126 POULTRY BREEDING IN 



for animal food, is so well known, that had it not been 

 explicitly stated that their exclusive diet was horseflesh, 

 I should have credited it myself; my doubts did, how- 

 ever, not arise on account of the use of horseflesh, — 

 which is just as good, and perhaps better, than many 

 other animals' flesh for the food of poultry, — but solely 

 on account of its pretended exclusive use. I have been 

 informed at the Jardin des Plantes and at the Jardin 

 d'Acclimatation, in Paris, that this subject has created 

 as much interest and deception in other countries as our 

 own, as persons from Russia, America, and. other parts 

 of the world, had come on purpose to Paris to visit those 

 imaginary establishments. Whether on account of the 

 daily increasing price of animal food the public mind was 

 prepared to believe in the existence of such Gallinocultu- 

 ral establishments, where they slaughter fifty horses per 

 diem for the food of poultry, or whether the publication 

 of such fictions does more harm than good, I will not ven- 

 ture to discuss ; nor can I say whether the persons who 

 were disappointed in the object of their journey were com- 

 pensated by learning some profitable matters not included 

 in their programme of inquiry ; but what I can assert, and 

 which I believe will be fully borne out by the preceding 

 report, is, that my journey to France will prove in many 

 respects most beneficial to the interest of our Company. 

 In support of this assertion I cannot do better than quote 

 what I stated in my first report, viz., — 



"We are not about to carry out any new invention 

 in poultry breeding, but merely a wise combination of 

 well-established facts: individually, the facts are well 

 known ; but a combination of them applied to poultry 



