8Q POULTRY. 



• 



poultry-yards, and gardens. Trained as choristers, they chaunt in 

 the village church, and are encouraged to engage in out-of-door 

 amusements, those precious links of domestic life. In those cottage 

 homes grow English vigor, like English oak, to branch far and wide, 

 yet have a sound heart. Young men are contented at home — they 

 till the soil their fathers tilled, and endeavor to transmit it in 

 turn to their first born sons in better condition than it was when 

 they received -it. Crowded out by a surplus population, a younger 

 son may engage in commerce, or follow the fortunes of the red-cross 

 flag, but he ever hopes that the day will come when fortune will 

 permit him to become a British landholder. He wishes to improve 

 his native soil, in which his early affections were deeply planted, 

 and he is ever ready to exclaim : 



''Where'er I roam; whatever climes I see — 

 My heart, untravelled, still returns to thee." 



Your committee would respectfully suggest the propriety of 

 awarding premiums to lads, for poultry, gardens, vegetables and 

 animals, equal in amount to the sum distributed among the girls 

 for their ornamental handiwork. It matters not what they may 

 bring, if it adds to the interest of the exhibition, and plants in their 

 youthful breasts a desire to become exhibitors. When these boys 

 become farmers in their turn, rest assured that the one who was the 

 fortunate competitor for a rabbit or chicken premium, will win 

 higher honors. "Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined." 



Harrison Eaton, of Haverhill, was the only exhibitor who 

 complied with the desire of the society to have statements furnish- 

 ed. He exhibited four hens, a part of a flock kept since January 

 last, and averaging sixteen — two of them cocks. They were fed on 

 corn, (with oyeter shells always by them) and consumed twelve 

 bushels, costing $14.13. They had laid 1790 eggs, which had 

 been sold at any average price of 21 cents per dozen. The hens 

 were of the old-fashioned "creeper" breed. 



Your committee, after careful examination, award the following 

 gratuities : 



Harrison Eaton, Haverhill, specimens of a flock of poultry, 

 with detailed statement of the cost of feeding, and 

 the number of eggs laid since January 1, 1855, $5.00 



