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THE POULTBY BOOK. 
properly-regulated establishment of this kind? Thus would the poultry-yard 
restore to us, in the shape of wholesome food, what is now so often condemned by 
the inspector to the fire ; and, moreover, if once a demand for the poultry-yard 
arose in this way, the temptation to consign spoilt meat to London would be 
diminished — the risk, now so dangerous to its owner and the consumer, avoided.” 
Mr. Johnston says these details are worthy of our serious consideration. It is 
difiicult to imagine how such a ridiculous statement could have received any 
consideration whatever without the absurdity of the hoax being at once ap- 
parent ; and yet, to our own knowledge, it was generally credited, and persons 
made journeys from the United States, and even from Australia, expressly to 
learn the details of the mode of working adopted at this supposititious establish- 
ment. To any person having even a very slight practical acquaintance with 
poultry matters, such a statement as that the 300 fowls averaged the first 
year some twenty-five dozen, or 300 eggs, in the 365 days,” carries its own 
refutation. When we take into consideration the fact that a certain portion of 
the fowls must have been cocks, and that time must have been lost during the 
periods at which the hens were brooding and recovering from their annual 
moult, it is evident that during a considerable portion of the year the hens of 
these three hundred fowls must have laid two eggs a day each to make up this 
fabulous average. Again, the statement that the fowls are fattened for the 
market at the end of the fourth year, is one that could never have been repro- 
duced by any person having any knowledge of the subject. A fowl of four years of 
age is beyond any ordinary power of mastication. The most convincing proof 
of the non-existence of this establishment is contained in the following extract 
from Mr. Geyelin’s pamphlet on poultry-keeping. Mr. Geyelin was formerly the 
manager of the National Poultry Company’s establishment at Bromley, Kent, 
and, in company with two of the directors, took a journey in search of M. 
de Sora’s establishment, the result of which we give in his own words. In his 
report to the Company he states — 
The primary object of the journey was to ascertain everything connected with 
poultry-breeding in France which might assist in promoting the success of our 
undertaking ; also to inquire into the truth of numerous assertions in the public 
papers that there existed in the vicinity of Paris most extensive Gallinocultural 
establishments, which by their particular system of artificial incubation, rearing, 
and feeding poultry on horseflesh, realized, in one instance — viz., in that of M. de 
Sora — upwards of ^40,000 per annum. I need scarcely say that, after the most 
searching investigation within a radius of forty miles of Paris, my opinion has 
been fully confirmed that such establishments do not nor can possibly exist ; 
moreover, I can now firmly assert that there is not one establishment in existence 
within fifty miles of Paris where poultry-breeding is carried on otherwise than on 
the old farm system ; in fact, as you will perceive hereafter, I have spared neither 
time nor expense in this inquiry ; yet, although I have been unable to trace any- 
