P THE AMERICANA otts'town, Pa., borough, Montgomery County; on the Schuylkill River, and on the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia & R. R.R.'s; 35 miles northwest of Philadelphia. It was laid out as a town in 1752, and was at first named Pottsgrove; in 1815 it was incorporated as a borough and named Pottstown; the size of the borough was increased in 1888. It is the trade centre of a fertile agricultural region; and there is also a considerable amount of mineral wealth in the vicinity. The borough is noted for its manufactures of iron and steel; it contains rolling mills, blast furnaces, steel mills, bridge works, boiler works, nail factories and manufactories of agricultural implements, also cigar factories, carriage works, planing mills, and creameries. It has a public high school and school library, and is also the seat of the Pottstown Business College, and of the Hill School, a private non-sectarian secondary school for boys. Pop. (1910) 15,599. Potts'ville, Pa., borough, county seat of Schuylkill County; on the Schuylkill River near its source, and on the Pennsylvania, the Lehigh V., and the Philadelphia & R., and the Central of N. J. R.R.'s; 75 miles northwest of Philadelphia. It was first settled in 1800, was incorporated in 1828, and made the county-seat in 1851. It is situated among the Schuylkill anthracite coal fields, and is one of the most important mining centres and shipping points of the regio... Its manufacturing interests are also of importance; they include steel mills, blast-furnaces rolling mills, and foundries; also planing mills, cotton-velvet, and silk mills. It was in Pottsville that anthracite coal was first successfully used in smelting iron ore. Among its more important buildings are the county court-house and jail, a public hospital and the Pottsville Athenæum. The Athenæum contains a library, and the borough also has a public school library and the county law library. There are a public high school, two Roman Catholic parish schools, and the Commercial Union School. The chief executive officer of the borough is a burgess, who holds office for three years; the legislative body is a borough council, which also has power to appoint many of the city officers; the city auditor, city treasurer and the school directors are elected by the people. Pop. (1910) 20,236. Pottsville Conglomerate, the name by which the millstone-grit at the base of the coal measures is generally known in Pennsylvania, because it has its greatest development at Pottsville, near the eastern edge of the anthracite fields. It is there more than a thousand feet thick, but toward the west and north grows thinner. The rock is composed of sand and pebbles, chiefly of quartz, giving it considerable hardness. Potvin, pō-văn, Charles, Belgian author: b. Mons, Belgium, 2 Dec. 1818; d. Ixelles I March 1902. He was educated in the Catholic University at Louvain, became professor of national literature at Brussels, in 1883 conservator of the Wiertz Museum there, and in 1881 a VOL. 17 I member of the Belgian Academy. He was editor of 'La Nation in 1850-3, and in 1862 became editor of the 'Revue de Belgique. His writings comprise volumes of verse and criticism, including: 'Marbres Antiques et Crayons Modernes (1862); Jacques d'Artevelde' (1861); L'Histoire des Lettres en Belgique' (1882), and 'L'Art Grec (1895). Pouched Dog. See DASYURE. Poughkeepsie, pō-kip'sĩ, N. Y., city, county-seat of Dutchess County; on the east bank of the Hudson River, and on the New York C. & H. R. and the Central N. E. R.R.'s; about 70 miles north of New York city. It has regular steamer connections with all the Hudson River ports, and a bridge spanning the Hudson at this point connects the city with the West Shore Railroad on the west side of the river. Electric lines connect the city with cities and towns on both sides of the Hudson. Part of the city is on a plateau extending back from the river, and part of it is on the slope to the river. It was settled about 1698 by the Dutch. On the same site there had been an Indian village called Apokeepsing, meaning "safe harbor." It was the capital of the State during the Revolutionary War. The State convention which ratified the National Constitution met here in 1788. Alexander Hamilton was one of the leading members of the convention. In 1799 the village was incorporated and in 1854 it was chartered as a city. The cantilever bridge, which was opened in 1889, cost about $5,000,000. Its length is 7,100 feet, it has three cantilevers, and rests on six massive piers. The chief industrial establishments are foundries, machine shops, lumber mills, cooperages, mowing machine works, shoe factory, cigar factories, patent medicine works, breweries, and flour mills. Two miles north of the city is the Hudson River State Hospital for the Insane, and in the city is Saint Barnabas Hospital, a Home for Old Ladies, Home for Old Men, and a Home for the Friendless. East of the city is Vassar College (q.v.). The educational institutions of the city are the Eastman