118 LONDON FEEDERS. 



dry corn. An idea prevails with many, that any sort 

 of corn will do for poultry ; this is a grand mistake. 

 Those who feed largely know better ; and invariably 

 make it a rule to buy the best : the Messrs. Boyce 

 of Stratford, whose pens are capable of holding the 

 extraordinary number of four thousand geese, inde- 

 pendent of ducks, turkeys, &c., consume twenty 

 coombs of oats daily, exclusive of other food. On 

 walking round the premises of these gentlemen, in 

 the spring of the present year (1829), the writer was 

 shown above twelve hundred of that handsome bird 

 the pintada, or guinea-hen, which unites, in some 

 respects, the character of the pheasant and turkey, 

 possessing the delicate shape of the former, and the 

 bare head of the latter. 



" From the improvement in our roads, and the 

 consequent increased facility of communication, vast 

 quantities of poultry are now fattened and killed in 

 the country : the trade of the London feeder, there- 

 fore, has fallen off in a ratio corresponding with the 

 increase of that of the provincial dealer ; not that the 

 public are benefited, or that the countryman derives 

 more profit. The salesman steps in with a proffer 

 of services ; but he must be paid, and the money, of 

 course, comes from the pockets of the public at 

 large." 



I shall only remark, on the conclusion of this valu- 

 able communication, that " the labourer is worthy of 

 his hire," and that middle-men, or salesmen, are in- 

 dispensable. 



A GANDER and five geese comprise a single breed- 



