104 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



preferable; but they are neither economical for the table, 

 nor are they to be depended upon as sitters and mothers. 

 It is an excellent plan to use full-blooded cocks, making 

 a change, not of cocks alone, but of the breed, every two 

 years. Thus a recent writer, speaking of his own practice, 

 says: "A stock of Light Brahmas were bred with a 

 Dorking cock two years, then with Plymouth Hock 

 cocks, and now I shall probably take a Brahma cross in 

 the hope of effectually eradicating the tendency to throw 

 pink-legged chicks, a relic of the Dorking cross, and 

 black ones, which come from the Plymouth Rocks. 

 After that I shall recur to the last-named variety, as I 

 find it gives me earlier and better broilers, plenty of 

 eggs, and fowls always fit for the table." 



SALT IN THE RATION FOR POULTRY. 



There is a prevalent notion that salt causes the 

 feathers of fowls, or perhaps of the feathered tribes in 

 general, to fall out. This, we believe is well founded. 

 Certainly, excess of this condiment should be avoided. 

 There appears to be some connection between salt and 

 feathers. Feather-eating fowls are often cured of the 

 tendency by adding salt to their food, and a small quan- 

 tity of salt in the ration promotes, or is supposed to pro- 

 mote, the production of the new crop of feathers at 

 moulting-time. This supposed effect may be simply the 

 loosening of the old feathers. The result, as promotive 

 of moulting, would be the same. Salt is a very impor- 

 tant ingredient in the ration of pigeons, and where these 

 birds are confined without it, they are never so thrifty. 

 It is natural, then, to conclude that it is valuable in the 

 food of other birds, and especially for barn-door fowls 

 The earlier old fowls are out of their moult and in full 



