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POULTRY. 



The actual condition of this department is one of hope and 

 progress. Finer specimens were on exhibiticm, and enclosed in 

 better coops than on former years. Of all animals raised upon 

 the farm none are so much neglected as the poultry, and we 

 may add none are so sensitive to poor treatment, or will give 

 us better returns if we give them a little more attention. Your 

 committee were pleased to see the large collection brought in 

 by the farmers in good condition, and the more rare and fancy 

 varieties by the fanciers of Plymouth. The nicely placed 

 feathers, the clean birds in the best condition, tell us that the 

 merchant and business man finds freedom from care, and 

 romance, even, in the poultry yard. Your committee visited one 

 poultry house where there was no romance, no sunny side ; the 

 manure was piled under the roosts and matted by a year's 

 accumulations. The window had not been opened, and the air 

 inhaled was well filled with ammonia and nitrogen. The flock 

 was sick with cholera, and few eggs and few chickens were the 

 result, and no profits. To correct this habit of our farmers 

 should be the aim and efi'ort of our Society. Nobody visits 

 these places of cruelty, but they should be brought to the light 

 and better conditions demanded. All who keep poultry should 

 study to make them comfortable in the early brood ; in the 

 time when they are working for you and furnishing eggs ; in 

 the critical period of moulting and maturity, when they are 

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