THE BUSINESS HEN Breeding and Feeding POULTRY FOR PROFIT by H. W. COLLINGWOOD. PREFACE: the past ten years some 5,000 questions regarding poultry and its management have beenasked by readers of The RiiralNew- Yorker. In preparing this little volume I have had these questions in mind. They are all answered in the following pages. Most poultry books have two faults. They are generally prepared by one man alone, and too much space is usually given to a discussion of the merits and markings of the different breeds. In preparing this volume I have endeavored to secure the opinions of the bestinformed poultry-men in the country. I desire to express my special indebtedness to Messrs. P. H. Jacobs, Henry Hales, James Rankin and J. H. Drevenstedt for advice and information. Men who keep The Business Hen care, more for performance than for outward appearance. All who are interested in poultry have now excellent opportunities of studying the different breeds at exhibitions. For these reasons I have given but little space to breeds and their characteristics. There is also nothing said about geese and other fowls and pets. This book deals with the hen alone.
I prefer to treat other poultry exhaustively, or not at all. Much is said here about the Leghorn hen. This is simply because the Leghorn happens to be doing the work on the majority of the successful egg farms that I have examined. Special attention is called to the chapters descriptive of Mr. Wyckoffs hens and Mr. Johnsons farm. These men are good models for would-be poultryfarmers to follow. H. W. COLLINGWOOD. THE ORIGIN OF POULTRY BREEDS. CHAPTER I. HENRY HALES. KNOWLEDGE of the best methods of breeding and rearing poultry and the origin of the various breeds, as well as of the processes by which they were formed, can be acquired only by deeper study than most people imagine. It is not many years since earnest attention was first given to this improvement or production, by careful selec- tion, of the various forms and colors that distinguish the dif- ferent varieties of the poultry of to-day.
Still, at a very early period some attention was, no doubt, given to fowls by man, probably by merely keeping the most attractive-looking and destroying the poorest, and in this way a few defined breeds were distinguished in a crude way, as Chinese, Game and all its varieties in India and Dorking, Hamburgs, Polish, French and Spanish in Europe...