42 Soft-shelled Eygs. 



the eye brightens, the gait becomes more spirited, and 

 sometimes she cackles for three or four days. After laying 

 her eo^o; on leavino- the nest the hen utters a loud cacklinor 

 cry, to which the cock often responds in a high-pitched 

 kind of scream ; but some hens after laying leave the nest 

 in silence. Some hens Avill lay an egg in three days, some 

 every other day, and others every day. Hens should not 

 be forced. By unnaturally forcing a fowl with stimulating 

 food, and more particularly with hempseed and tallow 

 greaves, to lay in two years or so the eggs that should have 

 been the produce of several, the hen becomes prematurely 

 old and diseased ; and it is reasonable to suppose that the 

 eggs are not so good as they would have been if nature 

 had been left to run its own course. The eggs ought to 

 be taken from the nest every afternoon when no more may 

 be expected to be laid ; for if left in the nest, the heat 

 of the hens when laying next day will tend to corrupt 

 them. 



When the shells of the eggs are somewhat soft, it is 

 because the hens are rather inclined to grow too fat. It is 

 then proper to mix up a little chalk in their water, and to 

 put a little mortar rubbish in their food, the quantity of 

 which should be diminished. We give the following 

 remarks by an experienced poultry-keeper of the old 

 school, as valuable from being the result of practice : ''The 

 hen sometimes experiences a difficulty in laying. In this 

 case a few grains of salt or garlic put into the vent have 

 been successfully tried. The keeper should indeed make 

 use of the latter mode to find out the place where a hen 

 has laid without his knowledge ; for, as the hen will be in 

 haste to deposit her Qgg, her pace towards the nest Avill be 

 quickened ; she may then be followed and her secret found 

 out.'^ 



"Though one particular form," says Mr. Dickson, "is 

 so common to eggs, that it is known by the familiar name 

 of egg-shaped, yet all keepers of poultry must be aware 

 that eggs are sometimes nearly round, and sometimes 

 almost cylindrical, besides innumerable minor shades of 

 difference. In fact, eggs differ so much in shape, that it is 



