National Agricultural Library

Principles and Practice of Poultry Culture

Ginn and Company

The method of treatment adopted in this book is the simple, scientific method, — that of presenting essential facts in logical order. The following of this method has led to some departures from the conventional way of presenting poultry topics. The unity of the poultry group is here conceived as essential and arising from the nature of the birds, rather than as artificial and relating to the purposes for which they are used; and I have tried to give practical effect to my very strong conviction that permanent poultry culture must be a feature in permanent agriculture, and that each of the common kinds of poultry has its peculiar place in agriculture. Hence the methods of managing the different kinds of poultry are not stated separately, as has been usual, but topics are discussed in their own appropriate order with reference to all the kinds. This arrangement emphasizes the things which apply alike to all kinds of poultry, and makes it easy to show that good practice is simple and that the same treatment will usually answer, in whole or in part, for several different kinds, thus lightening the work of the poultry keeper. It is believed also that by this arrangement of matter the student or reader is given, with instruction in the details of methods, a more comprehensive view of the subject as a whole than by the usual mode of presenting it.

To the best of my ability the book gives the consensus of authoritative opinion of a many-sided subject. In appraising this consensus I have had regard alike to practical authority, expressed in the views and practice of good poultrymen, and to scientific authority, found in the bulletins and other papers of those instructors and investigators who have been foremost in reducing to order the confused mass of common knowledge of poultry culture. To the practical poultrymen and fanciers I am most indebted for facts ; to the instructors and investigators, for interpretations of facts and for ideas and suggestions as to the presentation of the subject in such a way as to meet the requirements of formal instruction.