fmpetr to tmjwto % $mur ( fkmtor, ait!) % tfatattr. 
iORTCULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHY, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF 
MA At. — tv A SHWQTOM. 
ORANGE JUDD, A. M . > 
CONDUCTING EDITOR. i 
VOL. XIII.—NO. 20.] 
Published Weekly by Allen & Co., No. 189 Water-s f' | UNDER THE JOINT EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF, £ 
^ J 7 < -A- B ALLEN & ORANGE JUDD. ; : 
NEW-YORK, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 24, 1855. 
[NEW SERIES.—NO. 72. 
Jin- fJrospectM, Senna, Sec., 
S'* SEE LAST PAGE.«^3 
SST" Every one writing to the Editors or 
Publishers of this journal will please read 
“ Special Notices ,” on last page. 
IMPORTANCE OF POULTRY TO THE UNITED 
STATES. 
We have often looked over the pages of 
our agricultural journals to find interesting 
matters of information about poultry, but 
generally in vain. There is very little said 
or written on this subject, which is really 
becoming one of great national importance. 
The value of the poultry in the United States 
in 1840, was estimated at over $12,000,000. 
The great improvement in quality and aug¬ 
mentation in numbers realized within the 
last fifteen years, must carry it considerably 
beyond $25,000,000 at the present time. It 
is much to be regretted that our modern 
Solons at Washington, did not think the 
subject worthy of any attention in taking 
the last or any preceding census and sta¬ 
tistics, 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 census, and 
trust our future members of Congress, and 
our then Executive may afford us all neces¬ 
sary data on this interesting head in 1860. 
Yet the estimate we make, however large 
it may seem to the uninitiated, represents 
but a small part of their annual value. No¬ 
thing 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 
selection, attention, &c., may be young and 
choice. This is more than four times the 
value of the bird, and after deducting eco¬ 
nomical feed and attention, is more than 
double her value that may be realized per an¬ 
num, in nett profit. Will any of our politi¬ 
cal 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 population, (who 
least need these large returns,) that generally 
reap the benefit of them. Happily for the 
poor and ignorant, 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 maybe. 
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 employment in more import¬ 
ant avocations. 
Great advantage follows the general rear¬ 
ing of poultry in another respect. The hen 
and duck are omniverous, and to a great ex¬ 
tent also are the turkey and the goose. 
Every species of grain, edible grass and veg¬ 
etable ; 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 indiscrimin¬ 
ate in his food than the subjects of our no¬ 
tice. What is every where produced, in 
every body’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 ten¬ 
ants of the trees, they are often of incalcu¬ 
lable service in thinning off or exterminating 
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 of grass, oats, &c., are saved to the 
farmer by these and his other fowls. A 
friend informs us that his chickens, which 
are kept among his meadows during the sum¬ 
mer, on an average of seasons, do him 
much more benefit to his crops by the de 
struction 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 downright 
blessing to the country. It has set people 
to thinking, to comparing, and finally to im¬ 
porting ; and we have thereby greatly im¬ 
proved the quality of our poultry, and advan¬ 
tageously and largely augmented their num¬ 
bers—the direct and inevitable consequence 
of this excitement. 
Others equally object to the importation 
of the larger breeds of fowls, the Asiat¬ 
ics, 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 begin to lay early, when five 
and a half to eight months old, and lay pret¬ 
ty steadily ever afterwards. The breeders 
generally agree, that they and the cross 
bleeds are the only fowls to be relied on foi' 
winter eggs. These are also alleged 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 
laigest. 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 fill their crops, ’tis 
tiue, but it is not always the largest bodies 
that lequire the most food ; on the contrary, 
the fattest men frequently are 'the smallest 
eaters; and we all know that the Short 
Horn cattle, the Leicester sheep, and the 
Suffolk and China pigs yield a good deal 
more flesh for the food consumed than 
smaller sizes of the unimproved animals. 
There is a physical organization that deter¬ 
mines for a particular style of animal life, 
(whether it be individuals or classes of ani¬ 
mals and birds,) what is the relative propor¬ 
tion of the food consumed, they will retain 
in their carcass. The wolf, the catamount, 
the weasel; the eagle, the owl and the 
crane, each make a poor return in flesh for 
the food they devour, however large the 
quantity, or rich the quality ; and contrasted 
with the useful quadruped and biped, they 
show the wonderful difference in nutritive, 
assimilating powers. We claim no superior¬ 
ity in the fattening powers of the Asiatic 
fowls, we barely concede the possibility of 
it, but are willing to yield credence to well 
tested, long-tried, reliable experiments, 
when properly presented. But this much 
we do know, that they are no flyers, indiffer¬ 
ent walkers, and when fully supplied with 
food, are disposed to sit quietly on their 
haunches and chew their cuds in dignified 
ease, not caring to busy themselves in the 
adjoining fields and gardens, hen-hussying 
about, gadding and tattling among their 
neighbors. They are certainly domestic 
birds, whatever else may be said against 
them ; and to this trait of character, in an 
eminent degree, is attached thrift and eco¬ 
nomical feeding. We believe they may be 
bred to smaller size and greatly improved 
form, and some species thus improved we 
have seen, that would do credit to any poul¬ 
try yard. 
So, too, of the games, which have been 
almost entirely discarded from our economi- 
