iio 
The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 
selection of stock which lies at the very root of profits from poultry kept in any numbers. Where 
eggs are the chief thing — and, as a rule, they will pay best — a different stamp of fowl must be 
kept from those bred chiefly for chickens. For these last, birds are selected which tend to lay on 
flesh when well fed ; fine laying breeds, on the contrary, always tend towards a spare habit of 
body, like the best milkers amongst cows. Colour of egg is also to be studied. On most 
farms the very first thing will be a rigorous weeding-out of all the old stock. To replace it, 
laying breeds may be selected ; or if there is a prejudice against them, watch the neighbouring 
market, and find some one who brings in a good lot of eggs in winter. Buy his eggs in the spring 
and set them, and a fairly good stock will be secured to start with, while pure-bred cockerels can 
be purchased to cross on them. A cross for three years on really good dung-hill fowls, will thus 
in three years produce a breed seven-eighths pure, while the foundation will secure hardiness. 
But this is not enough either. The laying must be improved. Probably a hen which lays less 
than a hundred eggs per annum hardly pays a profit ; but it has been proved over and over again 
that an average of a hundred and fifty or more can be obtained by those who will breed for it. The 
great lesson of this volume is, that any property can be improved by careful selection for a few 
generations. It is thus the “fancier” develops his “ points,” which have their use in preserving 
the distinctive races ; but in seeking these, since his best are seldom the best layers also, fecundity 
may actually be diminished in his best strains, and undoubtedly has been so in most cases. But it 
only lies dormant, and can be developed like any other property ; and it is the farmer's business to 
develop it. He can understand all about it in a moment, for it is simple as ABC. He has simply 
to choose for sitting, to renew his stock, eggs from the best layers only. All practical breeders 
know that in this way cows .can be had which give sixty per cent, more milk than most farmers 
are content with ;* and it is the same with fowls : the average will steadily rise. We do not know 
any one who has yet carried it out on a farm, however, though it has been done repeatedly in small 
yards, which are less favourable to the birds. It involves not oniy the separation into manageable 
flocks — and hens never do so well if over fifty to sixty are kept together — but a somewhat close 
oversight, to select the right birds for setting eggs from.f We are convinced, on this account alone, 
that on many farms it would be best to keep enough fowls to occupy a man’s whole time in looking 
after them, with just a little superintendence of a more intelligent kind. This would need about 
1,000 head, which means from A4° to £50 a year from the night manure alone, besides what is 
dropped over the farm. The fowls will pay for it, if the man understands his business, and can be 
made to feel that the master expects to make money out of his charges. Many agricultural labourers 
would be absolutely useless at it; but, on the other hand, this sort of responsibility will sometimes 
suit and bring out some intelligent big lad who does not shine in duller routine. We do not believe 
in any “ old man ” who can do nothing else, for we want quick observation as much as anything. 
On the other hand, to arrange that a labourer engaged in other things shall “just give an eye 
to the fowls ” never answers, and we have known it tried often. On such a system, the fewer 
kept the less the owner will lose by them, and rather than this, it will be better to go on in the old 
style, with a small number in the farmyard. Even then, by killing all the old fowls at once, and 
* A recent case is reported from New York, in which a farmer tested his cows by setting the milk of each separately. The 
labour was great, of course, for a while ; but he learnt by it that he had cows which did not pay their food, while others paid him a 
profit of over a dollar a week. By weeding out the worst and replacing with heifers from the best, he brought his average butter 
yield from 150 to 266 lbs. per cow per annum. 
f It can be done roughly by visiting the houses during a few selected days at intervals in November and December, two or 
three times each day, and shutting away into separate pens, until they can be marked at night, all found on the nests. Those thus 
picked out are the hens to breed from. 
