THE HEN FEVER. 189 



desired to :)btain good stock, and -who were willing to 

 pay for it. And after they had been thus fleeced, 

 they became cautious, and procured their poultry only of 

 "honorable and responsible breeders (like mysel*, who 

 imported and bred nothing but known pure stock. 



As late as in January, 1855, a western agricultural 

 sheet alludes to the flaming advertisement of an old hand 

 in this traffic, and says : " It is known to all who know 

 anything about poultry that Mr. G has been an ama- 

 teur breeder for about forty years, and is undoubtedly 

 better ' posted,' in reference to domestic and fancy fowls, 

 than any other man in America ; and, beside this, he is an 

 honest man, and has no ' axe to grind.' He has raised fowls, 

 heretofore, solely for his own amusement ; but now he 

 proposes to accommodate the public by disposing of some of 

 them." 



This man is my " fat friend " in Connecticut, — who has 

 bred and bought and sold as much trash, in the past ten 

 years, as the best (or the worst) of us. Friend Brown, we 

 could tell you a story worth two of yours, on this point ! 

 But — we forbear. 



