24 
EGGS AND POULTRY. 
extraordinary, and they cannot but make a most 
valuable cross on the Saxon sheep of this coun- 
try. They were attended by a German shep- 
herd and a very fine sheep dog. 
•-»- 
POULTRY AND EGGS. 
Few persons are aware of the large quantities 
of poultry and eggs that enter into human con- 
sumption. The statistics of the United States for 
1839, give a total of $12,000,000 worth of poultry 
then in this country, an amount, we have no 
doubt far below its actual value at that time. 
The sales of poultry alone in the city of Bos- 
ton last year, it is said, exceeded $1,000,000, and 
this too with a population, including its de- 
pendencies, scarcely over 150,000. From the 
best information we can obtain of the poulterers 
of New York, we find that this city and its 
dependencies consume a still greater amount in 
proportion to its inhabitants. This would make 
over $3,000,000 annually. Philadelphia probably 
consumes less in proportion, as she does not 
Dorking Fowls. — Fig. 7. 
maintain so many hotels and eating-houses in 
proportion to its population as New York, neither 
does anything like the number of passenger- 
ships and steamers sail from her port. Balti- 
more, New Orleans, and other southern cities are 
better supplied with wild geese, ducks, turkeys, 
and other game than the northern cities, hence 
a less consumption of poultry. If we assume 
less than one-third the Boston amount as the 
average money value of poultry and eggs con- 
sumed throughout the United States, we shall find 
the sum will reach about $45,000,000 a year. 
France consumes over 8,000,000,000, and Paris 
about 140,000,000 eggs per annum. M'Culloch 
states the quantity imported into England, pre- 
vious to 1840, from France alone, as exceeding 
60,000,000 a year; and M'Queen, at near 
70,000,000. Paris consumes of chickens, tur- 
keys, pigeons, partridges, geese, ducks, rabbits. 
&c, about 4,000,000 per annum. 
This enormous consumption of poultry, and 
its products, shows conclusively its money value, 
and that it is not a matter of indifference whether 
we have hens that will lay two dozen eggs a year, 
or six, eight, or ten dozen ; nor whether birds, 
eating a quart, a gallon, or a peck of grain to 
rear and fatten them, will weigh a pound and a 
half, or four, six, or eight pounds. Economy in 
the management, and skill in the selection and 
breeding of poultry, is just as much an object of 
attention for the amount involved, as the im- 
provement of cattle, horses, sheep or swine. 
In no other department of the animal creation 
can a fine taste be so economically indulged, 
as in rearing choice or fancy poultry. There is 
so great a variety, such innumerable patterns of 
form, color and style, and each combined with 
varying excellence, that there is almost an 
infinity of room for the indulgence of a breeder's 
skill ; and to none possessed of a fine or culti- 
vated rural taste, is the exhibition 
of this skill indifferent, or unat- 
tended with a genuine, hearty, 
home-bred delight. 
There is one development of this 
fancy, however, to which we seri- 
ously object, which is shown in 
the excessive size of the barnyard 
fowl. Some of these, as the Cochin- 
China, the Shanghae, the Malay, 
the Java, the Bucks County, and 
others, are so large and unwieldy 
as to be justly obnoxious to the 
charge of coarseness, which can 
never be reconciled either with 
elegance, or, what is highly im- 
portant to the smaller farmer, pro- 
Jit. Such large birds are only 
tolerable for the table when nearly 
full grown and thoroughly well 
fattened, or caponised ; and the 
latter condition, however desirable, 
and easily attained by a little at- 
tention and skill, is yet hardly in- 
troduced, and seldom practiced in 
this country. The Dorking is the 
largest barndoor fowl that should 
be tolerated; and this is a bird, 
when well bred, so finely proportioned, and has 
for so long a time been reared for its choice 
table qualities, that its size, though frequently 
large, is seldom objectionable. Their meat is 
lean, tender, and finely marbled. Most other large 
fowls lay the fat on in big lumps over different 
parts of the body, thus leaving the meat dry and 
tough, or flabby and tasteless. 
Fig. 7 will give the reader a good idea of a 
fine, short-legged, heavy-bodied pair of Dorkings, 
belonging to a friend of' ours in this vicinity ; but 
we must confess we rather prefer the group 
sketched by Mr. Rotch, which appeared at page 
112 of our second volume. For a full account 
of this breed of fowls, we refer to page 204 
of our fourth volume, and to a work now in 
press, by Mr. Saxton, called the American 
Poultry Yard. 
