74 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



away from the old hens till fall, and then they were taken into the new 

 department. Well, when those little pullets were four months and nine 

 days old we got the first egg. And I will never forget how delighted the 

 boy was. I was plowing at the extreme southern part of the farm, when 

 working. He astonished me. I was frightened; I did not know what 

 was the matter. And when he got up to me, to my surprise, he says, 

 "There is an egg." I tell you he was interested in the business. He 

 watched it closely. And that is what a man has to do. He has got to 

 look after the details of the business if he would succeed. Those chick- 

 ens did pretty well; they began to lay, and they were kept in the or- 

 chard till just before Thanksgiving, when they were put into their new 

 winter quarters. Then they were made happy; their home was con- 

 genial, had plenty of sunlight, they were very comfortable, and they did 

 not decrease in their laying at all, but went on all through the winter. 

 We got more eggs that winter than we had before in twenty years, dur- 

 ing the winter months, all put together. 



Then a serious question arose: As to what we should do with those 

 nearly 300 old hens and roosters? So we talked the matter over. I al- 

 ways like to have a boy in the game, because they think more quickly 

 than a man that is past the meridian — I know that by experience. 

 "Now," he says, "I will tell you: Thanksgiving is drawing nigh, the 

 business men and millionaires of the city of New York will have a 

 day off — that is, a day of feasting. Let us go to work, just before 

 Thanksgiving, butcher those hens and put them up nicely in attractive 

 packages — they are fat, sleek and neat — that, I think, will be a good 

 idea." So, just before Thanksgiving we got ready for the butchering. 

 We heated some water, and, after killing them by sticking them in the 

 mouth, we picked them very carefully — every pin feather was picked off 

 carefully. After we finished picking we dipped them into a kettle of 

 hot water long enough to count four slowly, and then, reversing the 

 process, put them into water with ice in it long enough to count four 

 slowly. Why did he do that? Well, you see, putting them into the hot 

 water drew the secretions to the surface, and then into cold water with 

 ice in it checked and held the fat over the surface of their bodies, and 

 it puffed them right up. Say, they looked fine — just like pullets — ten- 

 der, mellow and fat. Then the boy went to the village and got a roll of 

 blue ribbon — very pretty — an inch and a half wide, and after drawing 

 their legs close up to their sides, tied it around their bodies, with a 

 nice, double bow-knot across the breast, and laid them on their backs, 

 so they would not get out of shape during the night. The next morn* 

 ing we got some nice, clean barrels and packed them with a little straw, 

 placing them in there with the blue ribbon staring us right in the face. 

 When he finished packing them we took them to Cobleskill and shipped 

 them to New York by express. In a few days we got a check. I opened 

 the letter and, to my surprise, there was a check much larger than I had 

 expected to receive, and it astonished me. But the boy said: "That is 

 just as I expected; they were fat, nicely dressed and put up in such an 

 attractive way." So you see, we had disposed of the scrubs, and then we 