Business College. Berkely School for boys, Lyndon Hall School for girls, Riverview Military Academy, schools, the Adriance Memorial Library, cona high school, public and parish graded taining 25,000 volumes, and the libraries connected with several of the schools. The Vassar Brothers Institute is one of the fine buildings of the city. College Hill Park has an area of 100 acres. There are several fine church buildings. The revised charter of 1900 provides for a mayor, who holds office two years, and a council. The city owns and operates the waterworks. Pop. (1910) 24,936. Poultney, pōlt'ni, Vt., town, Rutland County; on the Poultney River, and Lake St. Catherine, and on the Delaware & Hudson railroad, 18 miles southwest of Rutland. It is in an agricultural region; slate is quarried in the town and vicinity, and there are slate manufactures, a foundry and machine shops. It is situated in a picturesque country in the Green POULTON-POULTRY Mountains, the lake affords facilities for boating and fishing; consequently the town has become popular as a summer resort, and contains several hotels. It has a public high school estabished in 1887, and is also the seat of the Troy Conference Academy, a coeducational secondary school. Pop. (1910) 1,474. Poulton, powl'ton, Edward Bagnall, English scientist: b. Reading, Berkshire, 27 Jan. 1856. He was educated at Oxford and was demonstrator in the anatomical department of the University Museum 1877-9, and lecturer in natural science at Keble College 1880-9, as well as at Jesus College 1880-8. In 1889 he became a fellow of the Royal Society and since 1893 has been university professor of zoology at Oxford. He delivered a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute, Boston, Mass., in 1894 on The Meaning and Use of Colors in Animals.' He is the author of The Colors of Animals (1890); Charles Darwin on the Theory of Natural Selection' (1896). Poultry, a term designating collectively all birds which have been domesticated for their flesh or eggs, including fowls, ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea fowls, peacocks and pigeons. The word "fowl" once included game-birds, but now applies only to the domestic kinds and includes fowls, turkeys, guineas and ali of the great family Phasianida. Pheasants, however, belong to a smaller genus, Phasianus, which though kept in captivity are not readily domesticated. Origin.-The common fowl which makes up the largest class of domestic poultry is supposed to have originated in western Asia. Darwin believed all domestic fowl to have sprung from a single species, the jungle-cock (Gallus bankiva), which still is found in the jungles of India in the wild state. His belief was founded upon the facts that G. bankiva closely resembled the black-breasted red game of to-day, one of the oldest varieties of domestic fowl known; that it crosses readily with the common hen, producing fertile offspring; that it resembles domestic fowl in voice and action; that it is readily domesticated, and that according to his observation it produced fertile offspring when crossed with other species of wildfowl, and that sterile offspring resulted when other wild species were crossed with domestic fowl. On this latter point it is believed that Darwin was in error, and that many varieties of common fowl have descended from several wild species and their crosses. In support of this belief it is known that several domestic varieties bear a much closer resemblance to other wild species than they do to G. bankiva. The Oriental games, for example, resemble G. giganteus much more closely than they do G. bankiva; indeed the G. giganteus kept in domestication by the natives of the Malay Peninsula at the present time are so like the Malay breed of our domestic fowl that they might be considered the same. Among the wild fowl now in existence which may have contributed largely or in slight degree to the foundation of the common fowl are G. bankiva (or G. ferrugineus) from southern India only; G. sonneratii, found in Hindustan; G. furcatus from Java; G. stanleyi from Ceylon; G. giganteus, the Kulm fowl of the Malay Peninsula; and others not so well known. The characteristics of the domestic fowl are as follows: Beak heavy; gullet enlarged to form a crop; small stomach; gizzard strong to crush hard seed; two long feet (sæca) adapted to scratching, running and perching; wings not suited to long flight; gregarious, polygamous, domestic in the extreme; prolific; period of incubation 21 days; young covered with down and able to run about as soon as hatched; brave in defense; flesh and eggs prized as human food. turies B.C. History-Fowls are the oldest of our domesticated animals, so far as history records. The earliest record is to be found in a Chinese encyclopædia compiled from ancient documents, where it says "fowls are creatures of the west." Fowls were introduced into China in a dynasty 1400 years B.C., and the Chinese considered the Indian region as their source. They were also mentioned by Aristophanes between 