AN ENGLISH BREEDER'S FARM. 



157 



way down from the lid. When the weather 

 becomes warmer, thinner flannel can be used, 

 as the chicks need less protection ; and in sum- 

 mer the chicks can be covered with open canvas. 

 It is most essential that the nest should be 

 round or oblong, and the corners filled up with 

 separate wisps of hay, so that wherever the 

 chicks nestle none can get into a corner, as this 

 would mean crushing and death. As they are 

 provided by Nature with food for twenty-four 

 hours, they travel long distances before feeling 

 hunger, and so do not trample each other in 

 search for food. When despatched by night 

 express trains they arrive at their destinations 

 for their first meal, and I have sent successfully 



of chicks is ordered with a hen, the chicks 

 should be packed as described, and the box 

 tied to the inside of a hamper with the hen be- 

 side it. She hears the chicks, and keeps quiet 

 on the journey." 



A more impressive example of the same kind 

 of business on a much larger scale is the 

 poultry-farm carried on by Mr. Simon Hunter 

 at Sowerby Grange, Northallerton, since the 

 year i8gi. Demand for eggs and stock bred 

 for laying on his place in Wensleydale, as men- 

 tioned in a previous paragraph, showed an 

 opening and market at much better than mere 

 market prices. This was gradually extended 

 vi^ith corresponding decrease of the other 



Spinney Shelters at Sowerby Grange, Northallerton. 



to remote parts of Scotland, Ireland, and the 

 Channel Isles. 



" Should there be any delay in transit 

 during intensely cold weather, and the chicks 

 arrive seeming somewhat lifeless, they should 

 be immediately placed near the fire and 

 thoroughly warmed, and afterwards will show 

 no ill effects for being delayed en route. If it 

 is intended to rear them with a hen that has 

 been sitting three weeks or thereabouts, one 

 chick should be given her at dusk, and by the 

 morning it will be seen whether she means to 

 take to the brood or not. She usually does, pro- 

 vided she has sat the usual time. When a brood 



branch, and it is now fully twenty years since 

 any eggs were produced purely for consump- 

 tion. Ever since he first commenced his poultry 

 operations, Mr. Hunter has made a point of 

 breeding solely from carefully tested layers, 

 with the result that his laying strains have 

 acquired a world-wide reputation. Trap-nests 

 are used to a certain extent for the purpose 

 of ascertaining the best layers, while those 

 pullets that grow right away from, and com- 

 mence to lay before, their sisters are retained, 

 as are also those birds that lay right through 

 their moult or during most severe winter 

 weather. Mr. Hunter does a large business in 



