49 



The average number of eggs laid by each hen now in this State will not, 

 probably, exceed thirty in a year, and the average weight of the hens 

 will hardly exceed two and a half pounds each. An expenditure of five 

 dollars will enable a producer to raise hens weighing on an average seven 

 pounds each ; and the cost of keeping good hens is so little more than the 

 cost of keeping the common kinds, as not to be noticed by a large majority 

 of farmers. The large classes of fowls have been found, by experience, 

 to be more hardy and more easily raised than the common kind, and 

 much better layers. This may, doubtless, be accounted for in part by 

 the extra attention and care usually given them ; but anything which is 

 worth raising is worth careful attention. 



" There is at present no business in which a farmer can engage, by which 

 he can invest from ten dollars to fifty dollars so profitably as in poultry. 

 An investment of even two dollars will increase the value of a large 

 majority of the poultry yards of our State, in one season, more than 

 three hundred per cent. In this respect, Wisconsin, as a State, is farther 

 behind the older States than in any other particular. While it is an 

 every day occurrence for fowls to be sold in the New England States and 

 in New York at from five dollars to twenty-five dollars a pair, and fre- 

 quently as high as seventy-five dollars a pair, ours are sold at twenty- 

 five cents a pair, and not one in fifty of our citizens ever saw a fowl worth 

 a dollar. 



" But this state of things is passing away. The present exhibition of 

 owls, although in most States it would have been considered meagre 

 enough, has done much toAvards stimulating admirers of fowls to im- 

 prove their stock. It is, however, a little remarkable that the interest 

 awakened on this subject is principally confined to others than the 

 "tillers of the ground," and to persons who cannot raise fowl with any- 

 thing like the economy a farmer can. Of the fowls exhibited at the 

 State Fair, hardly any were raised by farmers. We trust that this can- 

 not long be said of them. They are not slow in studying their interests, 

 and if the present is not a time for them to engage in this department of 

 a farmer's business, then we misjudge. ' 



" The following are the varieties most worthy of the attention of our 

 farmers, viz. : Shanghai, Cochin China, Chittagong, Brahma Pootra, 

 Hoang Ho, Dorking, Black Spanish, Bolton Grey, or Creole Game, and 

 Polands. 



" While we recommend every person who intends to raise fowls for sale 



