27 



of our community, but would also prove a source of actual 

 profit. 



The demand for poultry and eggs in our market is constantly 

 and rapidly increasing, so that, at all seasons, those articles 

 command, here, a ready sale and good prices. 



In order to insure success with fowls, care should be exer- 

 cised in the selection of varieties, as it costs but litte more, if 

 any, to keep a variety which grows fast, fats quick, and atfords 

 the most tender, sweet and delicious flesh, than another which 

 is its opposite in all these respects, or a variety which affords 

 a constant and abundant supply of eggs of the first quality, 

 than another which lays but rarely and eggs of an inferior 

 quality at that. Your Committee recommend a selection of 

 our best native fowls, crossed slightly with those imported 

 varieties which afford the best flesh, if intended for the table, 

 or with such as are noted for constant laying, if to obtain eggs 

 be the object, as with the Bolton Grays. We also recommend 

 the game fowl crossed with some larger variety. 



Shelter should be afforded, which should be cool in sum- 

 mer, warm in winter, dry at all seasons, well ventilated, and 

 carefully protected from exposure to the winds. 



Care should also be exercised in the matter of food, which 

 should afford variety, and particularly in winter should contain 

 some portion of animal matter. For the principal article, we 

 recommend indian corn, or dough made of indian meal, of the 

 yellow varieties only. 



One other item, of which your Committee feel constrained 

 to speak, in this connection, is the droppings of fowls, which, 

 if saved with care, afford a most valuable fertilizer, and if ta- 

 ken properly into the account, add materially to the profits of 

 the business. Call the article thus saved dirty, if you please, 

 it is of such a character, that, though it be the verriest filth, 

 yet if properly prepared and sprinkled over your fields, through 

 your orchards, in your graperies, nature purifies, transforms, 

 and after a season, returns it to you in the golden sheaves of 

 life-sustaining grain, the fragrant fruitage, and the purple 

 clusters of the vine. 



