220

THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

who have had any experience in the feeding of deer. If itwas otherwise, the feeding of deer would soon become anarticle of common farming, in the same manner as the feedingof those small birds called Turdi was among the ancientRomans. Varro and Columella assure us, that it was a mostprofitable article. The fattening of ortolans, birds of passagewhich arrive lean in the country, is said to be so in someparts of France . If venison continues in fashion, and thewealth and luxury of Great Britain increase as they havedone for some time past, its price may very probably risestill higher than it is at present.

Between that period in the progress of improvement whichbrings to its height the price of so necessary an article ascattle, and that which brings to it the price of such a super-fluity as venison, there is a very long interval, in the courseof which many other sorts of rude produce gradually arriveat their highest price, some sooner and some later, accordingto different circumstances.

Thus in every farm the offals of the barn and stables willmaintain a certain number of poultry. These, as they arefed with what would otherwise be lost, are a mere save-all;and as they cost the farmer scarce any thing, so he can af-ford to sell them for a very little. Almost all that he gets ispure gain, and their price can scarce be so low as to discou-rage him from feeding this number. But in countries illcultivated, and therefore but thinly inhabited, the poultry,which are thus raised without expense, are often fully suffi-cient to supply the whole demand. In this state of things,therefore, they are often as cheap as butcher’s meat, or anyother sort of animal food. But the whole quantity of poul-try, which the farm in this manner produces without expense,must always be much smaller than the whole quantity ofbutcher’s meat which is reared upon it: and in times ofwealth and luxury what is rare, with only nearly equal merit,is always preferred to what is common. As wealth and lux-ury increase, therefore, in consequence of improvement andcultivation, the price of poultry gradually rises above thatof butcher’s meat, till at last it gets so high that it becomesprofitable to cultivate land for the sake of feeding them.When it has got to this height, it cannot well go higher. Ifit did, more land would soon be turned to this purpose. Inseveral provinces of France , the feeding of poultry is consi-dered as a very important article in rurul economy, and