The supervisor says :— 



Mr. Dunbar's account, although evidently not forced in his 

 own favor, would hardly be accepted by experts as a correct 

 exhibit of profit and loss. For instance : he has charged him- 

 self, March 1st, with 23 hens and 2 cocks, which number was 

 reduced, May 1st, to 15 hens and 1 cock, without apparently 

 any corresponding credit. On the other hand, he has charged 

 nothing for use of buildings, nor for cost of coops and other 

 appliances, which, judging from an occasional inspection of a 

 poultry dealer's premises, cannot be inconsiderable. The esti- 

 mate of the value of the manure, is not perhaps open to objec- 

 tion. In one view any article is worth what it will bring in. 

 market, and the sale of a portion at a specified price, may be 

 accepted as an indication of the value of the residue. But if an 

 average of less than 20 hens, with the addition, for a portion of the 

 time, of two or three hundred chickens will, in six months, give 

 a return of nearly $28 in manure, one element in the profit of 

 poultry keeping has been generally lost sight of in estimates 

 heretofore made. That such manure, when unadulterated, is a 

 powerful fertilizer, inferior only to Peruvian guano, is probably 

 true. One evidence of its efficacy may be found in the fineness 

 of the sward and the luxuriance of the grasses always noticeable 

 in the vicinity of dwellings where fowls have run at large for a 

 series of years. But whether, when largely mixed with other 

 substances, as it must have been in this instance, its fertilizing 

 value is as great as represented, will probably be questioned till 

 determined by actual experiments. 



But, after making any adjustments which those interested in 

 the subject may deem necessary, in view of the suggestions 

 above made, or others, Mr. Dunbar's account will still show a 

 very handsome balance of profit on the investment, and a very 

 considerable degree of success in the management of poultry. 



