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place, which is cleanliness. The droppings in their roosting place should be taken up every morning, and a handful of dry ashes strewed under their perches. I have only a confined yard in which to keep my Fowls. The plan I adopt is to give them every day plenty of fresh cabbage leaves, and once or twice a week I have some onions chopped up for them, of which, after a time, they become very fond. I let them have a plentiful supply of burnt oyster shells. I put the shells into the fire until they are red hot and well burnt. I then break them into small pieces with the fingers, but not into powder. I am satisfied that this is much better for them than crude lime; they eat great quantities of it. Their other food consists of the best barley and oats, and to compensate for the want of insects, I occasionally give them a little raw meat. By adopting this plan I keep them in decent health. The only thing they appear to want is more exercise, which I think is the reason I cannot rear chickens well, for with all my attention I find they are stunted in their growth, no doubt from the want of a sufficient run." I can only say that a Cockerell which this gentleman did me the favour to send me, showed no symptoms of stunted growth. He was a magnificent black Spanish fellow, with all the distinctive marks of the breed highly developed. He has since vanished, and is now doubtless the pride of the thief or the receiver, in some sequestered dingy back lane. What a contrast such a

situation for Fowls is, to that described by another correspondent. "I wish you could see my poultry-yard, which is in fact no yard, being part of our park, where I always have the young broods, and as some of it is now a hay-field, it is a nice place for them to run about in." —H. H.

It has been suggested that none of the writers on Poultry have dwelt sufficiently upon the profit and convenience of those who keep a few Fowls for the sake of their eggs, having everlasting layers, with perhaps one or two sitting Hens to enable them to keep up their stock.

If

the sitting Hens were such as lay brown eggs, and the others white ones, it would save trouble. This arrangement could easily be carried out by selecting one or two Game Hens that lay dark eggs, and are all excellent incubators, and having the laying Hens Black Spanish, or better, the Andalusian variety, imported by Mr. Barber.

The following hint may be useful to those who are not provided with a stud of everlasting layers :-"Amongst all the remedies I have seen recommended for diseases in Poultry, I have never seen Jalap mentioned, and I have ever found it most efficacious; indeed, for many years I have never used any other: as it appears to me to be the natural medicine for Fowls. It is astonishing how soon it sets them up. In the country, where they have a good run, they may not require so much physic; but even there I should imagine it would be occasionally useful: as for instance, when they have had the incubating fever on them late in the season, and I have not wanted them to sit, one or two doses have relieved them from it entirely. In short, with me, it is a regular Morrison's Pill' for Fowls; as it seems to cure all their complaints. The dose for a full-sized Fowl is 15 or 16 grains. I moisten a small piece of crumb of bread about the size of a hazel nut, and mix the powder jalap with it.”

An inquiry has been made whether common salt would not be a good thing to promote laying in Hens that were necessarily kept in close confinement. But among the most experienced practical rearers of Poultry there is an old, and I believe well founded prejudice against their eating salted food, even in very small quantities. I have seen in some books Glauber's salts recommended, but should be sorry to try them, except as an experiment on a lot of worthless or diseased Fowls. Gallinaceous birds reared by the sea-side or on the banks of a salt-water river, avoid the saline stream, and search for food and drink as far inland as they can range. I know not either how common salt could be administered to them. It is more than doubtful whether the Hens would pick it from the ground in its

crystalline form, and it would be difficult to distribute it in equal doses by means of bread, &c., soaked in salt water the chances are that some of the Hens would be poisoned. Pigeons, I think, are the only domesticated birds to whose health salt is beneficial, and they prefer it in combination with animalised matters; the more offensive it is to our senses, the more agreeable it appears to be to theirs.

"I was told the other day of a gentleman at Highgate, who knowing that salt was beneficial to Pigeons, gave some to his Hens, in consequence of which they all died. I have found a little hemp-seed efficacious for making them lay, and a little good ale (I give them all that is left at table) will have that effect-not bread soaked in ale; for it is a golden rule to know that all moist food is injurious to Fowls, unless they are intended shortly for the table. All cooked vegetables, except potatoes, I have found bad for them."

