land is said to be over 70,000,000. During the year 1851 the importation was 115,526,236. The number in succeeding years, ending 1861, averaged 163,581,140, the number in 1861 being 203,313,310. The wholesale price was eight cents per dozen, making the value of eggs imported that year, $1,355,422. The quantity imported had increased in 1869 to 442,172,640, valued at $5,634,265, or 15 2-7 cents per dozen; and in 1870, to 430,842,240, valued at $5,510,400, or 15 cents per dozen. The value of eggs produced in France in 1865 was $24,200,000; the exportations amounting to $4,650,000. The value of poultry consumed is estimated to be equal to the value of eggs produced, making the aggregate of eggs and poultry produced of $48,400,000. The investment in poultry in France is said to be over $75,000,000, or 50 per cent greater than in England.

It is apparent that great profit is to be derived from poultry-keeping at a small outlay of means. The fact that fat chickens can be produced as cheaply for the table as any other meat, is worthy of consideration, in connection with their desirability as excellent food. It is probable that home markets with remunerative prices may always be had by all farmers, and especially by those situated near to the large towns, who may choose to give a fair outlay of money, time, and intelligence, to poultry-keeping.

COUNTRY HOMES.

AN ESSAY BY L. H. IVES, READ AT THE FEBRUARY MEETING.

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN-That earth is beautiful, is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation. And since we, the farmers, may rightfully call a portion of God's green earth our own, we may, even with limited means, justly have a sense of security and independence to which the millionaire is a stranger.

While his mind is kept in a constant state of agitation least his stocks or ships go down, his factories burn, or his coffers of gold be carried away by the midnight marauder, ours is a goodly heritage, firm and abiding.

If it be true that "home is where the heart is," and if it be also true that by nature we love the "good and the beautiful," how many blighted, homeless hearts there are to-day, scattered in desolate places all over this bright and beautiful land of ours,-places through indolence made desolate, by a wanton disregard of the natural promptings of the mind for something higher and nobler, or perchance by a want of taste and culture.

For years it has been my conviction that a large percentage of farmers labor and thrive solely for pecuniary remuneration, the almighty dollar being to them more than an equivalent for recreation, culture, and some adornment, and thoughtful observation but confirms my conviction.

Living upon the common necessities of life, depriving themselves and those about them of that which makes a home home in its truest sense, they go on from year to year, until the paradise they should have made for their children becomes to them a penitentiary, from which they eagerly wait to be free.

Could these misguided men and women be induced to listen to the voice of reason, they might easily be convinced that the pleasantest is often the best way to enhance the value of their property.

A well kept lawn, neatly bordered with a white latticed fence, a trellised vine, a few ornamental trees grouped in natural grace, or a garden of flowers, each, or even all, requiring comparatively little time or means, form attractions calculated not only to elevate and refine, but to captivate the eye of those who delight to add value as well as beauty to their homes.

The grounds of farm houses, unlike many of those in the city or town, may and should be amply spacious to give that hospitable, inviting air which is one of the great charms of country life.

A great many beauties may be crowded into a small space, but this does not accord with my idea of a country home. Let the grounds be roomy, so that year by year new attractions may be added, without giving that crowded, confined appearance too frequently noticeable in country as well as town.

When we take into consideration the fact that we Americans are a transient, speculative people, that even our homes, made dear by a thousand sacred associations, are not too dear to sacrifice for money, why should we hesitate to add those attractions which will form an inducement to those who have not the tact to make for themselves such homes, but who will often give many times their real cost simply for the gratification of having a beautiful and tasteful residence. We cannot all possess those grand old hospitable mansions, with their long piazzas and broad halls, which poets and novelists love to describe, with shaded avenues, winding drives, and walks bordered with rare and beauful flowers, but we may all have that which makes home in its broadest sense. Our house may be a humble structure, devoid of the attractions of a more pretentious dwelling, or even the advantages of a fine location; yet who of us can not now readily call to mind some sunny little cot which attracted our attention as we passed by, and instinctively exclaimed, what a "cozy little home;" and afterward, in trying to recall the place to mind, or describe its beauty to a friend, we remember its charm consisted perhaps in some simple little arrangement that did not cost the expense of a half day's labor.

Thus it seems to me that no farmer can afford to have a house devoid of taste. There are none so poor but may drop a seed here and there, that will spring up into life, "a thing of beauty," a "joy forever." Time and means thus spent bring their own recompense, both in enhancing the value of property, and in being a constant source of satisfaction and delight.

