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GLEANINGS 1:N bee OULTUKE. 



Nov. 



soou as it will barely do to wean the chick- 

 ens, she is off and happy, starting another 

 lot. When she is sitting, if she does not 

 And food handy so she can get bacli to her 

 nest quickly, she will run up to me in the 

 greatest hurry and flurry, and commence to 

 sing. Did you ever know of a sitting hen 

 before, that would sing? I always know 

 what that means, so I get her some grain 

 and water, which she takes out of my hand, 

 and then off slie goes on a run to her nest. 

 It has just occurred to me lately, that I 

 should like to get a piece of ground, say 

 three or four acres, and plant her in the 

 middle of it, and let her people it with fowls. 

 In fact, I should just like to see how many 

 she could raise in one year, all by herself. 

 As her pullets are very much like her, and 

 commence laying very young, I think if I 

 should commence the first of January 1 could 

 get a pretty big flock by the next January. 

 Her chickens, every one of them, show that 

 restless, busy spirit. I forgot to say, that 

 the brood that was hatched in November 

 was put into the greenhouse, under one of 

 the benches ; and as 1 wanted to try raising 

 chickens without a mother, I carried her to 

 another part of the premises, with the other 

 fowls. As she had no means of finding 

 her chickens, she seemed to conclude that 

 what could not be cured must be endured ; 

 but next morning, as soon as she saw me 

 she ran to me, jumped up on my hands, and 

 looked me full in the face, interrogating me 

 as plainly as a human being could, almost, 

 as to what I had done with those downy 

 chicks of the night before. She peeked 

 under my coat, looked behind me, over my 

 shoulder, and everywhere, thinking they 

 must be somewhere in my possession. They 

 didn't winter very well without a mother ; 

 for, some time in January they were evi- 

 dently going to die unless I gave them dif- 

 ferent quarters. The greenhouse was too 

 warm, or the feed was not just right. My 

 wife begged to have them put among the 

 other fowls, and we did so ; but they w^ere 

 a sorry set of poor '' orphelings " for quite a 

 time. Somebody suggested that the chicks 

 wanted some medicine. Now, 1 once heard 

 Neighbor H. say tlnit the best medicine in 

 the world for horses is grass. Turn them 

 out in the lot and let Nature and grass do 

 the curing. Weil, the best medicine, in my 

 opinion, for poultry, is bread and milk. So 

 my wife undertook" to cure the " orphelings" 

 with bread and milk, administered three 

 times a day. Did they die? >iot at all. 

 They are now tlie plumpest, neatest, and 

 smartest pullets among the whole flock ; 

 and one of the roosters that looks exactly 

 like his father, and behaves almost exactly 

 like his mother, is one of the plumpest and 

 neatest on our grounds. 



Well, a few days ago, after the frost 

 killed the coleus-plants on our bed on the 

 lawn right in front of the house, I directed 

 Mr. Walker to replace the coleus with some 

 beautiful plants of fringed parsley. He 

 fixed the bed up in splendid shape, as most 

 old-countrymen know how to do ; but be- 

 fore night, my pet hen iiad got into it, 

 and— oh my! but hadn't she made ruin in 

 just one short hour V Mr. Walker worked 



an hour or more in setting the plants back 

 in their places, and smoothing off the 

 ground, and raking the soil back off the 

 lawn, and we promised to watch that hen ; 

 but before night she did it again. Now, I 

 felt as if I could not give up my plan of 

 having an ornamental foliage bed made of 

 parsley, and so he fixed it up another time ; 

 but this irrepressible biddy must have been 

 in the rose-bushes while he was doing it ; 

 for as soon as he got back from putting his 

 tools away, she was sending the dirt in 

 showers ail over the lawn again. Why, I 

 didn't know it was possible for any thing in 

 hen shape to make the dirt fly as she made 

 it fly on the coleus-bed. 



" Wring her neck ! wring her neck ! " 

 came from all sides ; but I said, " No, no ; 

 we will fix her a house down on the creek 

 bottom, among the great banks of beautiful 

 fine soil where the celery has just been re- 

 moved, and we will let that hen scratch and 

 scratch until she is happy and satisfied. 

 Yes, we will take her numerous progeny, 

 that threaten to cover the farm at the pres- 

 ent rate in the near future, and carry them 

 down there to help her fine up several acres 

 of soil." 



Well, dear friends, the house is builded — 

 or, rather, digged — for my pet biddy. It 

 has a sleeping-room, a dining-room, a nest- 

 room, and a drinking-room, and she and 

 her progeny are just now in the dining- 

 room under the sash, enjoying the rays of 

 the morning sun while I write, unless, in 

 truth, they have digged out and dug their 

 house down. The materials for the house 

 were a large hogshead, a barrel, two nail- 

 kegs, and a box ; and we made it warm by 

 piling up soft earth all around and over 

 them. In fact, we don't expect an egg to 

 freeze, or their drinking-water to freeze, 

 during the coming winter; nor do we 

 expect there will be any frozen combs or 

 frozen toes. In our next issue I will try to 

 tell you about my poultry-house, made of a 

 hogshead, a barrel, and nail-kegs, for it 

 took only three or four liours to build it 

 complete. 



Now, what has this long story to do with 

 neighbors, think you? Well, the moral 

 may not be very apparent, but it lies some- 

 where in this line : When a neighbor vexes 

 you, and tries your patience, don't, I beg of 

 "you, think of wringing his neck. May be 

 the fault is yours, and may be his queer 

 ways and eccentricities may be of great 

 value if you take him right. This hen and 

 her brood have furnished me a great 

 amount of eggs and chickens, and she has 

 not taken very much food either, because 

 she rambles about and picks most of it up. 

 When biddy dug the beds up and made the 

 dirt fly, it seemed a grievous trouble ; but 

 who can tell how much good she and her 

 progeny may accomplish between now and 

 gardening time next spring, down on the 

 creek bottom V They will fine up the dirt, 

 get the worms and insects and bugs, and 

 produce a large quantity of valuable ma- 

 nure already pulverized, and stirred up and 

 digged into the ground ; for you see I ex- 

 pect the ground to remain dry where they 

 I are. We have banked it away up liigh, and 



