 Originally, the primary value in poultry keeping was eggs, and meat was considered a byproduct of egg production.A United States Department of the Interior census in 1840 found American farmers had a total combined poultry flock valued at approximately $12 million ($ million in today's dollars).Following the Treaty of Wanghia between the US and China in 1844, oriental poultry breeds were imported to New England, and Rhode Island became the nation's first major poultry center.