OF POULTPiY. 
291 
the London markets ? Yes ; and what is more, you have 
this advantage over the foreigners, — all your eggs can 
be new-laid ; for no matter in what part of the country 
they may be, your fowls may lay their eggs this morning, 
and to-morrow morning the Lord Mayor of London may 
eat them ! Or the Prime Minister of England and his poli- 
tical friends may regale themselves with British new-laid 
eggs, and such as the wide world cannot surpass for size 
and quality ! What is still more, I am happy to believe 
that there are but few English ladies or gentlemen who will 
allow either foreign eggs or poultry to come to their tables, 
if they know it. Nor would the middle or industrial classes 
partake of them, if they could obtain English j)roduce as 
cheap. Here, then, the great question rests, that you can 
sell an infinitely superior article as cheap, and a great deal 
cheaper than the foreigners, if you breed and feed your 
poultry as did Aunt Jane. Beyond what I have told you 
there is no secret in the matter ; and what Aunt Jane did 
you can do, if you have the same determination and perse- 
verance. The end of that determination and perseverance 
will be, that the foreign produce will find its way into their 
own markets, to the benefit of their own population, while 
the millions of British money which now leave our shores 
to enrich a few speculative individuals, will come into the 
hands and pockets of British farmers and their families. 
In speaking of London, I merely speak of it as being the 
great emporium of consumption. Still, what applies to the 
metropolis, in this instance, may equally apply to other places 
and ports in England, according to their size, station, and 
commerce. But are you aware, my friends, that in despite 
of all the foreign eggs imported, the hotel keepers, butter- 
men, and greengrocers of London often contract with fowl 
keepers to give them twopence, and twopence halfpenny 
each, the year round, for new-laid eggs, and then make a 
handsome profit out of them ? As for hotel keepers, many 
of them enter new-laid eggs in their customers' bills at six- 
pence each. However, I shall not talk of eggs at sixpence 
each, but of French eggs at sixpence a pound. 
Here is a matter to which the attention of farmers and 
the public in general has never been properly directed ; and 
that is, the consideration of the weight of eggs, as well as the 
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