400 and 500 B.C., and, it is said, are figured on Babylonian cylinders between the 6th and 7th cenMention of fowls is also made in the writings of the Greek and Roman authors Theognis, Aristotle, Diodorus, Eschylus, Plutarch, Plato, and Pliny, and are supposed to have been taken into the British Isles by the Romans, who regarded them as sacred to Mars. The cock has in all ages occupied an exalted position as an emblem symbolizing courage among the ancient Gauls and afterward among the French, who used it on their ensign after the Revolution. It figures also in the Bible and has been used in Christian art to symbolize the Resurrection. At the present day it is regarded as a herald of victory. Extent and Importance of the Poultry Industry- Poultry husbandry is an old art and a new science, for it is only within the present century that special attention has been given to raising poultry as a commercial enterprise; and only since about 1880 has any real effort been made to classify the information on the subject into anything like a science. The explanation of this advance may be found first in the fact that this class of domestic animals supply human food, second in importance and value only to the dairy products. The egg offers the most digestible form of meat known, and one which can be cooked in the greatest number of attractive ways, and the flesh forms an article of diet universally prized. The second reason is found in the fact that poultry, particularly fowls and pigeons, are variable and plastic in the hands of the breeder, and can be rapidly and skilfully made to acquire new forms and colors. In no branch of animal husbandry have so striking results been accomplished as in poultry-breeding. Observe the large number of varieties at the present time, and note the contrast between the mammoth Brahma weighing 12 pounds, and the diminutive Bantam of the same name weighing 20 ounces; the brilliantly spangled Hamburg and the sombre Orpington; the long tail of the Yokohama and the cushion-tail of the Cochin; the clean close feathering of the Indian game, and the abundant fluffy feathering of the Asiatics; the smooth shanks of the Plymouth: Rock and the feathered shanks of the Langshan; the great prolificacy of the sprightly Leghorn, and the large solid muscle of the unproductive, clumsy Indian game. Also note the great variety in plumage both in color and in form, the spangled, laced, penciled, striped, barred, or solid-colored feathers, ragged in the POULTRY frizzles and downy in the silky; varieties of fowls with eyes varying in color from black, to pearl, bay or gray; fowls with rose combs, leaf comb, single or pea comb, and fowls with or without beards and crests, and showing in their plumage every color of the spectrum. Then realize that all these have been produced within the history of man from a single or at most a few wild species of jungle-fowl. Moreover, all these (more than 100 varieties) breed true with a potency that is remarkable. The following figures show the recent growth of the poultry industry in the United States: In 1879 the number of "barnyard fowl" was 102,272,135; in 1889, 258,871,125. In 1879, the product was 456,910,916 dozens of eggs; in 1889, 819,722,916 dozens; in 1899, 1,293,818,144 dozens. In 1895 —2,282,414 cases of 30 dozen eggs each were received in New York city; in 1896-2,594,894 cases; in 1897, 2,751,833; and in 1898-2,709,880 cases. In 1900 the value of poultry in the United States was $136,891,877. The value of eggs in one year was $144,286,370. There are 5,739,000 farms in the United States containing 250,681,593 chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese more than three months old, or 42 head of fowls to each farm, worth $70,000,000. There are now about 350,000,000 old and young chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, and other domestic fowls on American farms producing yearly for market $150,000,000 worth of poultry and $225,000,000 worth of eggs. About a third as much more is consumed at home, making a total valuation of $500,000,000. VALUE OF EGGS PRODUCED IN THE IO BEST STATES. 1. Iowa 2. Ohio 3. Illinois 4. Missouri 5. Kansas ..99,621,920 dozen at 10 c....$10,016,707 .91,766,630 11.Ic.... 10,280,769 ...86,402,670 44 44 6. Indiana ..70,782,200 7. Penna ... .67,038,180 8. New York..62,096,690 8,942,401 8,315,371 7,237,111 10.3c.. 9.8c. 9.9c.... 10.5C. 7,441.944 13.5C. 9,080,725 13.8c.... 8,630,062 Poultry and eggs form 16.3 per cent of all animal products produced in the United States, being greater in value than any except dairy products, including milk, butter and cheese, and all animals sold or slaughtered. The poultry and eggs sold in the United States in one year is worth $189,731,370 more than the wool product. The poultry and egg product of 1899 exceeded in value the wheat crop of 28 states and territories. The eggs marketed in one year in the United States are of more money value than all the gold and silver mined in a year, and the same is true of the value of the poultry output. The