140 
Mat. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
The Fowl Mania. 
In remarking on the “ Fowl dealings of foreign 
ers,” Punch,after alluding to the immense number 
of eggs,—some hundred million or up wards,—im¬ 
ported into England from France, to the great de¬ 
triment of the British farmers’ profits, asks the in¬ 
dignant question, “ how much longer will they en¬ 
dure this foreign yolk ?” The hen fanciers seem to 
have become equally indignant, for the madness 
they have evinced in the direction of high prices, 
rather exceeds a similar development in this coun¬ 
try. Their labors are certainly needed, for the 
phrase, “anew laid egg,” is supposed to draw 
about as hard on the faith of the Londoners, as 
that of 1 1 pure Orange county milk ” does on the 
! credence of our New-York neighbors. 
The intelligence has been lately announced that 
single individuals of the celebrated breed intro¬ 
duced by Queen Victoria,—the Cochin China,— 
have been sold for more than two hundred dol¬ 
lars; and that Potts, the famous English breeder, 
actually obtained at a late sale of 120 birds, the 
snug sum of $3,600. “ Extravagance! Insani¬ 
ty!” exclaim the cool-headed and phlegmatic lis¬ 
teners, “to pay the price of a fine horse, or of 
half a dozen excellent cows, for a single cock or 
hen!—or the value of a moderate, well improved 
farm, for the contents of a small poultry yard!” 
Equally absurd appears the anxiety with which 
certain -marks are sought, for the purity of the 
breed, which perhaps attaches a value of some 
twenty-five or fifty dollars to a feathered leg or a 
lighter hue. Yet “absurd” and “insane” as 
this may at first glance appear, it is certainly im¬ 
measurably less so than the anxiety with which a 
particular sort of lap-dog has been sought, whose 
great merit consisted in being able to go into a 
quart cup, and on which dignified ladies bestowed 
ten times the care and nursing that they gave to 
their own children. This poultry madness be¬ 
comes cool-headed wisdom, when compared with 
the time-honored custom, prevailing among aris¬ 
tocratic men, of placing a very high value on cer¬ 
tain half-ounces of blood in their veins, derived 
from some particular ancestor, which the- most 
acute analytic chemist could not distinguish by 
the slightest shades of difference from any other 
blood of human veins. Even in republican Amer¬ 
ica, many laugh at the poultry mania and the 
waste of money on “ feathered humbugs,” who at 
at the same moment are riding in coaches on 
which extra hundreds have been lavished simply 
to make them glitter more brilliantly in the eyes 
of the gaping multitude, or who have already 
spent twice the amount for the flash of fine furni¬ 
ture or the glitter of jewels, in order to please 
such empty-headed mortals, as can see no beauty 
whatever in the infinitely more glorious sight of a 
morning sun flashing on a rich lanscape, glittering 
with the jewels just descended like a shower of 
diamonds from the ether above. 
If men, like sheep, will follow their leaders, let 
it be by all means in some profitable direction, 
and not like the unfortunate flock who leaped af. 
ter their bell-weather over the fence into the well 
on the other side. The cattle mania of ’42, 
and the the Shanghai mania of ’52, have both 
wrought great improvements in their respective 
departments. Nothing more rapidly disseminates 
4 improved animals through a community, than a 
fa* rage to possess the finest specimens. Instead, 
w therefore, of becoming a subject for ridicule and 
denunciation, the present hen fever should be re¬ 
garded as the most powerful means to introduce 
a high standard of value and excellence in a class 
of animals, constituting at the present moment 
many millions of the wealth of the country, and 
affording a most wholesome and delicate luxury 
in country life, for both sickness and health. In¬ 
finitely would we prefer to see our wealthier im¬ 
provers of farm animals lay down ten gold eagles 
for a beautiful bird,—capable of multiplying its 
superior excellence to an indefinite extent,—than 
to see our city neighbors waste five times that 
sum on a single entertainment, leaving no traces 
behind but headaches and dyspepsias; or to see 
their wives and daughters lavish a thousand dol¬ 
lars on a single shawl, solely to tickle the admira¬ 
tion of fools. 
But our principal object at the present moment 
is to say a word to all the breeders of fowls, on 
the importance of extending their investigations 
into a field not yet sufficiently explored. They 
have already given by means of their beautiful ex¬ 
hibitions a tolerable acquaintance with the exter¬ 
nal characteristics of a score or so of breeds, includ¬ 
ing the Malays, Cochin Chinese, Shanghais, Java¬ 
nese, Black Spanish, Dorkings, Hamburgs, 
Polands, Barn-door, Game, Bantams, and various 
other modifications of the Phasianus gallus, the 
music of their ‘ 1 clarions ” ranging through the 
entire diapason, from the hoarse dinner-horn 
drawl of the grave East Indian dignitaries, to the 
vigorous scream of the pugnacious Bantams. 
What we want now is a full set of simple, straight¬ 
forward experiments to show what profits all these 
various sorts will afford to the ordinary farmer,over 
and above the two great items of cost, attendance 
and food. The question of the degree of profits in 
systematic hen-keeping is not yet settled. For, 
ordinarily, poultry is raised without any system 
at all, farmers merely allowing their fowls to do 
their own breeding and laying, and to pick their 
own living wherever they can find it among the 
refuse materials of the barn-yard. With the ex¬ 
ception of an occasional scratching in a garden 
bed, or the inconvenience from roosting on tools 
and carriage seats, this mode of management may 
be said to cost nothing, and farmers get their usual 
supply of eggs and chickens without giving either 
food or attendance. Now r , the question is, which 
of all the numerous breeds are best adapted to 
this self-management? Cannot some sort be found, 
or originated by crossing, that, like the Shanghais, 
shall be too lazy to scratch gardens, and too clum¬ 
sy to ascend a carriage, and yet have industry 
enough to pick a living, and lay fast? Again, we 
want a breed that shall be just the thing for corn- 
fined poultry-yards and houses; that shall eat but 
little, lay profusely, and keep fat. The consump¬ 
tion of food for this kind of keeping is usually a 
large item of expense, and the fowls cannot thrive 
unless constant attention is given to cleanliness— 
these outlays, superadded to.the erection of good 
buildings, must all be paid for by the hens’ divi¬ 
dends, and it is very important to find out the 
animal that shall attend to this fiscal requisite, 
regularly, reliably, and promptly. Some of the 
East India fowls have laid one hundred eggs in 
one hundred days and a week; this is coming up 
to the work in a faithful manner, and all we want 
to know besides, is, the cost on the long run, 
which these hundreds can be afforded at. The 
papers furnish frequent statements of experiments, 
showing the high profits of hen-keeping, but in 
