RUNNING IT INTO THE GROUND.
There now seemed to be no limit whatever to the _prices_ that fanciers
would pay for what were deemed the best samples of fowls. For my own
part, from the very commencement I had been considerate and merciful in
_my_ charges. True, I had been taken down handsomely by a Briton (in my
original purchase of Cochin-Chinas), but I did not retaliate. I was
content with a fair remuneration; _my_ object, principally, was to
disseminate good stock among "the people," for I was a democrat, and
loved the dear people.
So I charged lightly for my "magnificent" samples, while other persons
were selling second and third rate stock for five or even six and eight
dollars a pair. The "Grey Shanghaes" had got to be a "fixed fact" in
England, as well as in this country, and still I was flooded with orders
continually.
I obtained $25, $50, $100 a pair, for mine; and one gentleman, who
ordered four greys, soon after the Queen's stock reached England, paid
me _sixty guineas_ for them--$150 a pair. But these were of the _better_
class of birds to which I have alluded.
In 1852 a Boston agricultural journal stated that "within three months
extra samples of two-year-old fowls, of the large Chinese varieties,
have been sold in Massachusetts at $100 the pair. Several pairs, within
our own knowledge, have commanded $50 a pair, within the past six
months. Last week we saw a trio of White Shanghaes sold in Boston for
$45. And the best specimens of Shanghaes and Cochin-China fowls now
bring $20 to $25 a pair, readily, to purchasers at the South and West."
Now, these prices may be looked upon by the uninitiated as
extraordinary. So they were for this country. But at a Birmingham (Eng.)
show, in the fall of 1852, a single pair of "Seabright Bantams," very
small and finely plumed, sold for $125; a fine "Cochin-China" cock and
two hens, for $75; and a brace of "White Dorkings," at $40. An English
breeder went to London, from over a hundred miles distant, for the sole
purpose of procuring a setting of Black Spanish eggs, and paid one
dollar for each egg. Another farmer there sent a long distance for the
best Cochin-China eggs, and paid one dollar and fifty cents _each_ for
them, at this time!
This was keeping up the rates with a vengeance, and beat us Yankees, out
and out. But later accounts from across the water showed that this was
only a beginning, even. In the winter of 1852 the _Cottage Gardener_
stated that "within the last few weeks a gentleman near London sold a
pair of Cochin-China fowls for 30 guineas ($150), and another pair for
32 guineas ($160). He has been offered £20 for a single hen; has sold
numerous eggs at 1 guinea ($5) each, and has been paid down for chickens
just hatched 12 guineas ($60) the half-dozen, to be delivered at a month
old. One amateur alone had paid upwards of £100 for stock birds."
To this paragraph in the _Gardener_ the _Bury and Norwich Post_ added
the following: "In our own neighborhood, during the past week, we happen
to know that a cock and two hens (Cochin-Chinas) have been sold for 32
guineas, or $160. The fact is, choice birds, well bred, of good size and
handsome plumage, are now bringing very high prices, everywhere; and the
demand (in our own experience) has never been so great as at the present
time."
In this way the fever raved and raged for a long year or more. Shows
were being held all over this country, as well as in every principal
city and town in England. Everybody bought fowls, and everybody had to
pay for them, too, in 1852 and 1853!
In a notice of one of the English shows in that year (1853), a paper
says: "There is a pen of three geese weighing forty-eight pounds; and
among the _Cochin-China_ birds are to be found hens which, in the period
that forms the usual boundary of chicken life, have attained a weight of
seven or eight pounds. Of the value of these birds it is difficult to
speak without calling forth expressions of incredulity. It is evident
that there is a desperate _mania_ in bird-fancying, as in other things.
Thus, for example, there is a single fowl to which is affixed the
enormous money value of 30 _guineas_; two Cochin-China birds are
estimated at 25 _guineas_; and four other birds, of the same breed, a
cock and three hens, are rated in the aggregate at 60 _guineas_,--a
price which the owner confidently expects them to realize at the
auction-sale on Thursday. A further illustration of this ornithological
enthusiasm is to be found in the fact that, at a sale on Wednesday last,
one hundred and two lots, comprising one hundred and ten Cochin-China
birds, all belonging to one lady, realized £369. 4s. 6d.; the highest
price realized for a single one being 20 guineas."
Another British journal stated, a short time previously, that "a
circumstance occurred which proves that the Cochin-China mania has by no
means diminished in intensity. The last annual sale of the stock of Mr.
