FOWLS FOR LAYERS AND SITTERS. 109 



flesh will prove excellent for the table as compared with 

 fowls that are two or three years old. It is no wonder that 

 there is little liking for the adult fowls the markets ordi- 

 narily afford, for they comprise many that are very old 

 and comparatively unfit for food. But regular customers 

 will soon approve fowls a year old, which have been sup- 

 plied with the most suitable food, and brought to just 

 the proper fatness, and delivered freshly killed and 

 neatly dressed, and our experience proves that the fami- 

 lies upon the egg route will order all that the establish- 

 ment has to dispose of. The high pressure mode of feed- 

 ing and turning off while yet young, is then the true 

 policy. 



The point is, there is a certain consumption of food 

 to enable any animal to keep alive. The ordinary vital 

 operations, aside from laying or increase of size, de- 

 mand force, obtained through food which is money 

 and we should aim to support only such fowls as are all 

 the while giving returns in either growth or eggs. The 

 long period of molting and recovering from its conse- 

 quent exhaustion, costs, as does the maintenance of the 

 vital fires during the cold of winter. It is a matter of 

 quick balancing of profits and expenses with animals, 

 which, like fowls, consume the value of their bodies in 

 about ten months. If it is urged that the stimulating 

 diet and unnatural prolificness will subject the stock to 

 disease, the reply is that the regimen is not continued 

 more than six or eight months, and in that time evil 

 effects will not ordinarily follow, for the birds are 

 allowed freedom, sun and air, and special provision is 

 made for daily exercise. As none of the fowls to which 

 this forcing system is applied, leave descendants, no 

 evil effects are accumulated and entailed upon the stock. 

 The layers are from the eggs of fowls that have not been 

 subjected to any such pressure, and during the period 

 of their principal growth they have been given a nutri- 



