346 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
the exportations amounting to twenty-five million francs, or $4,650,000. 
The same gentleman estimated the. value of the poultry consumed to 
be the same as the value of eggs produced, making an aggregate of 
eggs and poultry produced of $48,400,000. The investment in poultry 
in France is said to be over $75,000,000, or fifty per cent. greater than 
in England. 
It is apparent that great profit is to be ‘derived from poultry keeping 
at small ontlay of means. There is always’a fair demand in our pe 
cities and towns, at least, for considerable supplies of the products o 
the poultry-yard, and there is no danger of an over-supply which will 
reduce the business to the point of unprofitableness. The fact that 
fat chickens may be produced as cheaply for the table as any other meat, 
is worthy of consideration, in connection with their desirability as excel- 
lent food. The prices of prime poultry are almost always in advance 
of those of the best flesh of cattle, hogs and sheep, and it would be 
more frequently preferred by persons of small means in our cities if it 
could be procured at an equal price. It is indeed probable that home 
markets, with remunerative prices, may always be had, as they eertainly 
may uow be, by all American farmers, and especially by those convenient 
to the larger towns, who may choose to give a fair outlay of money, 
time, and intelligence to poultry-keeping. ¢ 
THE TEXAS CATTLE TRADE. 
Among the important developments of our domestic commerce, fol- 
lowing closely upon the construction of the Pacifie Railroads, is the Texas 
cattle trade, which has attained gigantic proportions, within the past 
three years. Previously, with greater obstructions to travel and longer 
distances to market, it had a slow growth. In all the more densely pop- 
ulated communities of the civilized world, the question of the continued 
supply of animal food long since assumed an important phase. Hven 
on our own new continent, especially in the older settled portions on 
the A tlantic slope, the upward tendency of the meat market has long been 
remarked. If prices should continue to increase, as in the past few years, 
it requires no prophetic gift to foretell the transfer of animal food from 
the list of necessaries to that of the luxuries of life, attainable only by the 
middle or wealthier classes of society. The movements of population, the 
conditions of agriculture, and the developments of mechanical industry | 
have been unfavorable to cheap meat production in the older States. In 
the Southern States population has tended hitherto to settle in the river 
bottoms, leaving immense plateau and mountain regions available to 
cattle-raising, but the system of agriculture prevalent in that section 
previous to the war was not favorable to this branch of industry. Its 
capacities in this direction have not yet been developed, and conse- 
‘ quently no relief from the pressure can be expected from that quarter. 
The irruption of cheap beef from the Southwest is, therefore, very timely 
\and acceptable. : : 
Texas has been aptly designated the great ecattie-hive of North 
America. More than half a century ago, under inducements offered 
by the Spanish colonial authorities in Mexico, the coast region from 
the Sabine to the Rio Grande, a level and tertile belt from thirty to 
sixty miles broad, was settled by Spanish and American emigrants, who 
