292 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



regular poultry show. It is highly gratifying to your commit- 

 tee to perceive the growing interest taken in this department, 

 and note from year to year the increasing discrimination shown 

 by breeders of the different varieties. The wisdom of the pol- 

 icy adopted by the society a few years since, of largely increas- 

 ing the premiums upon poultry, has been nobly vindicated by 

 the success that has resulted. 



The space allotted to this department, though apparently 

 ample, proves too narrow to accommodate the throngs that 

 passed in an almost uninterrupted stream from morning till 

 evening in front of the coops ; and your committee would re- 

 spectfully urge upon the committee who have this matter in 

 charge, to give them at least double the space between the cattle- 

 pens and the poultry-shed next year. The crush here was at 

 times almost dangerous on account of the liability of accidents 

 from passing carriages. 



The show of poultry is always a chief centre of attraction, 

 and especially to women and children, and we doubt whether 

 any other portion of our annual fairs presents such objects of 

 interest to so large a number. 



This is scarcely to be wondered at when we take into con- 

 sideration the great variety and beauty that characterize the dif- 

 ferent breeds of poultry. In very few departments has the 

 science of breeding reached such exact and striking results, 

 many of them being the product of only the last fifty years. 

 The breeding of poultry has therefore attractions for the man 

 of scientific tastes as well as for the mere lover of beauty. It 

 would seem as if all classes of admirers must have found some- 

 thing not only gratifying, to their aesthetic taste, but instructive, 

 in the careful examination of our unequalled display. As a 

 kaleidoscope of color alone, it is well worth seeing. There were 

 the splendid Partridge Cochins of Philander Williams, with their 

 rich, warm pencillings and full breasts, almost rivalling in size 

 that king of American birds, the turkey ; light and dark Brah- 

 mas, with picturesque markings of black and silvery grey ; buff 

 and cinnamon Cochins, with their soft, subdued tintings and 

 the " pale faces " of their race ; the showy black Spanish, con- 

 trasting as notably with their Indian cousins as the Spanish cav- 

 alisr of the olden time with our Indian predecessors. There 

 were the far-famed English breeds, the white and gray Dorkings, 