Sturgeon, of Greys, has taken place at the Baker-street Bazaar. The two
hundred birds there disposed of could not have realized a less sum than
nearly £700 (or $3500), some of the single specimens being knocked down
at more than £12, and very many producing £4, £5, and £6 each."
The attention, at this sale, devoted to the pedigree of the birds, was
amusing to a mere observer; one fowl would be described as a cockerel by
_Patriarch_, another as a pullet by _Jerry_, whilst a third was
recommended as being the off-spring of _Sam_. Had the sale been one of
horses, more care could hardly have been taken in describing their
pedigrees or their qualifications. Many were praised by the auctioneer
as being particularly _clever_ birds, although in what their cleverness
consisted did not appear. The fancy had evidently extended to _all_
ranks in society. The peerage sent its representatives, who bought what
they wanted, regardless of price. Nor was the lower house without its
delegates; a well-known metropolitan ex-member seems to have changed his
constituency of voters for one of Cochins; and we can only hope that it
may not be his duty to hold an inquest on any that perish by a violent
or unnatural death. The sums obtained for these birds depended on their
being in strict accordance with the then taste of the fancy. They were
magnificent in size, docile in behavior, intelligent in expression, and
most of them were very finely bred.
And while the hen fever was thus at its height, almost, in England, we
were following close upon the footsteps of John Bull in the United
States. At the Boston Fowl Show in 1852, three Cochin-Chinas were sold
at $100; a pair of Grey Chittagongs, at $50; two Canton Chinese fowls,
at $80; three Grey Shanghae chicks, at $75; three White Shanghaes, at
$65; six White Shanghae chickens, $40 to $45, etc.; and these prices,
for similar samples, could have been obtained again and again.
At this time there was found an ambitious individual, occasionally, who
got "ahead of his time," and whose laudable efforts to outstrip his
neighbors were only checked by the natural results of his own superior
"progressive" notions. A case in point:
"Way down in Lou'siana," for instance, a correspondent of mine stated
that there lived one of these go-ahead fellows, who had been afflicted
with a serious attack of hen fever, and who was not content with the
ordinary speed and prolificness in breeding of the noted Shanghae fowls.
He desired to possess himself of the biggest kind of a pile of chickens
for the rapidly augmenting trade; and so he had constructed an
Incubator, of moderate dimensions, into which he carefully stowed only
three hundred nice fresh eggs, from his fancy fowls.
The secret of his plan to "astonish the boys" was limited to the
knowledge of only two or three friends; and--thermometer in hand--he
commenced operations. With close assiduity and Job-like patience, our
amateur applied himself to his three weeks' task, by day and night, and
at the end of fifteen days, one egg was broken, and Mr. Shanghae was
_thar_,--alive and kicking, but as yet immature.
The neighborhood was in the greatest excitement at this prospect of
success. Our friend commenced to crow (slightly), and, to hasten
matters, put on, a _leetle_ more steam at a venture. The twenty-second
day arrived, and the "boys" assembled to witness the _entrée_ of three
hundred steam-hatched Shanghaes into this breathing world. Our amateur
was full of expectation and "fever." One egg was broken; another, and
then another; when, upon inspection, the entire mass was found to have
been _thoroughly boiled_!
A desperate guffaw was heard as our amateur friend disappeared, and his
only query since has been to ascertain what actual time is required to
boil a certain quantity of eggs at a given heat, and the smallest
probable cost thereof! As far as heard from, the reply has been, say six
gallons of good alcohol, at one dollar per gallon, for three hundred
eggs; time (night and day), twenty-two days and seven hours; and the
product it is generally thought would make capital fodder for young
turkeys,--provided said eggs are not boiled _too hard_!
On the subject of the _diseases_ of poultry many learned and sapient
dissertations appeared about these days. In one agricultural journal we
remember to have met with the following scientific prescription. The
learned writer is talking about _roup_ in fowls, and says:
"This is probably a chronic condition, the result of frequent colds.
Give the following medicines: _Aconite_, if there is fever,
_hepar-suliphuris third trituration_, or mercury, _third trituration_,
for a day or two, once in three or four hours; then _pulsatilla
tincture_ for the eyes; _antimonium_, third trituration or _arsenic_, or
_nux vomica_, for the crop."
Isn't this _clear_, reader? How many poultry-raisers in the United
States are there who would be likely to comprehend one line of this
stuff? We advise this writer to try again; the above is an "elegant
extract," verily!
We now come down to the fourth and last exhibition in Boston of the
Mutual Admiration Society, _alias_ the Association with the long-winded
cognomen, which took place in September, 1852.