THE EPIDEMIC SPREADING.
While all this was transpiring, my "splendid" Cochin-China fowls had
arrived from England, and I had had a nice house arranged, in which to
keep and exhibit them to visitors.
The pullets began to lay in January, 1850, and immediately afterwards my
trade commenced in earnest, which continued, without interruption, up to
the close of the year 1854.
Among the "monstrosities" presented at the second meeting at the Boston
Statehouse were several propositions that were suggested by
gentlemen-amateurs and farmers in regard to the price that should be
fixed on, by members of the Society with the elongated title, for _eggs_
sold for incubation.
One man thought that _two_ dollars a dozen for most of the fancy kinds
would pay well. This gentleman (I do not remember who he was) probably
calculated to furnish fancy eggs as a certain agricultural concern had
been doing for some months: that is, by first purchasing them at a
shilling a dozen from the eastern packets, or in Quincy Market. The next
man thought that _three_ dollars per dozen would be fair. Another member
believed that _one_ dollar was enough for twelve eggs, "but he didn't
know much about it," he acknowledged; which was pretty evident from his
remarks. At any rate, he had never fed a "laying hen" long enough on
good corn to ascertain how much she would devour while she was
furnishing him with the said twelve eggs, I imagine! One gentleman, more
liberally disposed, probably, ventured to express his willingness to pay
_five_ dollars a dozen for what he wanted. I understood he got home
safely after the meeting, though it was feared he would be mobbed for
his temerity in making this ridiculous offer!
I had already fixed _my_ price for the eggs that were to be dropped by
my "extraordinary and superb" Cochin-China fowls, which by this time had
got to be "the admiration of the State" (so the newspapers said). I had
the _best_ fowls in this world, or in any other; this being conceded by
every one who saw them, there was no necessity of "talking the subject
up" to anybody. I charged _twelve_ dollars a dozen for my eggs--and
never winked at it!
And why shouldn't I have the highest price? Were not my fowls the
"choicest specimens" ever seen in America? Didn't everybody so declare?
Didn't the press and the poultry-books concede this, without an
exception? Well, they did! And so, for months, I obtained one dollar
each for my Cochin-China fowls' eggs; and I received order after order,
and remittance after remittance, for eggs (at this figure), which I
could not _begin_ to supply.
And I didn't laugh, either! I had no leisure to laugh. I filled the
orders as they came,--"first come, first served,"--and for several
months I found my list of promises six or eight weeks in advance of my
ability to meet them with _genuine_ eggs.
I was not so well informed, then, as I was afterwards. I think all the
eggs that were then wanted _might_ have been had. But, as the boy said,
when asked where all the stolen peaches he had eaten were gone, "I
donno!"
Will it be credited that, during the summer of 1850, I had dozens of
full-grown men--gentlemen--but enthusiastic hen-fanciers (who had
contracted the fever suddenly), who came to my residence for
Cochin-China eggs, at one dollar each, and who, upon being informed that
I hadn't one in the house, would quietly sit down in my parlor and wait
two, three, or four hours at a time, _for the hens to lay them a few_,
that they might take them away with them? Such is the fact, however it
may be doubted.
I subsequently sold the eggs at ten dollars a dozen; then at six
dollars; and finally, the third and fourth years, at five dollars. This
paid me, because I sent off a great many.
But they didn't hatch well after having been transported away and shaken
over in the hands of careless and ignorant or reckless express agents.
Thus the buyers came again. Many of the early fanciers tried this
experiment over and over again, but with similar ill-success; and when
they had expended ten, twenty, or thirty dollars, perhaps, for eggs,
they would begin at the _beginning_ aright, and purchase a few chickens
to rear, from which they could finally procure their own eggs, and go
forward more successfully. But all this took time to bring it about.
And meanwhile _somebody_ (I don't say who) was "feathering a certain
nest" as rapidly as a course of high-minded and honorable dealing with
his fellow-men would permit.