Jl7io Would Keep Poultry 



iq; 



cases almost always visible. One of the 

 unlucky beings packs a pretty large stock 

 into a small hole, where every passer by is 

 offensively met by the strong fumes rising 

 fiom the accumulated droppings of the un- 

 healthy inmates. Another feeds on boiled 

 potatoes tainted with disease, unmixed with 

 sharps or fine barley dust, or ground maize, 

 any slobber being good enough for hens ! 

 To advise such persons to give up keeping 

 poultry would only be an act of humanity, 

 for the most benevolent could hardly, we 

 imagine, wish success to persons so cruel and 

 greedy. 



But there are respectable and good people 

 who do not abuse their stock, and while reaHz- 

 ing a very trifling profit, are not without 

 reason dissatisfied with the remuneration of 

 the poultry-yard as a whole. Now, these are 

 mostly parties who rear for the market or 

 depend on eggs for a profit, exhibitors being 

 generally shrewd enough to manage better. 

 AV'ith Mrs Blair, our advice is, make the 

 ehiekens larger and prices must rise. Let 

 some few plump old-fashioned Dorkings or 

 good Dorking-crosses be kept, from which 

 you may get kindly feeding spring chickens. 

 Do not stop there, however, but keep a good 

 many Spanish hens or Spanish crosses with 

 some larger breed, such as Cochins, Brah- 

 mas, or Dorkings, for a regular supply of 

 large eggs. Dispose of all hens past their 

 best at the moulting season. If not success- 

 ful with early hatchings, buy young hens ready 



to lay in autumn ; and for a regular supply 

 in winter, as well as early laying, Brahmas are 

 the best. See that the roosting-hoiises are 

 not overcrowded, but well ventilated and 

 cleaned frequently. Give such food as your 

 stock seems to thrive on best, changing it 

 occasionally, and never withholding sound 

 grain as a portion of the daily fare ; and as a 

 general rule, let no meal be very soft, espe- 

 cially in the case of chickens. If these 

 simple precautions be taken, you are then 

 deserving of success, and you will assuredly 

 meet with it. As for your account, showing 

 your expenditure and income, do not forget 

 to mark in the latter, at a fair price, the eggs 

 or fowls which have been used at home ; and 

 at the end of the year the result will in all 

 probability be very gratifying. 



This encouraging promise, however, is thus 

 confidently held out to those only whose 

 yards are in a healthy state to begin with, 

 and who are willing to exert themselves to 

 banish disease and worthless specimens from 

 their sight. If you have roup or asthma, the 

 sufferers must be resolutely got rid off; and if 

 you have hens of an unproductive class, make 

 a clean sweep, and even at some preliminary 

 expense put on a new stock of healthy young 

 birds of such kinds and in such relative 

 numbers as your market throughout the year 

 demands. In a word, bestow the same care 

 on your fowls as the successful cultivator of 

 any larger live stock does, otherwise you can- 

 not reasonably expect proportionate results. 



POUL TR Y-HOUSES. 



WHAT is the best sort of poultry-house ? 

 This question will be answered vari- 

 ously by different individuals. As hinted 

 in our remarks on some palpable blunders in 

 the treatment of poultr)^, some are satisfied 

 with bestowing the very smallest amount 

 of attention on the hen-house. Any odd 

 corner, let it be ever so dilapidated, open, 

 and from its space and structure unfit as 

 a lodging for fowls, is too often assigned 



for the purpose. The people who act thus are 

 generally among the grumblers at the slender 

 revenue from their fowls. You must patiently 

 hear them value the expenditure on their 

 stock at some such high figure as will make 

 the cost of each egg twopence or threepence, 

 while the poor[[hens, as innocent as they are 

 truly unfortunate, get all the blame. Of 

 course, the old-fashioned barn-door fowls or 

 cottager's hens, hardened, but likewise stinted, 



