252 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



south, where they roost and have their nests. I keep earthen 

 nest eggs, which neither freeze nor decay. I always bring in 

 the new eggs every night, and never break up the nests. If a 

 hen desires to set, and I do not wish to have her, I shut her up 

 a few days in an adjoining yard, about eight feet square, and 

 then put her back with the rest of the hens. In a few days she 

 will commence laying again. There is no hunting for nests. 

 I have not had an egg spoiled by a hen stealing her nest for four 

 years ; and there has not been a day during that time but some 

 one has laid. 



I keep a box of dry ashes for the hens to roll in ; and their 

 roosts are made of sassafras poles Avith the bark on, — the bark 

 being supposed to keep off tlie lice. I feed them with corn 

 meal — mixed with warm water in winter and cold in summer, 

 — corn, oats, boiled potatoes, meat, burnt bones, grass, and 

 rowen hay. The greater the variety of food, the better. They 

 want water at all times. 



If a healthy ox or cow dies by accident, and the meat is not 

 fit for family use, it may be salted for fowls. Boiled until it is 

 tender, the salt will not hurt them ; and they will devour it 

 greedily, if confined and not able to obtain insects. Such meat 

 is worth a dollar per hundred to use in this way ; and perhaps 

 horse beef would be good, but I have never tried it. 



I have sold my eggs, the past year, for fourteen to twenty-five 

 cents per dozen, and my chickens from twelve and one-half to 

 fourteen cents per pound, dressed. One weighed eight pounds, 

 dressed, and they have averaged four pounds. 



As grain has been higher than usual the past year, I should 

 think it had cost me two and one-half mills per day, to keep my 

 fowls. 



CoNAVAY, October 10, 1855. 



HAMPDEN. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



The exhibition of poultry for the present year was quite mea- 

 gre ; but, though numerically less than on former occasions, 

 the committee could not but rejoice at the disappearance of 