If our social education has been what it should have been, we find our chief happiness in and about our homes. Here our soul life develops itself, and yet how few of us live in the present,-commence with life to enjoy life. How many of us deprive ourselves of that which should be food for body and soul, until the little span of life allotted us is so nearly past we find ourselves incapacitated to appreciate or enjoy the beauties of art or nature. Instead of commencing to live with life, as designed by our Father, our souls are dwarfed by living on anticipation, rather than developed to find manhood by a grand realization. Why is it so many thus live, disregarding the claims of society and God, burying the talents intrusted to their keeping?

If you would have your children grow up to lead lives of usefulness, kept away from bad company, a comfort to you in your declining years, happy and sunny tempered, give them pleasant surroundings at home, for these will have an indelible influence upon their whole future lives.

To those who have not become settled, whose home is yet a thing of imagination, I will give my idea of a few of the more prominent external features of a rural home:

The house should stand on upland ground, with exposure to sunlight on every side. Its distance from the main thoroughfare at least one hundred and fifty feet. A pleasant gradual elevation is quite desirable. The entire front yard a grass plat, with here and there a native or ornamental tree; no shrubs or fruit trees on this space except, perhaps, some of the small ornamental varieties. There should be plenty of space for shrubs and flowers on either side; these may occupy an intermediate space between the grass plat and vegetable garden. The barns and other out-buildings should be arranged with reference to taste, safety, and convenience. Use paint freely on all buildings. It not only adds to their external appearance, but preserves them from the ravages of time and decay.

If the few suggestions I have made shall, in the coming spring-time, induce one who has heretofore given little or no thought or care to the adornment of his home to gather about him those attractions which are calculated to develop the better nature, leading up out to purer, higher life, I shall have accomplished my purpose. May we not hope and reasonably expect that "the good time coming is almost here," and that a new era is already being ushered in by co-operative instrumentalities, known as the grangers, which are calculated to elevate and refine the social condition of rural life, to bring the laboring land-owning populace of our free, broad, Christian country to a higher civil and social basis.

A general talk upon the subject followed the reading of the essay, which can but result in good.

INTELLIGENCE THE FOUNDATION AND SUPPORT OF AGRICULTURAL PROSPERITY.

AN ESSAY READ BY HON. O. M. BARNES BEFORE THE MASON FARMERS' CLUB, FEB. 21, 1874.

As you have requested me to give some account of the condition of agriculture as I saw it in Europe, I shall endeavor to comply with your request in this essay. I will give some account of what you would be likely to see if you were to pursue the same route I took, and endeavor to deduce the lesson which may be deduced from such observation. To make this the more useful, I will state some of the causes of agricultural prosperity, and illustrate my views by referring to the condition of things in that part of the world. The value to us of observations will depend upon the importance of the lesson we learn from them. The prosperity of agriculture and of the agriculturist depends on the augmentation and diffusion of knowledge more than upon soil or climate, and that our efforts to increase the prosperity of farming must be directed towards augmenting our knowledge of the subject and diffusing it among the farmers. I think this will appear clear and plain from the facts I have to state. The prosperity of agriculture depends chiefly on these three things, namely:

the climate, the soil, and the knowledge of the agriculturist. The relation of climate and soil to prosperity will be apparent enough. Corn and rice cannot be successfully cultivated in the frozen regions of the north, nor can wheat be successfully grown upon the barren rock of the mountains. A genial climate, with adequate moisture, and a fertile soil are at once seen to be necessary to

success.

The importance of knowledge as an element of success is not so apparent, still an examination of the history and condition of the farming interests in different countries will show that it is not less important than the other causes named. Indeed, after the first stages of prosperity have been passed, knowledge is the most important of the three, and no high success can be attained without great knowledge.

