July 31, 18«fl. ] 



JOUBNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



93 



together in the gallery, heads were stooped down out of sight' 

 while important consultations were held, and at last it was 

 sung; and when tin singers sat down they looked at each 

 other and smiled, while a little buzz went through tho congre- 

 gation, and almost broke out into open applause. In the same 

 way our clorgyman had cortain texts and sermons for certain 

 seasons. We hoard just before Lent about the sower. We had 

 appropriate texts for harvest, for summer, for the new year, 

 and they wcro well pressed home ; but people got used to them, 

 and as old John Tico passed farmer Eagle coming out of church, 

 he would say, " Tho old sermon, niaister, again ; a body would 

 snppose parson thought we forgot the time of year. I 've heard 

 ihat sermon a matter of forty times. Whero shall us begin 

 to-morrow, in horse-plat or eight acres ? " 



Just in the samo way wo have certain subjects for certain 

 periods — they come, like the seasons, in course. Wo doubt 

 whether those who heard the sermons remembered all of thorn, 

 and so wo judge from the queries we receive that part at least 

 of our previous homilies are forgotten. We will take them as 

 they come. 



iNorjiuur.. — "Tho cock chickens are so forward that they will 

 not run peaceably with the old birds : which should be con- 

 fined ? " The young ones ; you may catch up twenty that have 

 been running together, and put them in one pen ; let them be 

 well fed, and they will grow faster then than when at liberty. 

 A pen for such should be 20 feet long by 10 broad. 



" ' F. A. 9.' wishes to break up all his pens now (he has 

 three different breeds), and to let his birds run together : how 

 is he to manage it ? " If there is room for them, put all your 

 birds to roost in one large house, catch them at night, and put 

 them on the perches. It often prevents righting. There is 

 neither risk nor injury in their running together till after the 

 moulting season. You will have no eggs now that you require 

 the birds to sit. If you wish to sit very early ones be careful to 

 put your different breeds back in their pens in October; but if 

 you are not intending to breed before January, it will do perfectly 

 well if you put the birds back in November. This will give 

 time for your pens not only to sweeten but to freshen ; and 

 your long-pent-up birds will find when at liberty the helps 

 necessary for forming their new plumage, and they will gain 

 the strength to make them profitable occupants of their sepa- 

 rate dwellings when the time arrives for their being again con- 

 fined. These rests to the birds are like the alternations of 

 night and day to mankind — they afford the opportunity for the 

 reparative process to go on. Now, the surface of the pens and 

 roosting-houses should be taken off and given to the gardener, 

 and all water well lime-whited, and the run dug up and left 

 rough, doors and windows left open. In fact, all should be 

 done that can sweeten and renovate. It is the season of rest 

 for fowls and their owners. May both enjoy it and turn it to 

 the best account. 



MEDICAL REPORT ON A POULTRY-YARD. 



My stock for the past nine months (I only began last October), 

 has been one cock and sis hens. 



Case 1st. About two months ago one hen was taken ill, and 

 after four or five days died. Soon afterwards another died, and 

 now some chickens six weeks old are dying one after the other. 

 The symptoms are — soft crop, which at first sight seems very 

 full of food, but on handling is found to he full of fluid only ; 

 loss of appetite, and after death a running of fluid from the 

 mouth. 



In the ease of the first hen, I put her in a coop on some 

 grass, gave her water only three times a-day, fed her on bread 

 soaked in beer, or rather put' it before her, for she would eat 

 nothing, and as she was no better after five days, I one evening 

 gave her a dessert-spoonful of castor oil. This seemed to finish 

 her, for the next morning about ten o'clock she died, and the 

 oil with the other fluid ran from the mouth after death. 



My poultry are in an enclosed yard 26 feet by 16 feet, 

 Consist of common farmyard fowls, all but the cock and one 

 hen, and are twelve months old. They are fed as follows — 

 Noon, barley as much as they like to eat, then taken away ; 

 morning and night, pollard (Is. id. per bushel), mixed some- 

 times with mashed potatoes, as much as they can eat, then re- 

 moved. Some lettuce is continually by them, clean spring 

 water is given every day, and there is a sand-heap to bask in. 



