National Agricultural Library

Poultry Culture: How to Raise, Manage, Mate and Judge Thoroughbred Fowls

Donohue, Henneberry & Company. Chicago, IL

Not long ago I took a journey with an old friend through the eastern portion of Massachusetts. The main purpose of our trip was to find out a suitable place for the establishment of poultry breeding on a very extensive scale. One day, in the course of conversation, my friend said to me: "Mr. Felch, if you will write a poultry book, telling what you know about the management of chickens from shell to griddle, giving a bill of fare, and showing how to care for them each and every day till they are four months old, taking nothing for granted, but giving the results of your own experience and observation, your book would be invaluable to every poultryman and breeder in the land."

In addition to this flattering opinion I received about the same time a letter from a publisher asking me to furnish the subject-matter for a work on poultry culture. After due consideration I have resolved to undertake the task, and I hereby dedicate this work to that friend and to the publisher, and I hope that some good, at least, may come of the venture.

It is a very grave consideration that there are eleven millions of families in America whose sons are growing up to find the avenues of trade and manufacture more and more crowded every day. If some of these should turn their attention to the business of poultry breeding and culture, they might find the occupation both pleasant and profitable. But it should be remembered that this business needs to be carefully learned, and it is my purpose to make this a thoroughly reliable hand-book for poultrymen everywhere. The work does not affect to be one of great literary brilliancy: my chief purpose has been to give the results of a life-long experience and observation with the feathered pets of the poultry yard.