304 



THE AMERICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION. 



poultry is of much more importance in this coun- 

 try than generally imagined ; and that, conse- 

 quently, it should become one of the first objects 

 of attention with every family in the country. 



The census of 1840 reveals the fact, and fixes 

 the value of the poultry of the United States 

 at that time to be about $13,000,000. This we 

 do not regard as unreasonable, as itonly amounts 

 to about fifty cents for each person. And this 

 was sixteen years ago. Still, it is a very import- 

 ant item, and one which Jias been rapidly in- 

 creasing ever since; and yet the markets are 

 not sufficiently supplied with good poultry, while 

 there is a constant scarcity of eggs, except, per- 

 haps, in the months of April and May. 



The whole amount of eggs yielded in a year 

 we will suppose to be 480,000,000 dozen, that 

 is nineteen dozen for each individual in the 

 country to be used in a year, or a fraction more 

 than four eggs a week for each person, or, in a 

 family of six persons, an average allowance of 

 two dozen a week. This is a moderate allow- 

 ance, for in France the annual consumption of 

 eggs is 8,000,000,000, being about twenty dozen 

 to each person ; and in Paris alone, the annual 

 consumption is 140,000,000. We have no means 

 or method of ascertaining the quantity of eggs 

 used in New York, Boston, and the other large 

 cities of this country, only as it is well under- 

 stood that the inhabitants are fond of good fare, 

 and will have it when the means are at com- 

 mand. In evidence of it, statistics show that in 

 Boston the annual consumption, with a popula- 

 tion less than 150,000, is to the amount of one 

 million of dollars for poultry alone, and that in 

 New York and its dependencies more than three 

 times that amount is expended for the same 

 article. And it is a fair calculation that nearly 

 one million of eggs are consumed every month 

 in the city of New York. One woman in Ful- 

 ton market sold 175,000 eggs in ten weeks, sup- 

 plying the Astor House each day with 1000 for 

 four days in a week, and on Saturday, 2500. 



The egg trade of Cincinnati, a few years 

 since, was put down at 25,000,000. It was 



stated in one of the public journals, that in one 

 day there were shipped 500 barrels, containing 

 47,000 dozen of eggs. In May, 1842, seventy 

 barrels, containing seventy dozen each, amount- 

 ing in number to 58,800, were sent to Boston. 

 One dealer in the egg trade of Philadelphia, 

 sends to the New York market, daily, nearly 

 one hundred barrels of eggs. It is estimated 

 that the city of New York alone expends nearly 

 $2,000,000 per annum in the purchase of eggs. 



By reference to the agricultural table of sta- 

 tistics of 1839, and published in 1840, it will be 

 seen that the value of poultry in the State of 

 New York was 2,373,029 dollars, which was 

 more than the value of its sheep, the entire 

 value of its neat cattle, and nearly five times 

 the value of its horses and mules. It is proba- 

 ble that since then the value of poultry has 

 nearly or quite doubled. 



The value of eggs sold in and around Quincy 

 market, in Boston, for 1 848 r was 1,1 25, 735 dozen, 

 which at 18 cents per dozen (the lowest price 

 paid 11 cents, and the highest 30 cents per 

 dozen, as proved by the average purchases of 

 one of the largest dealer's books), makes the 

 amount paid for eggs to be nearly 203,353 dol- 

 lars. And from information already obtained 

 from other egg merchants in the same city, the 

 whole amount of sales will not fall much, if any, 

 short of $1,000,000 for 1848. The average 

 consumption of eggs at three of the hotels was 

 more than two hundred each day for that year. 

 And the value of eggs brought from the Penob- 

 scot and Kennebec rivers for that year, during 

 the running season of the steamboats plying 

 between Boston and those two rivers, was more 

 than $350,000. 



It is stated in a Providence paper, that one 

 sloop has regularly, for twenty-five years, made 

 twenty-five trips a year from Westport, Massa- 

 chusetts, to that port, during which period she 

 has carried to that market, on an average, 400 

 dozen of eggs each trip, making altogether a 

 total of 3,450,000, averaging twelve and a half 

 cents per dozen, amounting to $35,500. 



THE END. 



