102 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 



peradventure, and utterly untainted with a suspicion of 

 having been brooded or weathered. For this reason it 

 is a most untidy thing to use natural nest-eggs. The 

 nest-egg, after a while, is almost surely gathered, and of 

 course is not "right." 



The trouble about fowl-houses, even with liberal yards, 

 is that fowls do not do well constantly confined. The 

 number of eggs falls off, and the fowls become subject 

 to disease, and especially to vermin lice. All poultry- 

 houses are liable to become thus infested, and the only 

 cure and preventive is dust, and dustiness. It is best to 

 provide extensive dusting-boxes not out-of-doors some- 

 where, or under a cow-shed, where the fresh winds will 

 carry off the stifling dust rendered disgusting by its 

 " henny" smell ; but in the house itself, so that the at- 

 mosphere of the entire establishment will become thus 

 dust-laden and oppressive. Dust will settle everywhere, 

 and one entering will need a white coat as much as 

 does a miller. The hens will revel in the dust, however, 

 and it will keep the lice down if not exterminate them. 



The hens not only enjoy it, but dust is a necessity and 

 a luxury to them, just as a morning bath is to civilized 

 man. The dusting-box is their toilet-table in fact, 

 bath-tub, wash-bowl and pitcher, sponge and brushes 

 and soap, and it gives health and long life as surely as 

 the free use of water does to human beings. * 



As to feed if fowls are confined they lose a great 

 variety of food which must be, in some way, made up 

 to them. When we depart from a close following after 

 nature, we begin to complicate matters. Watch a hen 

 as she trips picking about: now she takes a bit of grass 

 or other greens ; now she strips the seeds out of the 

 seed-pod of some weed ; now she makes a vigorous dive 

 after an insect, and so on all day she scratches and for- 

 ages. So a variety is essential to the health of fowls in 

 confinement. They need grain and soft food, chopped 



