SI 16 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Jan. 



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THE HEN FEVER 



It is surprising to witness tlie workings of tliis fashionable, 

 %ve liail nearly written /oo//*/!, fever. The yellow fever and 

 cholera may lie more iatal ; the "grippe," or broken-bone 

 fever, liartler to bear, but the '• hen fever" is makinc; the 

 most fools, ai;>l en<;ulf:n.2r the most money, pariieularly in 

 New Enj^land ; nnil we judge from numerous letters hitoly 

 received from our frientis at the south, tliat they arc frcitiiig 

 a touch of it even there. Our orders for .Sliangiiaes, Chitta- 

 gongs, Cochin-Clunas. Plymouth Rocks, and half a dozen 

 other pulVcd-up, wortliless breeds of fowls, whose strong 

 points of reconmiendation consist solely of long legs and 

 necks, big lieads, bodies meagerly covered with coarse ilesh, 

 and as destitute of beauty as the specimen denoted by liie 

 cut below, are n"mcrous, out these will nil remain unan- 

 swered, for i\e have no idea of being mixed up with tlic 

 miserable humbiig in the hen trade, which is kept alive by 

 n class of papers ib.at might be belter employed. 'I'he puljiic 

 look to the agricultural press for truth, instead of deception 

 and twaddle. 



Breeders who live upon the gullibility of the public, keep 



this fever alive by 

 means of publica- 

 tions, in such pa- 

 pers as will lend 

 themselves to the 

 heiiliiiisys, and by 

 poultry l)ooks, got 

 up on purpose to 

 assist them to sell 

 their great over- 

 grown, long-legged, 

 crane-necked, big- 

 headed abortions, 

 not one of which- is 

 worth half so much 

 to the farmer, as the 

 old stock of Javas, 

 Malays, or their 

 crosses, the Bucks- 

 county and Jersey 

 Blues, which can 

 be bought at a mod- 

 erate price. W'c 

 imderstand, thai 

 from SiO to $100 a 

 pair is the asking 



t,,_^ j««; -i^^*^ /--> I price of these great 



\iZ^ '^^_ "^§?::^"^=^ ?==::::-5^^^^Y poultry breeders, 

 Ik ^Mi-^^^si-- '^^^^^'^^^^^^v* ^^'^" '^""^^ -'^ more 

 . W S^W&'/,:'}^--''^^s- '■'^-r«s?i^.5^J^ of the true merits of 

 C-\^» g fowlj than ihey do 

 about the iicnroost 

 of the emperor of China, or the duck pond f)f the (Jroat Ahj^ul. 

 W'e ore sorry to see respectable agricultural papers, like 

 some we might name in Boston, engaged in sucli small bu- 

 siness as pulling these miserable bipeds (fealhercd or feath- 

 crlcss) into notice. We can assure them that their columns j 

 could be much better occupied than in such humbugging and 

 foul foolery. They may be-praise or be-foul such as they 

 please ; but after all is said and done, the best and most 

 profitable for the farmer to keep, is the Dorking, or a good 

 common kind, like the old-fashioned speckled Dominicpie, 

 the latter of which can be bought for fifty cents to one dol- 

 lar per pair, i^nch fowls can pick up their own living in the 

 farmyard ; they want neither corseting nor stutViiig, they 

 can take care of themselves. — American Agririillurist. 



There is, perhaps a ^ood tieal of ''humbug'" in the 

 hen excitement that has raged so Fcverly in the neigh- 

 borhood of Boston, and we are sorely mistaken if there 

 is not a little of the same article in the above from 

 the Ajjricultnrist. We know of no greater hnmbug 

 than for a paper toannonice itself as the peculiar 

 and cspecinl cm mi/ oy/n/jnli^ir.', as some wo know of 

 are very fond of doing. We have eeen the Shanghaes 

 and Corhin-Chinas, many times, and we really think 

 they bear no m^ro resemblnnco to the engraving, than 

 the Malays, which lye so favorably mentioned. It. 

 certainly seems unreasonable to give fifteen or twenty 

 dollars tor a pair of fowls ; but if any of these breeds 

 are really valuable, this is but a small objection. — 



They propagate so fast, that this price can be main- 

 tained but a short time. But even if a person gave 

 twenty dollars for a pair, we suppose in a year he 

 might repay himself, even if ho sold the chickens at 

 a dollar each ; or make money the second jear, by 

 selling at fifty cents. But if this is an objection to 

 the Cochin-Chinas and Shanghaes, it is equally an 

 objection against the Dorkings. We know of 

 Slianghaes sold here for S5 a pair, and we liave 

 known $5 oR'ored in vain for a Dorking cock. 



The coarseness vflhejlesh is raised as an objection. 

 On this point we are not prepared to speak, never 

 having killed a ten or twenty dollar fowl, to test the 

 quality of its flesli. Perhaps the editor of tlio Agri- 

 culturist can afibrd to feast on such expensive luxuries. 

 We had no desire to be cheated, and certainly were 

 not troubled with tite "hen fever ;'' yet we were not 

 willing cither to condemn or recommend any variety 

 untried, so we procured the tShanii;haes and Cocldn- 

 Chinas, these being the kinds witli wiiicii the fever ap- 

 peared to have originated. We iiave tested them in 

 various ways, and we are not yet ])rcparcd to meet out 

 such wholesale condemnation as tiiat contained in the 

 article quoted. Indeed, we think the iShanghaes are 

 superior in some respects to any fowls we have ever 

 kept, and we have had the Malays, Polands, and 

 Dorkings. For hardiness, ( and this is a great 

 point,) we think they are not equalled. We have 

 never lost a chick, from any disease, ihoiigh we have 

 been singularly unfortunate in raising chickens tliis 

 season. In two cases where one Slianghae cliicken 

 was hatched witii eight or nine Polands and Dork- 

 kings, the Shanghae was the only one we succeeded 

 in raising. On cold mornings, while other fowls 

 appear atl'ected by the cold, and show an unwilling- 

 ness to leave the house, tiie Slianghaes are running 

 about apparently unconcerned about the weather, 

 scratching away the snow to get at the ground. 

 Tiie annexed engraving is a portrait of a Shanghae 



hen we have, and 

 the artist has suc- 

 ceeded in making 

 it so correct that 

 several wiio saw 

 it, and who had 

 seen the hen, read- 

 ily recognized it. 

 Now we fisk, what 

 resembjance is 

 _^ tliere betw ecu this 

 i^= fowl aud tlio long- 

 legged caricature 

 in the Agricultu- 

 rist's article. Is 

 it not the greatest of "hnmlugs'^ to represent this 

 breed of fowls by such a picture 1 What sense is 

 there in calling such fowls "overgrown, long-legged, 

 crane-necked, big-headed abortions ?" 



If it is right and proper to give ten times the worth 

 of common cattle for a breed supposed to be superior, 

 where is the folly in giving ten times the price of 

 common fowls for an improved kind ? Some men that 

 strain at a $10 "rooster,"' can swallow a $500 " Dur- 

 jiam bull." We iiave no fowls to sell ; but if, after 

 another years trial, tlie Slianghaes prove as good as 

 we have some reason to think they will, wc shall be 

 able to supply our friends with these fowls as cheap 

 as they wish. We have tried various experiments 

 as to the amount of food consumed by tlie various 

 kinds, and after further trial may slate the results. 



