CHAPTER XXI. 



EXPEUIMENTS OF AMATEURS. 



The newspapers of the day were now occupied with 

 speculative and actual statistics, of various kinds, relating 

 to the utility and value of poultry and its produce, and 

 every one seemed to join, in his or her way, to magnify the 

 vastness of this enterprise ; and statements like the follow- 

 ing, in respectable public journals, had the effect to increase 

 and keep up to fever-heat the state of the hen malady : 



" By reference to the agricultural statistics of the United 

 States, published from relialjle sources in 1850, it may be 

 seen that the actual value of poultry, in New York State 

 alone, was two millions three hundred and seventy-three 

 thousand and twenty-nine dollars ! Which was more than 

 the value of all the swine in the same state ; nearly e€[ual 

 to one half the value of its sheep, the entire value of its 

 neat cattle, and nearly five times the value of its horses 

 and mules! " 



The amount of sales of live and dead poultry in Quincy 

 Market, Boston, for the year 1848, said another paper, waa 

 12* 



