The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-06-09
GFrom Mark Twain.l
NJ ore Distinction.
1 have received tie following notice

l have received tie following notice:
THE WESTERN NEW YORK POULTRY SocIETy(
Buffalo, June i, 1870,
MARK TWAIN, Esq. :Sr-At a recent meeting Of
the Executive Committee of The Western New York
Poultry Society you were elected an honorary mem
Der oil the Society, II. o. DEANE,
Recording Secretary.
"It never rains but it pours." Neither do
distinctions begin to fall upon man in a
sprinkle but very shortly they increase to
flood. Within the space of one short month
have been raised TO the dignity of honorary
membership in Agricultural, Horticultural
and Vinicutural Societies in the States of
Iowa, Indiana, California, Massachusetts, Ma
ryiand and Pennsylvania, and now, as cul-
minatin9 srendaur, have become an honora-
ry member of the Western New York Poultry
Society, aud my ravenous ambition is salts
fed.
Seriously, from early youth I have taken an
especial interest in the subject of poultry
raising, and so this membership touches
ready sympathy in my breast. Even as
school boy, poultry-raising was study with
me, and l may say without egotism that as
early as the age of seventeen l was acquaint-
ed with all the best and speediest methods of
raising chickens, from raising them off roost
by burning lucifer matches under then, noses,
down to lifting them off fence on frosty
night by insinuating the end of warm board
L
years old, 1 really suppose 1 had raised more
poultry than any ore individual in all the
section round about there. The very chick
ems came to know my talent, by and by. The
youth of both sexes ceased 10 paw the earth
for worms, and old roosters that came 10 crow
remained to pray" when passed by.
have had SO much experience in the rais-
ing of fowls that cannot but think that q
| few hints from me might be useful to the So
| ciety The two methods l have already
| touched upon are very simple, and are only
used in the raising of the commonest class Of
fowls; one is for summer, the other for win
ter. In the one case, you start out with a
friend along about eleven o'clock ON a sum-
mers night, mot later, because in some States
especially in California and Oregon-chickens
always ronse up just at midnight and crow
from ten 10 thirty minutes, according to the
ease or difficulty they experience in getting
the public walked up), and your friend carries
with him sack. Arrived at the hen roost,
(yOur neighbor's, not your own,) you light a
match and hold it under first one and then
another pullet's nose until they are willing to
go into that bag without making any trouble
about it. You then return home, either taking
the bag with you or leaving it behind, accord
ing as circumstances shall dictate. N. B. L
haze seen the time when it was eligible and
appropriate to leave the sack behind and walk
of with considerable velocity, without ever
In the case of the other method mentioned
for raising poultry, your friend takes along a
covered vessel with charcoal fire in it, and
you carry a long slender plank. This is a
frosty night, understand. Arrived at the tree,
or fence, or other hen-roost, (your own, if you
are an IDIOT warm the end Of your plank in
your friends fre-vessel and then raise 1t aloft
and ease it up gently against sumbering
chickens foot If the subject of your atten-
tons is true bird, he will infallibly return
thanks with sleepy cluck or two and step
out and take up quarters on the plank, thus
becoming so conspicuously accessory before
the fact to his own murder as to make it a
grave question in our minds, as it once was in
the mind of Blackstone, whether he is not
really and deliberately committing suicide in
the second degree. But you enter into a
contemplation of these legal refnements sub
eoqoentiy thon.}
When you wish to raise fine, large, DON
key-voiced Shanghai rooster, you do it with a
lasso, just as you would bull. 1t is because
he must be choked, and choked effectualy,
too. 1t is the only good, certain way, for
whenever he mentions matter which he is
cordially interested in, the chances are ninety
nine in hundred that he secures somebody
| else's immediate attention to 1t, TOO, whether
| it be day or night.
The Black Spanish IS an exceedingly fine
| bird and a costly one. Thirty-five dollars Is
| tbe usual figure, and fifty not uncommon
price for a specimen. Even its eggs are worth
from dollar to a dollar and a half apiece, and
vet are so uDwholesome that the city physician
seldom or never orders them for the work.
house. Still have once or twice procured as
high as a dozen at time for nothing, in the
dark of the moon. The best way to raise the
Black Spanish fowl, is to go in the evening and
raise coop and all. The reason recommend
this method, is, that the birds being so absurd
ly valuable, the owners do not permit them to
roost round promiscuously, but put them in a
COOP as strong as a fire proof safe, and keep II
in the kitchen at night. The method speak
of is not a bright and satisfying success, and
vet there are 81 many little articles OF rertu
about kischen that if you fail on the coop
Won car generally bring away something else.
/ Brought away a nice steel trap, one night,
worth ninety cents.
But what is the use of my pouring out nv
whole intellect on this subject? have shown
the Western New York Poultry Society that
they have taken to their bosom party whois
not Spring chicken by any means, but a man
who knows all about poultry, and is just as
high up in the most efficient methods of rails
ing it as the President of the institution HIM
SELF thank these gentlemen right pleasant-
ly and heartily for the honorary membership
they have conferred upon me, ana shail stanu
at all times ready and willing TO iestlIy my
good feeling and my official zeai Dy ueeus as
we'll as by hastily penned advice anu lnlor
mot;on Whenever they are ready to go to
RAISING nonltry. let them call for me Just any
'1o.,;sssIp pac,ar eleven o'clock and shall be on
hand promptly. mAhh IVAN
$40 the Recording Secretary; know
two or three good places.