Soil and climate are in the same country fixed and invariable. They are conditions in nature, and although man may by his ingenuity manage to irrigate places naturally dry, to warm places naturally cold, and to fertilize soils naturally barren, still these operations are quite limited in extent, and so far as they are successes they show the value of human knowledge. Knowledge is within man, and variable. This we may increase. This is more largely in our power. It is therefore most deserving of our attention. While a prosperous agriculture cannot be expected in a barren country, or where the climate forbids, still in most all climates and in most all varieties of soil, the ingenuity of man has been able to carry on a successful cultivation. On the other hand, in most favorable climates, and in countries possessed of the most productive soil, ignorance achieves but little. If success depended on soil and climate alone, we should expect the greatest success where these are most favorable. But we find the most dejected agriculture sometimes where the soil and climate are most propitious, while the happiest and most prosperous farmers are met within those countries where soil and climate are such as to render attention, foresight, and industry necessary to success. The intellect, after all, is the main dependence for prosperity in farming, as well as in everything else. Fertility of mind is more important than fertility of soil. So that we may estimate the farming success of any country by the knowledge possessed by the farmers; and may determine their knowledge as a class by the amount of success they attain. Other things being equal, those make most who know most. I do not mean of books merely, but of farming. This will readily appear as we examine different countries.

That you, gentlemen, take this view is shown by the fact that you have organized and maintained so successfully this society for self-improvement, not in muscular strength to work, but in the knowledge of how to do it. And it has afforded me great satisfaction to see your weekly discussions published for the information of others.

Let me compare the agriculture of three European countries, that of England, Switzerland, and Italy, in order to illustrate these views. The soil of England is fair, much like our own. The climate is rather cold in summer, but moist as compared with ours. It has also great commercial facilities, being surrounded on all sides by the sea.

In Switzerland the soil is in some parts very fertile, in others very barren. The mountains occupy a much larger part of the surface than in any other part of the civilized world. These are either wholly barren, or adapted to stock-growing only. In the most elevated inhabitable parts of the mountains the pasture lands can only be occupied in the latter part of summer. During

the winter and spring the homes of the shepherds are left without occupants, the climate at this elevation is so severe. Switzerland has no natural facilities for external commerce, no sea coast, and no navigable rivers connecting it with the sea. It has some beautiful internal lakes, affording connection between cantons to be sure, but these have no navigable connection with neighboring States.

Italy has, I suppose, by nature, a richer soil than either of the countries named. Its climate is also the most genial in Europe. It has some mountainous districts incapable of cultivation, and some barren tracts of considerable extent. Still, I suppose no country in Europe is by nature more productive. It has, too, unrivalled facilities for commerce, being almost surrounded by the sea, and having numerous harbors and several navigable rivers. Add to these things the further fact, that in so mild a climate as that of Italy far less is required for food, clothing, add dwellings than in colder climates, England for example, and we may naturally conclude that the farmer ought to be most prosperous. Certainly, looking only to soil, climate, and commercial facilities, we should expect that agriculturists would be better off in Italy than in Switzerland, or even in England. Such is not the fact, however. According to my observation, the farmers are the least comfortable and prosperous in that very Italy, with all its fine climate and fertile soil and commercial facilities, and most prosperous and happy in that most unpropitious land of the Switzer. While in England, where the climate is most severe, the cultivators of the soil are vastly better off than in Italy, though no more generally happy than in Switzerland. I think not so generally so.

Now compare these countries in another respect, their intellectual condition.

In Switzerland all classes are educated. Everybody can read and write. I saw as good school-houses in Switzerland as I have ever seen. And agriculture is a part of the course of instruction in all the country schools.

While education is quite general in England, it is not universal as in Switzerland.

In Italy general education, or education of the mass of the people, is very much neglected, and few of the laboring class can be said to be educated.

In England some of the best talent and best educated men are devoted to farming, and this industry here often enjoys the advantages of an intelligence not possessed by the laborer himself in this wise. The farm is usually owned, and its operations directed by an educated proprietor, while the laborer himself may be quite ignorant.

The unprosperous condition of agriculturists in Italy must be mainly due to want of knowledge.

There is no point of view where the degree of knowledge displays itself more conspicuously than in the agricultural implements used by the farmer. In England the tools are more nearly like our own than elsewhere in Europe. In Italy they are most unlike ours, and modern improvements are most rare. The spade very generally does the work done with us by the plow. The plows I saw were models of awkwardness. One I saw consisted of a piece of wood, with an iron point, attached to a long timber, like a long ox-sleigh-tongue. To this the oxen or cows were hitched, as we hitch oxen to sleds. The yoke was attached to the heads of the animals, and not about the neck. A similar awkwardness and want of modern modes and means of labor runs through all the departments of farm labor. I saw in Italy men and women carrying manure into the fields in baskets borne on their shoulders.