2 POPULAR OPINION. 



it has been said of that country, the poultry yards 

 supply a much greater quantity of food to the gen- 

 tleman, the wealthy tradesman, and the substantial 

 farmer, than the shambles do ; and it is well known, 

 that in Egypt, it has been from time immemorial a 

 considerable branch of rural economy, to raise domes- 

 tic poultry for sale, hatched in ovens by artificial heat. 

 The warmer climates are far more favourable than 

 ours for the purpose of raising poultry, and the same 

 rule necessarily holds with respect to this country, 

 where the warmest and dryest soils are best adapted 

 to this production, more especially of the chicken and 

 the turkey. 



POPULAR OPINION. 



IT has been a general and popular topic of de- 

 clamation, that in former and presumed happier 

 times, our small farmers' wives raised .a superior 

 quantity of poultry to that which has been produced 

 of late years ; a position, at best, very questionable, 

 since poultry has never yet risen in price beyond 

 the proportion of other articles of food, and since 

 the demand of the markets has been supplied in as 

 full a measure as formerly. Suppose a heath or 

 common, on which poultry has been customarily 

 bred, is enclosed and improved into farms, is it not 

 probable that, generally at least, as large a quantity 

 of poultry is reared as upon the land in its former 

 state of waste, and producing no corn, a food so 

 absolutely necessary for that kind of stock ? In fact, 

 it is open to the observation of every one, that 

 poultry has never been in this country a favourite or 