number of eggs produced per capita are 203 valued at $1.89. The average price per dozen for eggs throughout the United States is 11.15 cents. It is estimated that in New York city the average egg consumption is nearly one egg per day for each inhabitant. More than 50 poultry papers are published in the United States, several of which report circulations of 30,000 to 50,000 copies to each issue. In addition to this nearly all agricultural and live-stock papers conduct poultry departments. In order to hatch the billions of chickens produced each year more than 50 kinds of incubators are manufactured in the United States, which leads all nations in this field of inventive skill. In 1890 a 500-hen poultry farm was an object of wonder, but now there are thousands of poultry plants having 1,000 hens and many which have 2,000 to 3,000 or more, besides broiler and squab-duck establishments which turn out more than 50,000 per year. Neverthe less, out of 62 State agricultural colleges in the United States only 10 offered in 1904 poultry instruction in any form. To Cornell University is due the credit of giving the first regular course of poultry instruction in the United States, which occurred in the winter of 1891. At Kingston, R. I., was opened in 1898 the first poultry school, where students could devote several weeks (six) to the study of poultry. Of the agricultural experiment stations in the United States only six have made any adequate provision for investigation. Poultry Keeping.— Successful poultry keeping depends upon five factors: First, a location in proximity to good markets, with access to cheap grain and having a rich, well drained soil, temperate climate, and sheltered situation. Second, suitable buildings. These should be warm in winter, cool in summer, light and dry at all times. There should be about six square feet of floor-space per hen, six to eight cubic feet of air-space to each pound live weight, one square foot of glass surface to twelve square feet of floor surface; and each hen should have from 150 to 200 square feet of grass-covered yard. Allow six to eight inches perch room for small breeds, eight to ten inches for medium sized breeds, ten to twelve inches for large breeds. Every house should have a dust-box containing sifted coal-ashes and land plaster; and darkened nests, one foot square, and six inches deep. Third, the right kind of food skilfully fed. Fowls are natural grain eaters, great insect hunters, and to a large extent grazers, therefore they should be fed a good variety of grains, an abundance of meat and plenty of green food. The fowl not having teeth must be supplied with grit for grinding. This should include both cracked oyster shell, and hard, cracked, flinty rock. The ration best suited to egg-production should contain digestible nutrients in a ratio of one pound protein to about five pounds carbo-hydrates, and should be so fed that the appetite will be kept good. Fowls should become neither very fat nor very poor. The best laying hen is the one that is in the best physical vigor. In this condition she will have a little surplus fat in her body. A good ration for egg-production is to feed night and morning a mixture of whole grain, consisting of about equal parts by weight of corn, wheat and oats, feeding more of the two latter in proportion at the morning meal which should be light, only enough to keep the fowls busy. At night they should have all they can eat. At noon feed what they will eat up clean within a few minutes of a meal mixture containing equal parts by weight of wheat bran, wheat middlings, corn meal, ground oats and meat scraps, mixed with cooked turnips and little potatoes and about five per cent of cut clover hay. Skimmed milk should be used to scald this feed if possible. Plenty of water and fresh vegetables should always be kept accessible. Fourth, good fowls carefully bred. There are great differences between varieties of fowls and also between individuals of the same strain. It has been found by trap-nest records that a hen has laid 251 eggs per year, while the average of a good many flocks laid only about 140 POULTRY should be practised. It will pay to keep purebred chickens because they are more uniform in size, shape and color, which makes them more attractive to sell, more alike in habits and characteristics, and this will result in greater production and better health. Their eggs hatch more satisfactorily because similar in size, shape and texture, and will bring higher prices. A good working rule in making breeding hens is to allow one male for 25 hens of the Mediterranean breeds; one male to 15 or 20 hens of the American breeds; one male to 8 to 10 of the Asiatic breeds. The proportion will vary, however, according to the power of individuals. Fifth, ability to hatch and rear chickens. To grow chickens successfully six things should be observed,- keep them warm, dry, clean, busy and hungry, and keep them growing. Feed a ration of bread and milk and boiled egg for the first few days, then add a mixture of several small or cracked grains, including hulled oats, wheat, corn, millet, sorghum seed, Kafir corn and about one fifth by weight of the best meat scraps with plenty of skimmed milk to drink. Varieties of Fowls.