AN EXPENSIVE BUSINESS.
During the past six years I have expended, outright, for breeding stock,
and for appropriate buildings for my fowls, over four thousand dollars,
in round numbers--without taking into the account the expenses of their
care, and the cost of feeding.
Few breeders have spent anything like this sum, for this purpose,
_strictly_. In the mean time, the aggregate of my receipts has reached
(up to January, 1855) upwards of seventy thousand dollars. I have raised
thousands upon thousands of the Chinese varieties of fowls, and my
purchases to fill orders which came to hand during this term--in
addition to what I was able to fill from those I myself raised--have
been very large. And, while I have been thus engaged, hundreds and
hundreds of amateurs and fanciers have sprung up in various directions,
all of whom have had their share, too, in this trade.
To the fanciers--those who purchased, as many did at first, simply for
their amusement, or for the mere satisfaction of having good, or,
perhaps, the best birds--this fever proved an expensive matter. I have
known amateurs who willingly paid twenty, fifty, or a hundred dollars,
and even more, for a pair, or a trio, of what were considered very
choice Shanghaes. These fowls, after the first few weeks or months of
the purchaser's excitement had passed by, could be bought of him for
five or ten dollars a pair! Yet, his next-door neighbor, who would not
now take these identical birds for a gift, scarcely, would pay to a
stranger a similarly extravagant amount to that which had a hundred
times been paid by others before him, for something, perhaps, inferior
in quality, but which chanced to be called by the most popular name
current at the moment.
Thus, for a time, bubble number one, the _Cochin-Chinas_, prevailed. The
eggs of these fowls sold at a dollar each, for a long period. Then came
the _Shanghaes_, of different colors,--as the yellow, the white, the
buff, or the black,--and took their turn. Many thousands of these were
disposed of, at round rates. The smooth-legged birds at first commanded
the best price; then the feathered-legged. And, finally, came the Grey
Shanghaes, or "Chittagongs," or "Brahmas," as they were differently
termed; and this proved bubble number two, in earnest.
Everybody wanted them, and everybody had to pay for them, too! They were
large, heavy fowls, of China blood, plainly, but, with some few
exceptions, were indifferent birds. They were _leggy_, however, and
stood up showy and tall, and, to _look at_, appeared advantageously to
the fancy, at this period. In the maw of this bubble, thousands of good
dollars were thrown; and no race of poultry ever had the run that did
these Greys, under various names, both in this country and in England.
A most excellent Southern trade had sprung up, and large shipments of
fowls went forward to the West, from Massachusetts, and to Charleston,
Augusta, Mobile, New Orleans, etc., where the fever broke out furiously,
and continued, without abatement, for three years or more.
No buyers were so liberal, generally, and no men in the world, known to
Northern breeders, bought so extensively, as did these fanciers in New
Orleans and vicinity. They purchased largely, from the very start; and
the trade was kept up with a singular vigor and enterprise, from the
beginning to the end. Orders, varying in value from $500 to $1200 and
$1500, were of almost weekly occurrence from that region; and in one
instance, I sent forward to a gentleman in Louisiana, a single shipment
for which he paid me $2230! This occurred in September, 1853.
In this same year, I sent, from January to December, to another
gentleman (at New Orleans), over _ten thousand_ dollars' worth of stock.
The prices for chickens ranged from $12 or $15 a pair, to $25 or $30,
and often $40 to $50, a pair. These rates were always willingly and
freely paid, and the stock was, after a while, disseminated throughout
the entire valley of the Mississippi; where the China fowls always did
better than in our own climate.
It proved an expensive business to some of these gentlemen, most
emphatically. But they always paid cheerfully, promptly, and liberally;
and _knew_ the Yankees they were dealing with, a good deal better than
many of the sharpers supposed they did. For myself, I shall not permit
this opportunity to pass without expressing my thanks to my numerous and
generous Southern patrons, to whom I sent a great many hundred pairs of
what were deemed "good birds," and to whom I am indebted, largely, for
the trade I enjoyed for upwards of five years. I sincerely hope they
made more money out of all this than I did; and I trust that their
substance, as well as "their shadows, may never be less."
During this year, and far into 1854, the current of trade turned towards
Great Britain; and John Bull was not very slow to appreciate the rare
qualities of my "magnificent" and "extraordinary" birds; "the like of
which," said a London journal, when the Queen's fowls first arrived,
"was never before seen in England."
For upwards of a year, I had all _this_ trade in my own way.
Subsequently, some of the smaller dealers sent out a few pairs to
London, but "the people" there could never be brought to believe those
fowls were anything but mongrels; and, while these interlopers contrived
to murder the trade there, they at the same time "cut off their own
noses," for the future, with those who knew what poultry was, upon the
other side of the Atlantic.
I had _my_ shy at the Britons, seasonably!
But, a few months afterwards (as I shall show in a future chapter),
through the mismanagement of an ambitious dealer in other fancy
live-stock, the trade with England, from this side of the water, was
completely ruined. Over two hundred American fowls were thrown suddenly
upon the London market, and were finally sold there, at auction, for a
very small sum; and we were subsequently unable (with all our
chicken-eloquence) to make John Bull believe that even the _Grey
Shanghaes_ were any longer "scarce" with us, here!