"When I came home the other day from the country, I found one of my favourite Hens, which had lost nearly all its feathers (being in full moult) in a sad way. It appeared as if it had got a wry neck, and was tipsy, as it kept falling down, and neither the Cock nor any of the other Hens would go near it. I examined it, and found there was nothing in its crop, and it was very thin. I immediately gave it one grain of calomel in a small breadpill, and three or four hours afterwards I gave it fifteen grains of jalap, and, as it was evidently better the next day, I repeated the jalap pill for four successive nights, and it now appears quite well and feeds heartily. After the first dose of jalap its droppings were green and highly offensive. I mention all this, as I have never seen a Fowl similarly affected.”—L. B.

An abundant supply of lime in some form should not be omitted; either chopped bones, old mortar, or a lump of chalky marl. The shell of every egg used in the house should be roughly crushed and thrown down to the Hens, which will greedily eat them. A green living turf, like

those given to larks, only larger, will be of service, both for its grass, and the insects it may contain. A dustingplace, wherein to get rid of vermin is indispensable. A daily hot meal of potatoes, boiled as carefully as for the family table, then chopped and sprinkled or mixed with pollard will be comfortable and stimulating. The French plan, namely bread soaked in hot vin ordinaire, beer, or cider, appears from experience to be better suited to fatting than to laying Fowls. After every meal of the household, the bones and all other scraps should be collected and thrown out. Hens are great pickers of bones; I have seen a Hen devouring the flesh and cleaning the skeleton of her dead husband, doubtless on the native Australian principle of respect and affection for the deceased.

It is a singular fact, that pullets hatched very late in Autumn, and therefore of stunted growth, will lay nearly as early as those hatched in spring. The checking of their growth seems to have a tendency to produce eggs; of course very tiny ones at first.

Fowls that are kept in close confinement will greatly miss the opportunity of basking in the sun warmth is almost as necessary for thriftiness as food. Even in Italy, it was recommended by Columella that "Fowl-houses ought to be placed in that part of the farm which faces the rising sun in winter let them be joined to the oven or the kitchen, so that the smoke may reach the birds, it being particularly healthy for them. Modern amateurs have thought it would be a good plan to have an Arnott or Dean stove erected in their fowl-house, which could be lighted an hour before the Cocks and Hens went to roost. Sharp weather is always a sufficient excuse for the unproductiveness of Hens; but it may be suggested that there are cases in which Fowls do lay, without their owners being much the better for the eggs. This, however, is less likely to happen in an aviary, if I may be allowed so to term it, than in the farm, or the unenclosed poultryyard. It is an unfortunate fact, that in the country,

where Fowls are allowed unlimited range, choice specimens are remarkably apt to disappear; and if they do not, their eggs do. The proprietor is sure of just as many of the select kinds as he can himself lay hands upon. He may often have the satisfaction of buying in a neighbouring village a fine brood of chickens, hatched from eggs purloined from himself, and be thus considerately saved all trouble of rearing them. These agreeable tricks are played by a set of rascally half-poaching pilferers, who are connected with the lowest class of dealers. If any fear of detection arises, the "fancy" birds are immediately forwarded to the metropolis, or some other large town at a distance.

The curiosities and absurdities of the literature of poultry-breeding are inexhaustible. One "Ornithologus" states, on the report of his people, that in order to obtain all female chicks from a sitting of eggs, it is only necessary to set the Hen while the moon is in the full, and to prefer such eggs for the purpose as have been laid when the moon was at the full, and also to contrive that they be hatched at the full moon; but Aldrovandi, who quotes him, remarks, that it would be difficult to combine all these conditions, seeing that chickens are hatched in three weeks, and that there are four weeks from one full moon to another.

The same Ornithologus testifies to having read in a certain German manuscript, that if eggs are stained with any colour, chickens of the same hue will be produced. Others direct that the aviaries in which they are bred should be covered, in every part, with white hangings; with what view is not apparent. But whoever wishes to have most beautiful chickens, "visu jucundissimos," must pair his Hen with a Cock Wood Pigeon, or Partridge, or Pheasant. Directions, too, are given from Aristotle, for obtaining chickens with four wings and four feet.

It is not our intention to enter minutely into the physicking and doctoring of Fowls. One or two authentic cases will be more instructive than a score of prescriptions.

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