Case 2nd. As Brahma Pootras are so much recommended in 

 these pages for confined yards, I in April bought a. cock and hen 

 nine months old, expecting by this time to have had a good 



stock of Brahma chickens. As soon as thirteen eggs were 

 laid I put them under a hen. I had seven chickens, three dead 

 in the shell, and three eggs bad. Tho next Bitting was eight 

 Brahma and five common eggs. The common eggs all hatched, 

 hut only two of tho Brahmas ; the others were bud. The next 

 sitting was thirteen Brahma eggs, and not a single chicken ; 

 was hatched. The eggs when cooked for the other fowls had 

 some of them the yolk quite distinct from the white, and in some 

 it was rather mixed up together, but all smelt very badly. The 

 next sitting was six Brahma and five common oggs. The latter 

 all produced birds. The Brahmas were all unproductive. Some 

 were clouded, and some had the yolk and white quite distinct. 

 To-day nine eggs should have hatched, seven common eggg, 

 and two Brahmas. All the former have produced birds ; the 

 two Brahmas were unproductive. You will perceive that out of 

 forty-two Brahma eggs, only nine hatched, and those nine were 

 from eggs laid during the first three weeks I had the hen, while 

 all the common eggs produced birds. The extraordinary thing 

 is, that all the hens (six) are with one- cock, there being only 

 one in the yard, and I have noticed that he attends to the 

 Brahma quite as much as to any of the common hens. I 

 notice nothing wrong in the hen, only she has dropped a soft 

 egg about now and theu. — J. E. Beyton. 



[Loose crop is a very common complaint, but we have never 

 heard of its being almost general in a yard. When cases like 

 this occur, we endeavour to find the cause in the food or treat- 

 ment. Y'ou say at " noon as much barley as they like, and 

 then taken away." We suppose from this that the barley is given 

 in a trough or some other vessel ; this is incompatible with 

 health, and would go far to account for sickness of any kind. 

 Fowls learn to look for the daily advent of the corn-box. As 

 soon as it is put down they rush eagerly at it, and eat all they 

 can, a mouthful at a time. This i3 unnatural : a fowl should 

 pick a grain, and not a mouthful at a time. The fowl, knowing 

 that tho food will soon be taken away, and stimulated by the 

 presence of the others, gobbles down as much as possible, over- 

 fills the crop, and then has what in the human being would be 

 called "a pain at the chest." By instinct the bird has recourse 

 to water to wash it down, but it can only pass to the gizzard as 

 that empties itself of the food previously in it. In the mean- 

 time it swells, and causes distension of the crop. We believe 

 that from the daily recurrence of this, there is a loss of diges- 

 tive powers ; that the gizzard has become large, weak, and 

 flaccid, unable to dispose of the food daily put in it. Appetite 

 ceases, and thirst increases, the fowl drinks to the last, and 

 dies. You must have a larger space for the chickens, that you 

 mention is not large enough for the number you have. Give 

 your fowls a feed of slaked meal very early in the morning, 

 thrown about in small pieces, so long as they will run after it. 

 Give them whole corn at midday, but scatter it broadcast over 

 the ground. Feed again with meal in the evening. While 

 they are suffering from pendent crops let them have water fre- 

 quently, but not always by them. As soon as the cause is re- 

 moved they will return to health, and may be treated accord- 

 ingly. Continue the dust-heap and the lettuces. It would seem 

 that the longer the Brahma hen remains with you, the worse 

 her eggs are. Were tho forty-two eggs .laid continuously, or 

 was there the intervention of a broody time ?] 



FOWLS YOU SHOULD KEEP 

 Is reference to " Fowls You Should Keep," in your Journal of 

 the 17th, may I give my experience ? The monthly return of 

 eggs obtained by " J. M. S." from six hens appears very small. 

 Three hens of the La Elsohe breed have produced for me as 

 follows : — May, 47 ; June, 54 ; and July to the 23rd, 28. One 

 of the three hens has just brought off a hatch of chickens, and 

 another has been sitting for the past ten days. I regret I can- 

 not carry my statistics as regards these three hens further 

 back, but the hens were only imported in April, and commenced 

 laying at once. I have also had good fortune with Houdan 

 and Crewe Cceurs ; but of the three breeds I confess to a lean- 

 ing towards the stately and handsome La Fleohe. 



I should have mentioned that my three hens and a cock are 

 in a run, about 8 feet square, in the suburbs of London, and 

 that all the French fowls appear wonderfully tolerant of con- 

 finement. Were I not afraid of occupying too much space, I 

 would give you the results of my hatching-experience, but will 

 content myself with remarking that chicks hatched in my incu- 

 bator run about with and appear quite as strong and well-to-do 

 as those hatched at the same time under hens. — S. W., F.Z.S. 



