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Between that period in the progress of improvement, which brings

to its height the price of so necessary an article as cattle, and

that which brings to it the price of such a superfluity as

venison, there is a very long interval, in the course of which

many other sorts of rude produce gradually arrive at their

highest price, some sooner and some later, according to different

circumstances.

Thus, in every farm, the offals of the barn and stable will

maintain a certain number of poultry. These, as they are fed with

what would otherwise be lost, are a mere save-all; and as they

cost the farmer scarce any thing, so he can afford to sell them

for very little. Almost all that he gets is pure gain, and their

price can scarce be so low as to discourage him from feeding this

number. But in countries ill cultivated, and therefore but thinly

inhabited, the poultry, which are thus raised without expense,

are often fully sufficient to supply the whole demand. In this

state of things, therefore, they are often as cheap as butcher's

meat, or any other sort of animal food. But the whole quantity of

poultry which the farm in this manner produces without expense,

must always be much smaller than the whole quantity of butcher's

meat which is reared upon it; and in times of wealth and luxury,

what is rare, with only nearly equal merit, is always preferred

to what is common.