-There are more than IIO varieties of domestic fowl that breed true and are well known in the United States at the present time. Of these, 96 varieties, including bantams, are recognized by the American Poultry Association as standard-bred. In addition to these many well established varieties exist in other countries. All the standard-bred fowls are grouped into eleven great classes by the official poultry publication, The American Standard of Perfection. This classification of breeds is based on similarity of characteristics, on blood relationship, and on place of origin: American Class. This is the largest class in the 'Standard.' It has five breeds divided into fourteen varieties: (1) Barred, white and buff Plymouth Rocks; (2) silver, golden, white, buff, partridge, black and silver-penciled Wyandottes; (3) black and mottled Javas; (4) American Dominiques; (5) Buff Orpington. With the exception of the Orpington the whole American class of fowls has been originated in the United States, and all are of composite blood, and combine to a high degree egg-producing, flesh-making and maternal qualities. They are medium to large in size, compact and meaty, extremely hardy; good layers of medium-sized, dark to light-brown eggs; careful mothers; fairly active. Their shanks are smooth and the skin is yellow, except in the case of black Wyandottes, Javas which have dark shanks, and Orpingtons which have white shanks. All have red earlobes. The Plymouth Rocks all have medium sized single combs and rich bay eyes. The Wyandottes have rose combs with a spike following the shape of the head, and bright bay eyes. The Javas have small single combs, and the Dominiques a rose comb. The buff Orpingtons are the largest, the cock weighing 10% pounds, the hen 82. The Plymouth Rock and Java come next, the cock weighing 9%, the hen 72, while the Wyandotte and Dominique weigh, cock 82, hen 62. The barred Plymouth Rocks are perhaps the most popular fowls in America. Their origin, like that of most of the domestic breeds, is disputed and obscure. They were first brought to public notice in Massachusetts in 1850 or Connecticut in 1860, and are thought to have been derived from a cross between the American Dominique and the black Java; others assert that they were the result of and a black Cochin hen. It is most likely that a cross between a common hawk-colored male the barred Plymouth Rock contains the blood of several varieties, and is due to man's good sense in seizing upon a happy accidental combination of size, form, color, hardiness, maternal qualities and general excellence rarely equaled, followed up by a systematic effort to produce the particular type found in the barred Plymouth Rock and which up to that time was possessed by no other breed. White Plymouth Rocks originated in Maine in 1873, and were admitted to the Standard' in 1888. They are said to be a sport from the barred Rocks. That a white Leghorn cross was used in their development is also certain. Buff Plymouth Rocks were admitted to the Standard' in 1893. They are supposed to be the result of a cross between buff Cochin and barred Rocks, yet good authorities claim that they have no Plymouth Rock blood in their makeup. They are prolific, grow well, have a popular color and are gaining rapidly in public favor. Wyandottes are a valuable breed, the first variety of which was the silver Wyandotte, which originated in 1868 in New York State and was admitted to the 'Standard' in 1883; it was the result of a cross between silver Sebrights and buff Shanghais, or silver-spangled Hamburgs and dark Brahmas or Cochins. They are smallboned, full-breasted, plump, meaty, and quick to mature, about a pound lighter, and laying smaller eggs than Plymouth Rocks. Golden Wyandottes originated in Wisconsin, in 1881, and admitted to the 'Standard' in 1888, were formed by crossing pea-comb partridge Cochins and single-comb brown Leghorns, or else by crossing buff Cochins and golden Sebrights. The white Wyandotte is the most popular variety of all the Wyandotte family. It is supposed to have begun in a sport from the silver Wyandottes, or by a cross between silver Wyandotte and rose-comb white Leghorn. This variety is a close rival to the barred Plymouth Rock for first place as the most useful fowl in America, and has the advantage of white plumage, which is important for market poultry. Black Wyandottes are a sport from the silvers; and buff Wyandottes are becoming popular. Asiatic Class.- This class consists of three breeds, embracing eight varieties, as follows: (1) light and dark Brahmas; (2) buff, partridge, white and black Cochins; (3) black and white Langshans. As a class these are meat fowls, and are the heaviest fowls known, the light Brahma being the largest cock, 12 pounds, hen, 10 pounds; Cochin cock, II pounds, hen 81⁄2; |