Importance of Warmth. 41 



posed of. But Brahmas, Cochins, and Hambiirgs will lay 

 through the winter up to their second, or even third year. 

 If you commence poultry-keeping in the autumn you 

 should buy pullets hatched in the preceding spring. The 

 best and cheapest plan of keeping up a good stock is to 

 keep a full-feathered Cochin or two for March or April 

 sitting ; and, if necessary, procure eggs of the breed you 

 desire. The Cochin will sit again, being only too often 

 ready for the task ; and the later-hatched chickens can be 

 fattened profitably for the table. But if you wish to obtain 

 eggs all the year round, and to avoid replacing of stock, or 

 object to the trouble of rearing chickens, keep only those 

 breeds that are non-sitters, as the Hamburgs, Polands, and 

 Spanish ; but you must purchase younger birds from time 

 to time to keep a supply of laying hens while others are 

 moulting. 



Warmth is most essential for promoting laying. A 

 severe frost will suddenly stop the laying of even the most 

 prolific hens. '' When," says M. Bosc, " it is wished to 

 have eo-as durinof the cold season, even in the dead of 

 winter, it is necessary to make the fowls roost over an oven, 

 in a stable, in a shed where many cattle are kept, or to 

 erect a stove in the fov*4-house on purpose. By such 

 methods, the farmers of Ange have chickens fit tor the 

 table in the month of April, a period when they are only 

 beo;inninof to be hatched in the farms around Paris, 

 although farther to the south." It is the winter manage- 

 ment of fowls that decides the question of profit or loss, 

 for hens will be sure to pay in the summer, even if only 

 tolerably attended to. It is thought by many that each 

 hen can produce only a certain number of eggs ; and if 

 such be the case, it is very advantageous to obtain a por- 

 tion of them in winter when they are generally scarce and 

 can be eaten while fresh, instead of having the whole 

 number produced in the summer, when so many are spoiled 

 from too long keeping in consequence of more being pro- 

 duced than are recpiired for use at the time. 



When the time for her laying approaches, her comb and 

 wattles change from their previous dull hue to a bright red, 



