309 



£47,883 



The total sum, according to this estimate, is £202,172. 

 Hence the number of poultry returned, amounted to 

 8,088,680, reckoning them at &d. per head ; but, as stated 

 above, this number is far below the mark- 

 Mr. Richardson, in a little work on " Domestic 

 Fowls," published in Dublin, in 1847, says, " I have had 

 a statement furnished me. by Mr. P. Howell, secretary 

 to the City of Dublin Steam-Packet Company to the 

 following effect : — The number of boxes of eggs shipped 

 by that company's vessels for London, during the year 

 1844-5, was 8,874 ; about the same number was shipped 

 by the British and Irish Company, making a total of 

 17,148 boxes. Each contained 13,000 eggs,' but occa- 

 sionally large boxes are used, containing more than four 

 times that number. This gives the result of 23,072,400 

 eggs as annually shipped for London. To Liverpool, 

 were shipped 5,135 boxes, containing 25,566,500 eggs, 

 making a total of the shipments from Dublin alone, 

 during the years 1344-5, to the two ports of London and 

 Liverpool, of 48,639,900, the value of which, at the 

 average rate of 5s. 6d. per every 124 eggs, (the return 

 made,) gives a sum amounting to about £122,500 as the 

 annual value of the eggs shipped from Dublin alone ; 

 and, since this return, the export of eggs has enormously 

 increased. Assuming the export of Dublin to be equal 

 to one fourth of the exports of all Ireland, (a calculation 

 reaching much above the mark,) we have very close on 

 £500,000, or half a million, as the value of this branch 

 of commerce to Ireland, showing also an increase of 



