FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 229 



being peculiarly susceptible of attachment to its feeder. The White Leghorn 

 bears an excellent reputation for desirable qualities, minus the avoirdupois. 

 Should I try another variety this would be my first choice. It is quite a demand 

 upon one's credulity to credit the assertion that every variety of the domestic 

 fowl has originated in a wild bird still existing, — the common Jungle Fowl of 

 India, — though such a fact is not more wonderful than that a draft horse 

 should have descended from the same original stock as the Arabian. 



To properly dress a fowl may deserve a passing notice. Visit any meat mar- 

 ket at the rush of iwultry-selling and you may well turn with disgust from the 

 leprous looking objects strung around to tempt the visitor. A neatly dressed 

 fowl is not the work of careless haste. To well dress a fowl taxes largely both 

 time and careful attention. To pay no more for such poultry than for the 

 slovenly dressed is but giving a premium to neglect., The practice of feeding 

 fowls shortly before killing to increase their weight is morally wrong, as the 

 undigested food soon enters into fermentation. Fowls should be left to fast 

 from twelve to twenty-four hours before killing. Poultry thus prepared will 

 keep longer, present a better appearance, and above all will show honesty. 



I am not prepared to give an accurate statement as to my yearly number of 

 eggs obtained from a fowl. There is not a day in the year but the egg-basket 

 comes in with more or less fresh eggs. My net profits from the fowls have been 

 small owing to the outlays for poultry house and fixtures and the high price of 

 corn. One source of profit is the fertilizer obtained from the hennery. War- 

 ren Leland estimates its A^alue at one dollar per fowl. 



I have not touched upon i\\Q fancy points of the domestic fowl, tliinking the 

 practical would be more acceptable at our present state of hen culture. Neither 

 have I given space to artificial hatching, since I have not exj^erimented in that 

 direction. I have had but little experience with ducks. I ha-d a few of the 

 Rouen Duck and a few of the elegant Aylesbury species. I kept them two 

 years or so as a source of amusement. Their beauty of form, of plumage, and 

 of motion made them a continual entertainment. We made for them a pond, 

 but it required too much care to keep it in a proper condition. I had for a 

 time a pair of Bronzed Black Turkeys, but the turkey-cock was so tantalizing 

 to the other fowls that I was more than glad to part with him for his unfriendly 

 disposition. 



My first study of poultry management began 1872. I wonder now that a per- 

 son could be so ignorant on the subject as I was at that time. I consider myself 

 still a novice in tlic business. I find that every department of nature to which 

 I turn my attention opens up before me like a panorama, widening, deepening, 

 and varying in interest, so that I am ever on the threshold of her temple, wish- 

 ing to see and know more. Thus nature rewards her votaries, — leading them 

 onward and upward. Study her not simply for the bread and butter which she 

 will not witliliold, but for the inspiration of soul as well, which her loving study 

 will infuse. Can we suppose that the gifted Baroness de Lina, when she entered 

 upon the poultry business, had the least shadow of a conviction that/^er poultry 

 house would, by the most intelligent authority, be honored as ''one of the best 

 establishments in France?" Or that the chikl Rosa Bonheur with a piece of 

 dough in her little hand, standing on the barnyard fence, trying to fashion it 

 into a calf's head, thought for a moment that this simple beginning would cul- 

 minate in the halo of glory which now encircles her name, as the "unrivalled 

 painter of animals?" The "cattle pieces" are the admiration of the world. 

 In her simple, well-adapted costume, giving her the appearance of a chore boy,. 



