1883.] POULTRY RAISING. 47 



sufficient number of pullets to make about fifty or sixty in all. 

 Tke others, that have not already been marketed, are confined by 

 themselves to wait for their fate at Thanksgiving or Christmas. 

 Before bringing the pullets into the flock the old hens are marked 

 by cutting off the tail feathers, and those two years old have also 

 one wing cut; in this way we can always tell the age of each fowl. 

 It is necessary to confine them to the house for a season to teach 

 the pullets that this is now their home; and at dusk they must be 

 shut in the roost or they will spend the night upon the highest 

 shelves; and when the snow comes the/ are all kept constantly 

 indoors. They are fed twice a day; in the morning with meal 

 and bran scalded, about one-third bran; and at four o'clock with 

 wheat, or oats, or buckwheat, or corn. Some corn on the cob is 

 thrown in to keep them busy; and sometimes the order of rations 

 is reversed. All table scraps, refuse nreat, and apple-parings are 

 fed in a box provided for the purpose. As long as cabbages can 

 be had, three or four heads a week are hung up by a string around 

 the root, to a nail at a convenient distance from the floor, and the 

 fowls eagerly eat all but the roots. A box of gravel and a liberal 

 supply of pounded clam shells is always accessible. We use some 

 cracked bone, but they seem to prefer the shells. Sixty fowls will 

 consume a corn basket of hay every two or three days, in addition 

 to the above bill of fare. Employment is needful for them, so 

 all the grain is scattered in the straw that they may enjoy the 

 luxury of scratching; and while so occupied they are not forced 

 to pluck each others feathers for amusement; for mischief is found 

 for idle bills as well as for idle hands; though we think the con- 

 stant use of salt has something to do with preventing this bad 

 habit. 



If an egg by any accident is broken in the nest all will unite to 

 prevent its waste by eating it speedily; and sometimes we have 

 had just the faintest suspicion that some sharp bill helped make 

 the crack that necessitated such luxurious diet. An ounce of pre- 

 vention is here worth many pounds of cure, and the frequent 

 gathering of the eggs when the fowls are first confined to such 

 close quarters may save them from temptation. During the sum- 

 mer the shells of the eggs used for table are dried and broken 

 and kept for winter feeding, and we have never found that this 

 suggests egg eating. 



We have had the care of poultry more or less from childhood. 



