400 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Ocr., 1901. 
the quantity of poultry that is imported into this country is fallacious and 
misleading. There are no poultry farms on the Continent. The eggs and 
fowls are produced, as in this country by the cottagers and small proprietors, 
collected and imported. If a large number of fowls are kept on the land it 
becomes tainted, and disease inevitably breaks out. Poultry, as Mr. Rider 
Haggard had the ecandour and honesty to say in the balance-sheet of his farm, 
cannot be made to pay where rent has to be paid for land. Poultry produce is 
only a by-product. owls are profitable where they have no rent to pay, and 
where they eat up the waste of the farm, but have never yet under any circum- 
stances been made to pay as a separate industry. Breeding fancy poultry and 
selling them at fancy prices is quite another pursuit, and it cannot be carried 
on on an extensive scale. ‘The only large establishments that are profitable in 
connection with poultry are the fattening establishments, which constitute a 
totally distinct industry. The chickens, collected mostly by the higglers, are 
fattened in hundreds; they never set foot upon the ground, being at once 
transferred to the fattening pens and alae to feed, and finally crammed 
until sufficiently fat for the market. 
FARMERS’ POULTRY IN 1800. 
In Arthur Young’s Farmers’ Calendar, published in 1803, there occurs this 
reference :—Mrs. Boys, who is as intelligent in her walk of management as her 
husband is in his, conducts her poultry with greater success than any person I 
have met with. While I was at Betshanger, a higgler’s cart carried off above 
twelve dozen fowls for one draught. Enquiring what could be the process that 
commanded such plenty, I found it so simple as to be explained in a moment. 
‘he labourers’ wives and families who live on Mr. Boys’ farm do the whole. 
He supplies them with what offal corn is necessary, and they return Mrs. Boys 
the grown fowls ready fur market at 3d. each, Gd. for turkeys and geese, and 
3d. for ducks, and her accompt, well kept, states a profit of £20 a year after 
all expenses paid and the family well supplied; they have also all the eggs 
without any payment. Itanswers as well to the people as it does to the farmer. 
A fat turkey 21 Ib. alive is 14 lb. dead, and there were farmers who, on this 
plan, reared and sold 140 turkeys per annum. 
In those days only eight breeds were known. They were dunghill fowls, 
game, Dorkings, Poland, bantam, Malay, shackbag, and Spanish. Now we have 
something like forty separate breeds, with a,host of varieties of those breeds. 
A hundred years ago Leghorns were unknown. Now there are seven varieties 
of the breed. Incubators, brooders, and cramming machines were unknown. 
The demand for eggs and poultry has enormously increased during the century, 
and hence many attempts have been made to establish large poultry farms, 
but few have proved successful. Forty or fifty good fowls will, under suitable 
conditions and management, usually prove profitable, but, as soon as hundreds 
are kept, the profit vanishes, and the business does not afford the same prospect 
of success as when poultry are kept as an adjunct to agriculture. Geese and 
turkeys especially require a great deal of room. If they are kept in confined 
areas they soon taint the ground, and diseases are not long in making their 
appearance. At the same time turkeys might be reared in far greater numbers, 
especially above the Range, than is the case at present, and there is always a 
good market for them. Most farmers have fairly large areas of land over which 
a flock of turkeys might be run with great advantage, especially as they are 
very useful in keeping down insect pests of various kinds. Geese and ducks 
might be reared in great quantities on the large farms, and would afford employ- 
ment, amusement, and considerable profit to the female members of the house- 
hold. But to crowd large numbers of any class of bird on limited areas and 
town lots means simply courting disaster. 
