156 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



pheasants were kept in excellent condition in a house ten 

 by fifty feet, with five yards attached, averaging 10 X 25 

 feet. However, with pheasants, as with all the bird family, 

 especially turkeys, the more ground they have for ranging 

 the less liable they will be to disease. The chief difficulty 

 in breeding game birds like the pheasant is to secure the 

 insects, such as flies, maggots, and ant eggs, which are the 

 natural food of the young. Sufficient green food like lettuce, 

 turnip tops, cabbage, etc., must also be provided. There is 

 always a market at fancy prices for more of the matured 

 birds than can possibly be supplied. 



Some people make money in breeding or training fancy 

 birds like canaries, mocking birds, finches, parrots, and so 

 on; but this industry can be carried on almost as well in 

 rooms in the city as in the country. Specializing on any 

 kind of animal rearing must be gone into with extreme 

 caution, because in the breeding of animals there are many 

 factors to be dealt with which do not confront the breeder 

 of plants. Make haste slowly, and before branching out be 

 sure that you master each step in its turn. 



An industry which is practically unknown in this coun- 

 try, but which flourishes in Burgundy, France, is the raising 

 of snails for food. Those who are shocked by this will be 

 surprised to learn that snail culture was practiced by the 

 Romans at the time of the Civil War between Csesar and 

 Pompey, as Jacques Boyer says in American Homes and 

 Gardens. The snail lays from fifty to sixty eggs annually. 

 They are deposited in a smooth hole prepared for them in 

 the ground and hatched within twenty days. So rapidly 

 do they grow that they are ready for market six or eight 

 weeks after hatching. The snail park is made by inclosing 

 a plot of damp, limy soil with smooth boards coated with 



