112 -^ THE HIStOKT 0¥ 



stock reached England, paid me sixty guineas for them — 

 $150 a pair. But these were of the better class of birds to 

 which I have alluded. 



In 1852 a Boston agricultural journal stated that 

 "within three months extra samples of two-year-old fowls, 

 of the large Chinese varieties, have been sold in Massachu- 

 setts at $100 the pair. Several pairs, within our own 

 knowledge, have commanded $50 a pair, within the past 

 six months. Last week we saw a trio of White Shanghaes 

 sold in Boston for $45. And the best specimens of Shang- 

 haes and Cochin-China fowls now bring $20 to $25 a pair, 

 readily, to purchasers at the South and West." 



Now, these prices may be looked upon by the uninitiated 

 as extraordinary. So they were for this country. But at 

 a Birmingham (Eng.) show, in the fall of 1852, a single 

 pair of " Seabright Bantams," very small and finely 

 plumed, sold for $125 ; a fine " Cochin-China " cock and 

 two hens, for $75 ; and a brace of " White Dorkings," at 

 $40. An English breeder went to London, from over a 

 hundred miles distant, for the sole purpose of procuring a 

 Betting of Black Spanish eggs, and paid one dollar for each 

 egg. Another farmer there sent a long, distance for the 

 best Cochin-China eggs, and paid one dollar and fifty cents 

 each for them, at this time ! 



This was keeping up the rates wiih a vengeance, and 

 beat us Yankees, out and out. But later accounts from 



