126 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICUIvTURE. 



fowls for $23,729 ; dressed turkeys, 18,117 for $4,500 ; making 

 total valuation, according to the State census, $124,335. 



In the above computation there is no account of the egg 

 product. In 1875 there were in the county 28,5G1 families. 

 Estimating the weekly consumption (including bakers' sup- 

 plies,^ cake, &c.) at one dozen and a half for each family, 

 the amount would be, at sixteen cents per dozen, $5,054 

 per week, or $262,808 per annum. The annual product of 

 manure from the poultry of the count}^, which consists of 

 144,360 hens and chickens, 1,939 ducks, 1,389 geese, 1,728 

 turkeys, would amount, at a much lower valuation than Mr. 

 Geyelin gives in his able treatise on " Poultry Breeding from 

 a Commercial Point of View," to at least $30,000 ; which 

 swells the total value of the poultry amount to the impos- 

 ing sum of $417,343 more than the value of all the bulls, 

 colts, heifers, hogs, lambs, calves, oxen, and mules in the 

 county. 



In the above computation no allowance is made for any 

 increase of population within the last three years (which is 

 considerable, the increase in the ten years preceding the cen^ 

 sus being about thirty per cent), nor for the corresponding 

 increase in the poultry product, which has been a marked 

 feature. A close scrutiny of the census returns convinces 

 us that the returns are not complete. It gives the number 

 of ducks in New Bedford and Fairhaven as one hundred and 

 seventy-nine, when, to the writer's personal knowledge, not 

 less than three hundred and fifty can be counted in one day. 

 Again, the valuations vary greatly. Forty-one geese in Fall 

 River and thirty-five in Fairhaven are valued at ninety-five 

 dollars, while forty-eight in Attleborough are valued at ninety- 

 six dollars, — nearly double the j)rice of the former. A pair 

 of pea-fowl in Seekonk is valued at only two dollars, while 

 a pair in Taunton is valued at eight dollars, the last not a 

 high valuation. These instances might be multiplied ; but 

 they are only given to show that fancy prices have not entered 

 to any extent as an element in the census returns. One or 

 two other facts gleaned from these returns may not be un- 

 interesting. Dartmouth is the banner town of the county, 

 being credited with 25,784 hens and chickens, 466 ducks, 



1 Two bakers in New Bedford give their yearly consumption of eggs seventy- 

 five hundred dozen each, or twenty-five dozen daily. 



