POULTRY. 



The laying-boxes require frequent washing with 

 hot lime-water inside, to free them from vermin, 

 which greatly torment the sitting hens. For the 

 same purpose, poultry should always have a heap 

 of dry sand or fine ashes laid under some covered 

 place or shady tree, near the yard, to dust them- 

 selves in, this being their resource for getting rid 

 of the vermin with which they are annoyed. 

 The poultry-yard should contain some lime in 

 a dry mortar state, of which the fowls eat a little. 

 It is necessary for the formation of the egg-shell. 

 If possible, also, the yard should include a patch 

 of grassland. 



Fig. 5 represents a section of a range of pens 

 for the exhibition of poultry of the various kinds, 

 constructed on the principle of shewing all the 

 animals of the same species under the same light, 

 and the same conditions generally. The suite of 

 ground-compartments is adapted for geese, ducks, 

 turkeys, rabbits ; the next stage is for gallinaceous 

 fowls of the various breeds ; and the upper stage 

 is provided with a perch for pigeons, and might 

 also be used for dwarf-fowls. It is a French 

 design. 



Feeding. 



Most persons are doubtless aware that fowls 

 swallow food without mastication. That process 

 is rendered unnecessary by the provision of a 

 crop, an organ which is somewhat similar to the 

 first stomach of the cow, and in which the food 

 from the gullet is macerated, and partly dissolved 

 by secreted fluids. From the crop, the food passes 

 downwards into a second small cavity, where it 

 is partly acted on by a digestive juice ; and, 

 finally, it is transferred to the gizzard, or last 

 stomach, which is furnished with muscular and 

 cartilaginous linings of very great strength. In 

 the gizzard, the partially softened food is tritu- 

 rated, and converted into a thin paste, fit to be 

 received into the chyle-gut, and finally absorbed 

 into the circulation. Such is the power of the 

 gizzard in almost all kinds of poultry, that hollow 

 globes of glass are reduced in it to fine powder in 

 a few hours. The most rough and jagged bodies 

 do no injury to the coats of the gizzard. Spallan- 

 zani even introduced a ball of lead, with twelve 

 strong needles so fixed in it that their points pro- 

 jected a fourth of an inch from the surface, and 

 the result was, that all the needles, with the 

 exception of one or two, were ground down in a 

 short time to the surface of the ball, while those 

 left were reduced to mere stumps. To add to the 

 triturating powers of the gizzard, fowls are gifted 

 with the faculty of swallowing gravel with their 

 food. 



Fowls, when left to roam at large, pick up all 

 sorts of seeds, grains, worms, larvae of insects, or 

 any other edible substances they can discover, 

 either on the surface of the ground or by scraping. 

 They also pick a little grass as a stomachic. The 

 more that hens can be allowed to. run about to 

 gather their food, provided always their housing 

 is good and supplementary feeding judicious, the 

 better for their health and for the pockets of the 

 owner. It has been demonstrated that some of 

 the more fashionable breeds will turn out re- 

 munerative even when kept in comparative con- 

 finement and fed artificially; but this process 

 requires the strictest attention to the character 

 of the diet, and considerable skill in the produce 

 of poultry. 



Going at large over a farm, the fowls at certain 

 seasons damage some kinds of crops, and, in 

 consequence, the number of birds fed in large yards 

 regularly, in comparative confinement, especially 

 about the larger farms, is gradually increasing. 



In a state of domestication, the hard food of 

 which fowls seem most fond are peas, barley, 

 oats, &c. ; and besides a proportion of these, they 

 may be given crumbs of bread, lumps of boiled 

 potatoes, not too cold, cabbage, turnips chopped 

 small, &c. They are much pleased to pick a 

 bone ; the pickings warm them, and excite their 

 laying propensities. If they can be supplied with 

 caterpillars, worms, or maggots, the same end 

 will be served. Any species of animal food, how- 

 ever, should be administered sparingly ; and the 

 staple articles of diet must always be of a vege- 

 table nature. They should be fed three times a 

 day. When wanted for the table, the quantity of 

 food may be increased, and be more substantial ; 

 they should also be kept more within the coop, 

 and as quiet as possible. A fortnight's feeding 

 in this way will bring a fowl of a good breed up 

 to a plump condition. The flavour of the chicken 

 on the table will be enriched by feeding for ten 

 days or so with oat and barley meal, and with 

 a little sweet milk to drink. To be valuable in 

 the nest, or on the table, none of these fashionably 

 bred, early matured fowls should be kept longer 

 than two years, though many, indeed most, of 

 the old barn-door birds are kept with advantage 

 longer. 



The duties of hen-wife should be discharged 

 constantly by one and the same person, as the 

 voice and presence of a stranger scare the fowls, 

 and disturb the operations of the hen-house. The 

 profits of the poultry department at many a rural 

 holding are considerably lessened by a breach of 

 the above rule, by intrusting the duties of the 

 hen-wife to perhaps, in the case of a large grow- 

 ing family, half-a-dozen different individuals in 

 one day, and occasionally to mere urchins. 



Laying. 



The ordinary productiveness of the hen is truly 

 astonishing, as it usually lays, in the course of a 

 year, 200 eggs, provided it has not unnatural 

 confinement, is well fed, and has a plentiful 

 supply of water. Instances have been known of 

 hens laying 300 in a year. This is a singular pro- 

 vision in nature, and it would appear to have been 

 intended peculiarly for the use of man, as the hen 

 usually incubates only once in a year, or at most 

 twice. Few hens are capable of hatching more 

 than from twelve to fifteen eggs ; so that, allowing 

 they were all to sit twice a year, and bring out 

 fifteen at a time, there would still be at least 170 

 spare eggs for the use of man. It is therefore 

 evident that, in situations where hens have com- 

 parative freedom, are well fed, and otherwise care- 

 fully attended, they must prove very profitable ; 

 for, supposing that the eggs of one fowl during 

 the year were sold, without any of them being 

 hatched, they would bring, if near a large city, on 

 an average, is. per dozen, or about i8s. ; and the 

 hen herself would be worth 2s. at least As the 

 number of eggs which are annually brought put 

 by a hen bear no proportion to the number which 

 she lays, schemes to be subsequently noticed 

 have been imagined to hatch all the eggs of a 

 hen, and thus turn her produce to the greatest 



