THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 23 



POULTET FEEDING. 



jOULTRY of all kinds relish green food, and do not long 

 continue in health without it. Leaves of cabbage, 

 turnip, and the general waste of the garden, should be 

 thrown to them, along with scraps from the house, and 

 insects. The run of a paddock is excellent, and in a 

 straw-yard they find plenty to eat, and employ themselves in scratch- 

 ing, which promotes their health and happiness. 



The great difficulty with most people who keep fowls is to spare 

 them sufficient room for a good run ; and where a well-kept garden 

 is desired, the birds are cooped up in a small enclosure, where they 

 cannot prosper, and at last are voted expensive and troublesome, and. 

 got rid of as a failure. But a better way is to rail off a good-sized 

 piece of ground, and let the fowls have free range over it, to pick 

 and scratch as they please. But this patch need not be lost, as to 

 the growing of garden crops, for there are many which fowls will 

 not touch, and to these it should be, in a measure, appropriated. 

 To supply them with green food, plant in it a row of kale, or any 

 kind of cabbage ; and if supplied with sufficient green food that 

 they like, the remainder may be appropriated to Jerusalem arti- 

 chokes, potatoes, broad beans, parsnips, rhubarb, carrots, parsley, 

 and any other pot herbs. Kidney beans they will destroy as soon 

 as the pods are ripe, but not before ; so they may also be grown in 

 the poultry run, as may also vegetable marrows, pumpkins, onions, 

 lettuces, and turnips ; but the last five are apt to be scratched up 

 when young, and may need the protection of a net, or coop, or a few 

 hurdles round the beds in their earlier stages ; but when strong the 

 protection may be removed. Of course, the poultry-yard will not 

 be the tidiest part of the garden, but a compromise is better than 

 doing an injustice to the birds, and it may be effected without a 

 total sacrifice to them of the ground they require to have sufficient 

 liberty to prosper. Plenty of clean water, gravel, and broken oyster- 

 shells, or old mortar, should be kept in all poultry yards as indis- 

 pensable. AVithout lime in some shape fowls will not lay so many 

 eggs as if well supplied with it. 



Turkeys are profitable only on good farms, where they pay well, 

 but many who are not farmers have a fancy for them. A good run 

 is essential ; they will not bear confinement. They prefer to roost 

 in trees, but in any case the roost must be high, and the nesting- 

 places should be in the most retired part of the shed. When sitting, 

 it is well to remove the cock, for he is apt to disturb the hen, and 

 is sometimes spiteful to the poults. The best food for the young is 

 chopped boiled eggs and bread, a little moistened for the first few 

 days, after which any Boft food of a wholesome kind will do, with, 

 once a week, a little cayenne pepper added, with at all times plenty 

 of water. In fattening there is not the least need of " cramming," 

 to produce good birds for table. Shut them up close, and give 

 plenty of meal, with boiled potatoes and boiled vegetables, but never 

 mix more than they will eat at one time. I n a good run they are 



January. 



