186 ANNUAL REPORT. 



in no sense is this paper expected to be decisive. Its aim is 

 suggestiveness. How much loss and disappointment jumping 

 to conclusions has occasioned in every industry, cannot be con- 

 jectured. Hens have been referred to most often because I am 

 best acquainted with them. Ducks and geese are not practicable 

 in every situation. 



Turkeys are more voracious, but their crops are fatally tender 

 when young. A clipping from a California paper says: "The 

 wine-growers whose vines are suffering from the ravages of slugs, 

 are employing turkeys to devour these pests. The thing works 

 well. The turkeys like the slugs, the slugs cannot get away, the 

 vines are saved from destruction. The owners of slugs, vines and 

 turkeys are contented. Turkeys grow fat while thus earning 

 their own living, for one of them is said to destroy more slugs 

 than two men can." A N^ew York paper tells of a farmer who 

 keeps a drove of turkeys, and rents them out to other farmers 

 whose crops are troubled by grasshoppers. They were found, in 

 that section, good to destroy potato bugs also. 



Some aesthetic and ethic considerations deserve a passing 

 notice in conclusion. Mrs. E. B. Hayes, wife of Ex-President 

 Hayes, is noted for her exquisite taste. A late visitor to their 

 Ohio home enthusiastically declares she owns some of the finest 

 fowls west of the Alleghanies. Stone deer, favorite ornaments 

 on lawns, seem incongruous unless grounds are large and ro- 

 mantic. A live deer would certainly be out of place in confined 

 areas, and among choice evergreens. A flock of hens in which 

 there is choice of color from black, white, red, yellow, to ringed, 

 streaked and speckled, can be made as effective as a flower bed, 

 and far more kaleidoscopic. 'Like man, biddy does not wish to 

 live and die "unwept, unhonored and unsung." No animal re- 

 sponds quicker to application. Let her see she is liked and val- 

 ued and she rises constantly in the scale of intelligence, is 

 obedient through life, and, after death, lives in the memory of 

 those who eat her. 



Mr. Gideon moved the thanks of the society to Mrs. Tilson, 

 for her interesting paper and that she be requested to furnish a 

 copy for publication. The motion was carried. 



Mr. Harris. I have listened to the reading of the paper with 

 a good deal of interest. I knew for some time that Mrs. Tilson 

 had this paper in preparation, and I had promised to furnish 

 some little items, but for some reason this past summer I did 



