POULTRY MANAGEMENT. 55 



SECOND DAY. 



The Board met at ten o'clock on Wednesday morning, and 

 Major S. B. Phinney of Barnstable was chosen Chairman for 

 the day. 



BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY. 



BY I. K. FELCH, ESQ., OF NATICK. 



Through the influence of the Board, the State has done 

 much for the other branches of her agriculture, and I am 

 pleased to see the attention of the Board called to the too long 

 neglected interest of poultry husbandry, which has been con- 

 sidered of minor importance by our farmers, fit only for chil- 

 dren to consider. Yet, in this poultry product of the land, we 

 see an interest second to none other considered under the head 

 of agriculture. 



The census for 1870 informs us that the cotton crop was 

 3,011,996 bales; the corn crop, 761,000,000 bushels; the 

 wheat crop, 288,000,000 bushels; the value of all the cattle, 

 sheep, and swine slaughtered or sold to be slaughtered was 

 $398,956,376 ; the hay crop, 28,000,000 tons, valued at $14 

 (a high estimate), was $384,000,000. 



The assertion that the egg and poultry produce of the 

 States exceeds either of these large products, is met with 

 derision ; yet it is true, and the produce finds no rival save in 

 the entire meat and dairy product combined. 



Compute the nine millions of families in the States as con- 

 suming but two dozen eggs per week, and ($20) twenty dol- 

 lars' worth of poultry per year, and we have (computing 

 eggs at twenty-five cents per dozen) over $405,000,000. 

 Nor is this all. Large as it is, to it must be added the con- 

 sumption by the saloons, restaurants, confectionery establish- 

 ments, our thousands of hotels, together with the medicinal and 

 chemical and exportation demand, which will swell the amount 

 to not less than five hundred millions of dollars as the annual 

 product of the United States ; an interest worthy of our con- 

 siderate investigation. When we commence to make figures, 

 we become amazed at their magnitude ; and that you may not 

 underrate the hotel consumption, I will say that a New York 



