POULTRY. 247 



WORCESTER NORTH. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



The demand for poultry and eggs in our market is constantly 

 and rapidly increasing, so that, at all seasons, those articles 

 command, here, a ready sale and good prices. 



In order to insure success with fowls, care should be exer- 

 cised in the selection of varieties, as it costs but little more, if 

 any, to keep a variety which grows fast, fats quick, and affords 

 the most tender, sweet and delicious flesh, than another which 

 is its opposite in all these respects, or a variety which affords a 

 constant and abundant supply of eggs of the first quality, than 

 another which lays but rarely, and eggs of an inferior quality at 

 that. Your committee recommend a selection of our best native 

 fowls, crossed slightly with those imported varieties which afford 

 the best flesh, if intended for tlie table, or with such as are noted 

 for constant laying, if to obtain eggs be the object, as with the 

 Bolton Grays. We also recommend the game fowl crossed with 

 some larger variety. 



Shelter should be afforded, which should be cool in summer, 

 warm in winter, dry at all seasons, well ventilated, and carefully 

 protected from exposure to the winds. 



Care should also be exercised in the matter of food, which 

 should afford variety, and particularly in winter should contain 

 some portion of animal matter. For the principal article, W9 

 recommend Indian corn, or dough made of Indian meal, of the 

 yellow varieties only. 



One other item, of which your committee feel constrained to 

 speak, in this connection, is the droppings of fowls, which, if 

 saved with care, afford a most valuable fertilizer, and if taken 

 properly into the account, add materially to the profits of the 

 business. Call the article thus saved dirty, if you please, it is of 

 such a character, that, though it be the veriest filth, yet if prop- 

 erly prepared and sprinkled over your fields, through your 

 orchards, in your graperies, nature piirifies,. transforms, and 

 after a season, returns it to you in the golden sheaves of life- 

 sustaining grain, the fragrant fruitage, and the purple clusters 

 of the vine. 



Your committee, from observation, as well as from several 



