 
direction, which have not been much alluded to, if at all. In the first place, France has been, and 
rural France is still, a Catholic country ; and it is only necessary to remember that in such countries 
eggs are allowed on fast-days, to see what a powerful stimulus the popular religion must exert 
upon this article of diet. Of course it has the same in Spain and Italy ; and both these are the 
homes of specially egg-laying breeds of poultry. Secondly, poultry-keeping is not only an 
industry specially suited for small occupations, but such cannot carry much laige stock, and the 
small farmer can very seldom kill any such. PI is ox is very often a beast of di aught, as is so 
generally the case in France, and hence the beef that is killed is largely of the toughest charactei, 
and only palatable in stewed form. This again throws the population back upon fowls as animal 
food. And lastly, the depletion of male population during the Napoleonic wais (nevei yet icco\eicd 
from), and the conscription since, have thrown a disproportionately large shaie of faim laboui upon 
the women in rural France ; and the rearing and dressing of poultry are so specially calculated for 
female management, that this fact alone, in our opinion, has had a very powerful influence in 
developing poultry production. Still, the chief reasons why poultry is so peculiarly adapted for 
small occupations are those connected with the nature of the industry in itself. A few score of 
fowls on a small occupation have little risk from disease; their produce can all be gathered without 
loss; and the necessary attention to them can be worked into the general plan of the holding, 
without any extra charges for rent or for labour, and very little for food. In such circumstances 
• “Practical Poultry-Keeper,” First Edition, p. 224. 
