SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
81 
HOME. 
Home 1 in that word how many hopes are hidden, 
How many hours of joy serene and fair ; 
How many golden visions rise unbidden, 
And blend their views into a rainbow there ! 
Round Home what images of beauty cluster, — 
Links that unite the Living with the Dead, — 
Glimpses of scenes of most surpassing lustre, — 
Echoes of melody whose voice is fled ! 
Home is the place where we have ever blended 
Our hopes and happiness, our tears and sighs! 
'Whence our united worship hath ascended. 
As grateful incense to the listening skies. 
"Where we have nourished bright thoughts while behold- 
ing 
Some sun-eyed flower, the centre of our love; 
And while we watched its gradual unfolding, 
The angels came and carried it above. 
Mankind, however faltered and benighted. 
Howe’er oppressed by penury and care. 
Have their existence by one beacon lighted — 
Have still one bliss which all may freely share. 
Home ! cries the world-sick wanderer, as he wendeth, 
With baffled footsteps, o’er his weary way ; 
Home ! sighs the wretched outcast as he sendeth 
A longing look whence once he longed to stray. 
Home I says the toil-wmrn rustic, when returning 
From daily labor at the fall of night ; 
H«me ! sings the emancipated soul, as, spurning 
This world of wo, it plumes its wings for flight. 
Home, like the burning lens, collects together 
Into one point affection’s scattered rays. 
And in the sternest storm, the wildest weather, — 
Kindles a bright and spirit-cheering blaze. 
Home is the watch -word, firing with emotion 
The patriot’s heart, and nerving him to fight; 
Horae is the pole-star, o’er the storm-swept ocean, 
Guiding the sailor through the stormy night. 
Home is a boon to erring mortals given, 
To knit us closer in the bonds of love ; 
To lead our spirits gently up to heaven ; 
To shadow forth the brighter home above. 
IMPORTANCE OF POULTRY TO THE UNITED STATES. 
W E have often looked over the pages of our agricultural 
journals to find interesting matters of information about 
poultry, but generally in vain. There is veiy little said or 
written on this subject, which is really becoming one of 
great national importance. The value of poultry in the 
United States in 1840, was estimated at over Sl2, 000,000. 
The great improvement in quality and augmentation in 
numbers realized within the last 15 years, must carry it 
considerably beyond $25,000,000 at the present time. It 
is much to be regretted that our modern Solons at Wash- 
ington, did not think the subject of any attention in 
taking the last or any preceding census and statis- 
tics, as we are quite certain the aggregate value in 
1850, must nearly equal that of sheep. We take this 
early opportunity of suggesting this item for the next cen- 
sus, and trust our future members of Congress, and our 
then Executive may afford us all necessary data on this 
interesting head in i860. 
Yet the estimate we make, however large it may seem to 
■the uninitiated, represents but a small part of their annual 
value. Nothing else that breathes in the service of man 
has such power of self multiplication or productiveness as 
fowls. A choice young hen has been known to lay over 
200 eggs in a year, and nearly all hens, with proper se- 
lections, attention, &c., may be young and choice. This 
is more than four times the value of the bird, and after de- 
ducting economical feed and attention, is more than double 
her value that may be realized per annum, in nett profit. 
Will one of our political economists please to indicate in 
what branch of rural or other industry an equal return can 
be made for capital and labor. 
Nor does this represent the full value of our poultry. It 
is neither the capitalist nor most intelligent of our popula- 
tion, (who least need these large returns,) that generally 
reap the benefit of them. Happily for the poor and ignor- 
ant, this is just the kind of domestic stock which any of 
them can buy, and feed, and rear, however humble their 
mental capacity and pecuniary means may be. The 
young, the feeble, the halt and the invalid, can look after 
the poultry yard as well as the strongest, and some of the 
most successful of the devotees to this object, have been 
those whose physical disabilities have prevented their em- 
ployment in more important avocations. 
Great advantages follows the general rearing of poultry 
in another respect. The hen and duck are ommiverous, 
and to a great extent also are the turkey and the goose. 
Every species of grain, edible grass and vegetable ; flesh, 
fish, insect and garbage are greedily devoured by the 
whole tribe of domestic bipeds. The pig, gourmand and 
cosmopolite as he is, is not more indiscriminate in his 
food than the subjects of our notice. What is everywhere 
produced, in everybody’s way, and if not removed, would 
become offensive and injurious to the whole community, 
are by these incessant foragers, picked up, and at once 
converted into nutritious flesh, or wholesome eggs. And 
more than this, like the feathered tenants of the trees, 
they are often of incalculable service in thinning off or ex- 
terminating the insect pests of the farm and garden. 
Thus, what may become to the growing crop a most 
destructive brood of insects, may be transferred into a 
wholesome, useful, merchantable article. What myriads of 
grasshoppers are annually devoured by clutches of young 
turkeys, and how many acres ofgrass, oats, &c., are saved 
to the farmer by these and his other fowls. A friend in- 
forms us that his chickens, which are kept among his 
meadows during the summer, on an average of seasons, 
do much more benefit to his crops by the destruction of 
insects, than the entire cost of their feed and attention. 
Some look with regret upon the recent poultry mania, 
which originated in New England, where most of our 
new notions are hatched. But we regard it as a down- 
right blessing to the country. It has set people to think- 
ing, to comparing, and finally to importing ; and we have 
thereby greatly improved the quality of our poultry, and 
advantageously and largely augmented their numbers — 
the direct and inevitable consequence of this excitement. 
Others equally object to the importation of the larger 
breeds of fowls, the Asiatics, with their stalwart forms 
and awkward gait. Though no favorites of ours, in their 
most enlarged and ungainly proportions, we still differ, 
even in this, from objectors. We have no doubt they are 
destined to work a decided improvement in many poultry 
yards. They are great layers. The experience of nearly 
all who have tried them is unanimous in this. They be- 
gin to lay early, when five and a half to eight months old, 
and lay pretty steadily ever afterwards. The breeders 
generally agree, that they and the cross breeds are the only 
fowls to be relied on for winter eggs. These are also al- 
leged to be particularly rich, and one friend assures us that 
two Shanghai eggs are worth three of the Black Spanish, 
though the latter are the largest. Their flesh, too, is fine 
, in the chickens, and it is not good in any other family of 
older fowls, unless Capons. They require a good deal to 
