Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1856-05-24
Agricultural.
what Meat is Cheapest

The American Agriculturalist raises
its voice in favor of mutton, as compared
TO pork, in the following strain:
tf We mean to repeat at least thou
sand times, OF till what we say has some
effect on our eountrymen, that pound
Of lean, tender Juicy mutton can be raised
for half the cost of the same quantity of
fat pork that it is infinitely healthier
food, especially in the summer season;
is more agreeable to the palate, when
one gets accustomed to it; and that those
who eat it become more muscular, and
can do more work with greater ease to
themselves than those who eat fat pork.
We know nothing more delicate than
smoked mutton hams of South breed
of sheep-vopison itselfis not superior
Sheep can be,kept in fine growing order
where other domestic animal will scarce
ly exist andthousands of acres in the
state, under an enlightened system of
sheep husbandry, may be made to pay
good interestswhore now they are nearly
dead property in the hands of their
present owners"
We have had (says the Washington
Spectator, } some opportunity for obser
walton, in regard to agricultural, as well
as digestive matters, and are prepared
to credit all the writer's conclusions in
the extract we have made. Our expert
ence has, however, made us more famili-
ar with poultry, and experiments we
have had helping hand in making,
convince us that pound of rich, fat. and
tender chicken can be produced for less
price than the same weight of any other
kind of meat; and yet it always COM
mands higher price in market. The
eheapness comes from the fact that the
fowl will subsist and fatten on that which
would not be required for the sustenance
Of any other creature, except during the
first few days Of its existence, and while
the ground is frozen or enveloped in
snow. Even for the first part of this
time, if the mother hen can be allowed to
have her own way, it will be found that
the young birds will fare quite as we'll,
without extraneous feeding, as they gen.
orally do, in the.wa they are commonly
treated. The objection which farmers
most advance against poultry is that the
old fowls scratch up their seeds in
searching for insects. This cannot be so
serious an objection as they make it; es-
peeially when we take into account the
advantage to be derived from their ex-
terminating warfare upon the whole in
sect race. Seeds do not generally re-
main long in the earth, and for a few
days it could not be very troublesome
matter to keep poultry from the grain
fields or garden. When this time is
past, the services of good flock of in
dustrious hens, in destroying insects and
their larvae and in loosening the soil,
would more than compensate for the
trouble of keeping them "out of mis-
chief" for the few days in which they
could possibly work injury.
In these hasty remarks we do not
mean to be understood as advocating the
Shanghai humbug-nor have we a word
to say in behalf of turkey or goose
breeding We have our doubts about
the latter unless it be where the want
of home beds enters into the calculation.
Withregard to the first we have no doubt.
We neither admire Shanghai meat, nor
do we believe that the cost of feeding and
value of increase bear so favorable a
comparison as they do in the case of the
old Fashioned breeds, or of those crossed
with the St. Domingo fowl. But it was
not our purpose at this time to say any
thing except in a desultory way. We
may resume the subject, and give some
hints about feeding and attention, in hope
to awaken more interest in the subject
though we would prefer to hear from
some of our farmer friends, who have
given it greater practical attention ant
study.