absolutely poisonous. Sloppy matters are better avoided till the little things are old enough to eat a few grains of good barley, which they are before it is usually suspected; afterwards it does no harm. A little wheat, of the best sample, will then not be thrown away upon them. Meat and insect diet are almost necessary; but raw vegetables chopped small, so grateful to young Turkeys, are caviare to chickens. But whatever be the bill of fare, the meals must be given at short intervals; as much as they can swallow, as often as they can eat. The reader will please to remember that when he came into the world, all that was expected of him was to grow and be good-natured. He had not to provide his long-clothes out of his mother's milk, not to elaborate pinafores from a basin of soaked biscuit, but for poor little chickens, the only known babylinen warehouse is situated in their own stomachs. And with all their industry, they are only half-clad till flesh and blood stop growing for a while, and allow down and feathers to overtake them.

The period at which they are left to shift for themselves depends upon the disposition of the Hen. Some will continue their attentions to their chicks till they are nearly full-grown, others will cast them off much earlier. In the latter case it may be as well to keep an eye upon them for a few days till they have established themselves as independent members of the gallinaceous community. For chickens in this half-grown state are at the most critical period of their lives. They are now much more liable to disease than when they were apparently tender little weaklings crowded under their mother's wings. It is just before arriving at this point of growth, that artificially hatched chickens are so sure to fail, whether hot air, hot water, or sheepskin, be the substitute for the mother's care. Mere incubation has long ago been performed artificially with success in various ways. Any lady or gentleman, at any time of the year, can effectually complete that process by means of a spirit-lamp and a sand-bath in their study or boudoir. The mere hatching

of chickens deserves little credit, however ingeniously it is done. But to rear them on a great scale is the difficulty that has not yet been surmounted in this country. A visit to the purveyors of Poultry for the Million is not repaid by the sight of an approach to the fulfilment of their great promises. They hatch, but they cannot rear, and are not likely to do so. The chicks for the first week or two look well enough, and it is not to be expected that the very first seeds of disorder should be apparent; but no farmer's wife would be pleased that her stock had the look of those that get to be six weeks or two months old. Compare the tables of mortality amongst infants in the French Foundling Hospitals with those calculated on the families of healthy English Cottagers, and the contrast will be a guide to the relative merits of the natural and the artificial modes of rearing Chickens, Turkeys, and Guinea-fowl. And what becomes of the Hens belonging to such establishments which desire to sit, but are prevented on principle from doing so, on eggs at least? They are just put up to fatten as soon as they become broody, and after a certain time killed to be eaten. No one who knew anything about Fowls would select such for his table from choice. It cannot be expected that those Professors, who are unable to raise sufficient chickens for the supply of a small neighbourhood, should be able to communicate the art of affording plenty to a nation, even by means of a patented apparatus and an expensive license. Were all the chickens reared that are hatched by Hens alone, poultry would be much more abundant than it is at present. The artificial hatching of Ducks and Geese is a more promising speculation than the same attempt upon Fowls; but if it were entered upon to any extent, it would be found that the expenses of superintendence and nursing more than absorb all profit.

It would be easy to gratify the eye of the reader, and perhaps temporarily deceive his judgment, by a set of tables speciously displaying the great profitableness of rearing poultry, but as our only object is to give infor

mation and sober advice, and not to excite a popular run in any direction by exaggerated or interested statements, we unhesitatingly recommend that those who set about keeping Fowls for the sake of mere gain, either from their increase or their eggs, use the utmost economy, abstain from the indulgence of all whims and individual tastes, and cautiously avoid overstocking themselves with any undue quantity, that would make an inconvenient demand either upon their provision or their attention. Those whose principal aim is to supply their household with poultry, will do so the most cheaply, though perhaps not the most pleasantly or the most conveniently, by purchasing at the nearest market. In the arithmetical

