THEORY AND PRACTICE. 253 



ped cabbage or the leaves of the wild plantain, which they 

 devour greedily, and plenty of fine gravel and charcoal. 

 My spring chickens average four pounds in weight in 

 August, when they are fat and very good eating. They 

 are mostly Plymouth Rocks, the cocks all thoroughbred, 

 with a slight cross of Buff Cochin in some of the hens. 

 Last year I had but seventy-two hens in the spring, and 

 I made, from February to the middle of December, one 

 hundred and eighteen dollars from eggs and chickens 

 sold, and we ate besides ninety-seven chickens, and from 

 eighteen to twenty eggs a day. The cost of their food 

 during the year was twenty-six dollars. If properly 

 taken care of, chickens always pay on a farm, where they 

 can have a good range. We have only pasture land near 

 our house and barns, so they are not troublesome in the 

 grain fields, or in the garden. 



AUTUMN MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY. 



Flocks of poultry require to be carefully managed in 

 autumn to be made profitable. If the male birds 

 have not been separated, this should be done early; 

 they are only an annoyance, and an injury to the hens, 

 and prevent them from laying as many eggs as they 

 would otherwise do. The young cockerels that are fit for 

 sale, should be disposed of; others should be shut in a 

 yard by themselves, and fed for the market. The best 

 of the early pullets should now begin to lay, and if of 

 good breeds, and well fed, will continue to lay until the 

 cold weather. Old hens are unprofitable, and should be 

 weeded out, and this is the time to do it if they were 

 not sold in the spring or used for pot-pie during the 

 summer. They will never be heavier and fatter than 

 they are now, and the feed they will consume will be all 



