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3. Poulfry and egg production. —Returns as to the number 
of poultry were collected on the Annual Schedule in 1921 and 
1924, and in 1925 the occupiers were asked to supply additional 
information as to number of birds killed for food, eggs produced, 
&c. The inquiries in regard to poultry are not complete, because 
they are necessarily limited to holdings of more than one acre. 
Whereas large numbers of poultry are kept by cottagers and 
thers in rural districts who do not come within the scope of 
bhe returns, and in addition large numbers are also kept in towns 
and urban districts. There seem to be no means of obtaining 
particulars of the numbers of poultry kept in these cases other 
than by a house-to-house inquiry, which is obviously not 
practicable. 
Many occupiers omitted to furnish particulars of the number of 
poultry on their holdings on 4th June, 1925, and an even larger 
dumber failed to furnish information as to the production of 
eggs or of the number of birds killed for food or sold alive during 
the preceding twelve months. 
Lgg Production.—Occupiers owning rather over 20 per cent. of 
the fowls on agricultural holdings furnished particulars of egg pro- 
duction. These should afford a very fair indication of the output, 
but it may be assumed that poultry farmers and occupiers of 
ordinary farms who pay particular attention to their poultry would 
be more likely to be in a position to give returns of egg production 
than farmers to whom poultry is a minor consideration, and 
consequently the returns received probably indicate a rather 
higher output of eggs per bird than is general over the whole 
country. To llow for the smaller average production of eggs 
per bird on holdings from which returns were not received the 
average per bird as shown by the returns has been reduced by 
8 per cent. 
In 1908 the average annual production of eggs per hen in 
Great Britain was found to be 72, in 1913 the corresponding figure 
for England and Wales, assuming that there are 11 hens in every 
12 adult birds, was 75, whilst this year, after making the allowance 
referred to above, the average annual production per hen works 
out in round figures to 100. This increase of nearly 40 per cent. 
as compared with 1908 in the average number of eggs produced 
per bird may be accepted as the natural result of the increased 
attention which has been directed in recent years to poultry 
keeping. The average number of eggs laid per bird is greatest 
in Lancashire and Hampshire, the figures for these counties being 
about 15 per cent. above the average over the whole country. 
The table on the next page shows the number of fowls on 
agricultural holdings above 1 acre in extent in England and Wales 
on 4th June in each of the years 1908, 1913, 1924 and 1925, 
and the estimated production of eggs in each of those years. 
* Statistics in regard to poultry and eggs will be found in the 
Ministry’s reports on ** Ege Marketing ”* and * The Marketing of Poultry,” 
Economic Series Nos. 10 and 11.