POULTRY. 39!) 



BRISTOL. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



Although poultry has for very many years been considered a 

 favorite and delicate article of food, it is only within a com- 

 paratively short time that the attention of agriculturists has 

 been turned to the introduction of new breeds of domestic 

 fowls, or to the improvement of those already well known. 

 But, of late years, the subject of raising poultry has received 

 much attention; the number of breeds has been largely in- 

 creased ; and it is now generally understood that the poultry 

 yard, properly and judiciously managed, will contribute its full 

 proportion to the profits of the farmer ; while, as a branch of 

 rural economy, it is exceeded in the interest and pleasure de- 

 rived from it by no other pursuit peculiar to his occupation. 

 The statistics on this subject are probably far from perfect ; 

 but enough is known, not only to surprise those who have paid 

 no attention to it, but to show clearly that the value of the 

 poultry stock in the United States is no small item of the 

 national wealth. The whole value of the poultry in the United 

 States at the present time cannot be less than twenty millions 

 of dollars, and the amount would probably exceed this sum. 

 That of the State of New York alone, in the year 1840, was 

 over two millions of dollars, and was greater than the entire 

 value of the sheep raised in the same State in that year, and 

 nearly five times the value of the horses and mules raised within 

 her borders. It is estimated that the city of New York alone 

 expends nearly a million and a half of dollars annually in the 

 purchase of eggs. The estimates of the value of the poultry 

 in the country are taken from the United States census for the 

 year 1840, and are perhaps to be almost doubled to give the 

 correct result at the present time. 



Since that time several choice foreign breeds have been in- 

 troduced, and an impetus has been given to this interesting 

 branch of agriculture, which had before been almost wholly 

 neglected. Conventions of the feathered tribes have been 

 held, at which were assembled together specimens of what ovir 