schemes that are put forth, no allowance is made for casualties by accident, disease, or unfavourable seasons; nor can such drawbacks be calculated, except upon the roughest average. It is assumed that any unlimited number of Fowls can be kept in any premises, whether damp or dry, sheltered or exposed, in a luxuriant park or on a sandy heath, in a close town or in a rural homestead. No allowance, or a very inadequate one, is made for the labour demanded, which, though light, occupies a considerable portion of the day; nor for the damage done by a large head of poultry to buildings, gardens, stack-yards, growing crops of grain, and orchards. I have seen a flock of full-grown underfed Turkeys, perched in a clump of apple-trees, breaking the weaker branches by their weight, and devouring the fruit. What would become of plums and greengages in their presence? Not a few persons resident in the country have felt the nuisance of being in the close neighbourhood of an extensive poultrykeeper, whose marauding stock were committing perpetual trespasses and depredations in their foraging rambles out of bounds. The more, therefore, these arithmetical statements enter into detail, the less are they applicable to special instances; and disappointment is the fate of those who put faith in them. Half the poultry that is sent to market is an encroachment by the farmer's wife

upon the returns that would otherwise be received by her husband, whose corn-stack she diminishes, and the time of whose servants she occupies. Supposing the interest of the couple to be one, the lady's receipts from poultry are in great measure cash taken out of one pocket and put into the other. If the married pair have separate purses, as will sometimes happen, the case becomes little better than one of domestic robbery. But if, as is usually the case, the poultry and the food to maintain them be kindly given by the Master to a wife or a child, as a source of pocket-money and healthy and suitable amusement, let the donation be considered in the light of an allowance granted, not of a profit made.

We now assume our Fowls to have got their full growth, or nearly, as the Cocks at least increase somewhat in size till their third year. The breeder will at this period have to determine which birds he retains for stock, and which are to enjoy a less extended existence. On the process of fatting Fowls, little that is new can be offered, and tastes differ so exceedingly, that almost every family has their own particular mode. Some think a young fowl killed by dislocation of the neck, not by bleeding, and without any fatting, hung up in the feathers a few days in the larder, like game, the greatest luxury; others like them to be brought by confinement and select diet, to the greatest point of delicacy and insipidity. For this purpose rice may often be obtained at a cheap rate. It should be boiled, not enough to lose its granular form, in milk: meat broth used instead of milk is nourishing and fattening, but diminishes the whiteness of the flesh and the delicacy of the flavour. If Fowls were brought to eat uncooked rice, it might prove unwholesome by swelling in the craw. A rice diet has been asserted to cause blindness in Fowls, but after considerable experience I have never verified the fact. Possibly such a result might be caused by the uncooked grain. Cramming is quite unnecessary: cleanliness in all cases most expedient. If any coarse or rank food is used, such as tainted

meat, rancid fat, or fish scraps, it will be apt to impart a corresponding taint to the flesh. The purer the diet, the more delicate will be the flavour. Rice boiled as above directed, or barley-meal and milk, are either of them excellent articles for the purpose, and easily obtained. The locality and the cost price must often determine the matters employed, care being only taken to avoid all that is likely to prove hereafter offensive to the palate. For it is an old notion, confirmed by modern experience, that even laying Hens should not be allowed to eat unsavory or strong-tasted substances, lest their eggs become tainted with the flavour.

"Vitentur herbæ amaræ, maximè absynthium, siquidem ex ejus esu ova amarissima pariunt. Sunt qui ex impura cibaria pascentibus Gallinis putrida plerumque venenataque ova nasci velint, et excrementosa, si humanas fæces comederint. Lupinis etiam abstinere debent ob eandem causam, tum verò quod sub oculis grana gignant, ut Crescentiensis observavit, quæ nisi acu, teste Palladio, leviter apertis pelliculi auferantur, oculos extinguunt."Aldrovandi. "Let bitter herbs be avoided, particularly wormwood, for Hens that have eaten it lay extremely bitter eggs. Some aver that the eggs from Hens that have eaten impure food, are mostly putrid and even poisonous, and if they have fed filthily, excrementitious. They should also abstain from lupines (which are bitter) for the same reason, and also because they produce small swellings under the eyes, as Crescentiensis observed; and Palladius tells us, that unless these swellings are gently opened with the needle and the core extracted, they blind the Fowls." It is certain that a peculiar flavour is perceptible in the eggs of those Hens that have fed much about dung-heaps, or run principally in fir plantations.

A well-fatted fowl is undoubtedly a more economical dish than a lean one. But Pliny tells us, with an expression of disapprobation, that the people of Delos were the first inventors of the luxury. He mentions the sumptuary laws, that in old Roman times were passed to