ageicultijRe. 235 



streams of clear water running through it, bushes andmustard- 

 phmts for shade, and boxes into which the hens can retire for 

 protection against the cokl and rain. AVhen the young brood 

 enters the yard, the oldei- occupants, or some of them, make war 

 on it, and one chick in a dozen is slain in these hostilities. After 

 the hen has proved by fighting her right to be there, peace is 

 restored, and she and her little ones are ready to make war on 

 any subsequent intruders. After the chickens are three months 

 old, they are turned into the large yard, where tliey have to 

 struggle for their food and lives, with all the old hens and 

 cocks on the place. In the large yard the chickens are fed 

 twice a day, and four ounces to each chicken per day. The 

 food is wheat, rice, oats, barley, raw meat, cabbage-leaves, 

 sorrel, chalk, oyster-shells, and green mustard. Regularity in 

 the time of feeding is considered a matter of much import- 

 ance. There should be one cock to a dozen hens. The hens 

 commence laying when about eight months old and lay most 

 in their second year. They will continue laying till their fifth 

 or sixth year, but they are usually killed about the end of the 

 fourth year. Hens that eat eggs and that crow are killed. 

 Hens which want to sit when their services are not needed in 

 that way, are shut up in the callaboose, kept there one or two 

 days, with no food save green vegetables, ducked several times 

 in cold water and then let out cured. In eight or ten days 

 they are ready to commence laying again. A hen will lay 

 fifteen or eighteen eggs before wanting to sit. 



One man near Oakland, devotes himself entirely to the busi- 

 ness of breeding rabbits, and according to rumor, finds it very 

 profitable. 



Goats, pigeons, and pheasants are bred in California, but on 

 only a small scale. 



§ 1*73. Bees. — There were no bees in California until witliin 

 the last seven years, and it was supposed they could not live 

 here, because of the dryness of the vegetation during the last 

 half of the year ; but for these insects, as for larger animals, 

 it was found on trial, that our climate is peculiarly favorable, 



