352 
THE HEN FEVER. 
THE HEN FEVER. 
It is surprising to witness the working of 
this fashionable, we had nearly written foolish 
fever. The yellow fever and cholera may be 
more fatal; the “ grippe,” or broken-bone fever, 
harder to bear, but the “hen fever” is mak¬ 
ing the most fools, and engulfing the most 
money, particularly in New England; and we 
judge from numerous letters lately received 
from our friends at the south, that they are get¬ 
ting a touch of it even there. Our orders for 
Shanghaes Chittagongs, Cochin-Chinas, Plym¬ 
outh Rocks, and half a dozen other puffed-up, 
worthless breeds of fowls, whose strong points 
of recommendation consist solely of long legs 
and necks, big heads, bodies meagerly covered 
with coarse flesh, and as destitute of beauty as 
the specimen, denoted by the cut below, are 
numerous, but these will all remain unanswered; 
for we have no idea of being mixed up with 
the miserable humbug in the hen trade, which 
is kept alive by a class of papers that might be 
better employed. The public look to the agri¬ 
cultural press for truth, instead of deception 
and twaddle. 
Breeders who live upon the gullibility of the 
public keep this fever alive, by means of pub¬ 
lications, in such papers as will lend themselves 
to the henhussys , and by poultry books, got up 
on purpose to assist them to sell their great, 
overgrown, long-legged, crane-necked, big-head¬ 
ed abortions, not one of which is worth half so 
much to the farmer, as the old stock of Javas, 
Malays, or their crosses, the Bucks-county and 
Jersey Blues, which can be bought at a moder¬ 
ate price. We understand, that from $20 to 
$100 a pair is the asking price of these “ great 
poultry breeders,” who know no more of the 
true merits of a fowl, than they do about the 
hen roost of the emperor of China, or the duck 
pond of the Great Mogul. 
We are sorry to see respectable agricultural 
papers, like some we might name in Boston, 
engaged in such small business as puffing these 
miserable bipeds, (feathered or featherless,) 
into notice. We can assure them that their 
columns could be much better occupied than in 
such humbugging and foul foolery. They may 
be-praise or be-foul such as they please; but 
after all is said and done, the best and most 
profitable for the farmer to keep, is the Dorking, 
or a good common kind, of medium size, like 
the old-fashioned speckled Dominique, the lat¬ 
ter of which can be bought for 50 cents to $1 
per pair. Such fowls can pick up their own 
living in the farmyard; they want neither cos¬ 
seting nor stuffing, they can take care of them¬ 
selves. 
FRENCH CONTRACT FOR ENGLISH CAVALRY 
HORSES. 
For the last few weeks a great number of 
English horses have been exported to France, 
on account of the French government. There 
are several agents at present in this country for 
the purpose of making some very large pur¬ 
chases of chargers for the remounting of the 
French cavalry regiments, both heavy and light. 
The contract is for 12,000, at the price of £25 
per horse, for the light cavalry, and £28 per 
horse for the heavy troops—Cuirassiers, Cara¬ 
bineers, dragoons, artillery. 
The above paragraph we cut from one of our 
English papers. It teaches the farmer the ad¬ 
vantage of rearing an improved stock. Here is 
France with a much larger and more fertile 
country, and yet she is tributary to her great 
rival, England, for the well mounting of her 
cavalry horses. What a disgrace to France 
this is, and what an honor to England. 
At the famous battle of Waterloo, one regi¬ 
ment of English cavalry was so superior to any 
in the French lines, that in every charge, they 
easily rode right over the French horses, com¬ 
pletely discomfitting them with scarce the ne¬ 
cessity of pulling a trigger or drawing a sword. 
It was the superior breed of the English 
horses, alone, that enabled them to accomplish 
this. 
There is nothing superior to a first-rate Amer¬ 
ican horse; and if our farmers will only breed 
from the best animals, we should soon have 
such a numerous stock in the country as the 
world never yet saw, out of Arabia. 
Arrack.— This is a spirituous liquor produced 
from distillation of palm wine, and also from a 
fermented infusion of rice. It is a drink much 
used in the East Indies, among some of the 
semi-barbarous nations. Opposed as we are 
to all intoxicating beverages, we cannot recom¬ 
mend its introduction into this country, unless it 
were upon the same principle we would toler¬ 
ate wine, cider, and beer, as less likely to pro¬ 
duce drunkenness than whiskey. A great fire 
is sometimes checked by a smaller one. 
