This little book is intended to heIp farmers and villagers conduct the
poultry business with pleasure and profit. Its teachings are not drawn
from the authors consciousnss exclusively, but from practical
experience, study and observation. I have been successful in the
business myself, not as a fancier, but as a farmer, a fact which I do
not attribute to my own ability entirely, but partly to the help derived
from the stimulating and restraining influence of my good wife Harriet,
and to Martha, the industrious and vigilant spouse of our faithful Tim.
A good deal of what I know and have written has really been derived from
a diligent perusal of the Farm Journal, and I confess to havng borrowed
considerably from its pages both in text and illastration. Credit must
therefore be given in a comprehensive way to the Poultry Editor of that
publication, whose discerning mind and great experience with poultry
have received the widest recognition by all interested in the poultry
industry. I could do nothing better than to draw largely upon him,
augmenting his practical information with trimmings from my observation
and experience and with suggestions from the women folks and from Tim.
They certainly have done well. The beautiful and life-like pictures set
off the book in fine style and raise it far above the level of the
common- place. The paintings for the colored prints were made from life
from birds in the yards of breeders or on exhibition at the poultry
shows, by Louis P. Grahan, a young Philadelphia artist possessing a high
order of talent. They are as true to nature and the ideal bird as it is
possible to make them. Few people have an adequate idea of the
importance of the poultry business in this country. It is estimated that
there are in the United States over three hundred millions of chickens
and thirty millions of other domestic fowls. There are produced in one
year nearly one billion dozen eggs of an average worth of ten cents per
dozen, making the annual value of the total egg product one huudrcd
million dollars. If in addition to this the yearly product of poultry
meat is considered, the importance of this branch of rural econorny will
be more fully appreciated......
