USES TO WHICH [Chap. 



matter. There is no grinding, no messings of 

 barley-meal to fat poultry with. All you have 

 to do is, to give them a sufficiency of shelled corn 

 tossed down to them in the yard ; and they will 

 all of them, turkeys, geese, ducks, and fowls, be- 

 come as fat as fat can be. We killed, last spring, 

 one single pullet, not of a large breed, out of 

 which we took loose fat weighing three quarters 

 of a 'pound. We fattened most perfectly and 

 finely ten turkeys in the same manner ; and as 

 to geese and ducks, which fat still easier than 

 either of the former, they will get fat in this 

 manner in a short space of time. If you wish 

 to have fresh eggs in winter, you need resort to 

 no steeping of barley in beer or in wine, or to 

 giving the hens hempseed, or the seed of nettles, 

 as the French do ; nor, to make such a fuss about 

 keeping the hens warm; give them plenty of 

 corn, wliole, and you will have fresh eggs all the 

 winter long. To the very little chickens, or very 

 young turkeys, you must give some in a cracked 

 state ; but, they very soon take it down whole ; 

 and, large as it is, the sparrows will eat it as fast 

 as the fowls ; and, if you be much infested with 

 them, and do not wish to have a numerous 

 and early breed of them next spring, you must 

 feed the poultry close to the door, or stand by 

 them during the meal, which, however, is con- 

 veniently short; for the grain is so large that 



