96 Annual Crop— Value . 



tend the supply, as has been the case in 

 Egypt, where the breeding stock has been 

 so multiphed, and where, in consequence, 

 the commodity is so cheap from its super- 

 abundance, that in the time of Father Si- 

 card, a thousand eggs w^ere sold for thirty 

 or forty medins, making three or four shil- 

 lings English money. Indeed, the chick- 

 ens were not sold from the stoves by tale, 

 but by measure ; according to De Reaumur, 

 by the bushel ! And it appears from travel- 

 lers of the present day, to be the custom 

 in Egypt, to purchase chickens by the bas- 

 ket fuil. 



Thus much may suffice, as a general 

 outline of Egyptian practice, in an art not 

 likely to be pursued in any part of Europe, 

 least of all in Britain, for reasons already 

 assigned. Exclusive of the facts, that we 

 are not a poultry-eating people, and that 

 we do not consume so many eggs, as are 

 required in Roman Catholic countries, ours 

 is not a country, from something peculiar 

 in its economical constitution, which can 

 long bear superabundance and cheapness ; 



