Biggle Poultry Book - A Concise And Practical Treatise On The Management Of Farm Poultry

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......