96 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



and population among us. If these statements are correct, it fol- 

 lows that poultry may be made a more extensive and profitable 

 part of the animal products of our farms, than they have here- 

 tofore been. 



The fowl mania now so prevalent, may to some have the 

 appearance more of fancy than utility ; but there will be this 

 benefit growing out of it, that new and valuable breeds of 

 poultry will be introduced and disseminated. The mania will 

 abate after passing its crisis, if it has not already passed it, 

 while the effects of the excitement will be for the general good. 

 The efforts of those who have evinced so much laudable en- 

 thusiasm in this direction, seem to have been confined princi- 

 pally to the procuring and propagating of pure specimens of 

 the different breeds. Their form, color and other distinctive 

 properties, have been duly ascertained and promulgated ; but 

 the general management of fowls and their habits, the rearing 

 and fattening of them, with other important particulars tending 

 to make them profitable, have not, as it seems to me, received 

 their proportionate share of attention. The great question 

 with a New England farmer, 1 mean a practical and not a fancy 

 farmer, as to the raising of any animal or crop is, will it pay ? 

 If he is satisfied that it will, he may be induced to enter upon 

 it, though the fixed habits of most of our farmers make them 

 averse to deviate from the beaten and safe path, into new prac- 

 tices however promising. Still, the all powerful influence of a 

 new and successful example, often compels imitation. Thus 

 may be witnessed in particular neighborhoods, particular courses 

 of husbandry, that have been started by some enterprising cul- 

 tivator, who, perhaps, was considered at first as rash and incon- 

 siderate as was Jared Elliot, when, more than a century ago, 

 he began to reclaim a shaking meadow of forty acres in Guil- 

 ford woods, Connecticut. " The meadow," he says in his Es- 

 says on Field Husbandry in New England, " was deemed so 

 poor that none would take it up. I was pitied as being about 

 to waste a great deal of money, but they comforted themselves 

 that if I spent it unprofitably, others that stood in need of it, 

 would get it." And he adds, with an honest pride in the re- 

 sult of his efforts, " they are of another ophiion now." 



