INTRODUCTION. Xlll 



lars.* The importance of this subject be- 

 comes more apparent if we take a single 

 state, and compare the value of its poultry 

 with that of its other animal products. By 

 *he same census it appears that in the State 

 of New-York the value of the poultry was 

 $2,373,029. This is more than the value 

 of all the swine in the same state, is nearly 

 squal to half the value of its sheep, the en- 

 tire value of its neat cattle, and is very near- 

 ly five times greater than the value of all its 

 horses and mules. 



The importance of climate in rearing 

 poultry may be farther inferred from the 

 following facts, gathered from the same 

 census. We will take a certain district in 

 the northern and eastern sections of the 

 Union, where the climate is cold and damp, 

 and compare it with a district of nearly an 

 equal population in the Southern States. 

 Thus, for example : the States of Maine, 

 New-Hampshire, and Vermont are nearly 

 equal in population to those of South Caro- 



* Since the above was written, full returns from all the states 

 have been obtained. See chapter xi. 



