.MANAGEMENT, CARE AND FEEDING. 77 



curse uncleanliness for the lice and constitutional diseases which it 

 has brought on. 



EXERCISE. This may seem of .little importance to the young 

 beginner, and yet, it is essential to health. Inertness will favor 

 obesity, and obesity is antagonistic to fecundity. Fowls which do 

 not take proper exercise, will decrease in egg production, and no 

 dependence can be placed on them as stock-getters. In cold 

 weather, and when being confined, exercise is doubly necessary, as 

 it stirs the blood to a freer circulation, strengthens the muscles, 

 gives a healthy appetite, draws away their attention from feather 

 plucking and egg eating, and improves all their physical qualities. 

 Nature has designed more or less exercise for every organic thing, 

 in order to promote endurance, hardiness, development, keen ap- 

 petite, good health and fecundity. 



OVERCROWDING. The evils of overcrowding fowls in houses 

 or runs are greater than the average breeder is aware of. Fowls 

 will not bear to be crowded; it matters not how thrifty they may be 

 in small flocks, when massed, they will show, by their looks and 

 decrease of egg production, the effects of overcrowding. The males 

 will lose their natural vigor and sexual propensities, and the females 

 will become pale, dumpish and sickly. The affluvia from their 

 feathers and digestive channels mix with the air they breathe, and, 

 this repeated every moment during day and night, poisons the 

 blood, and lays the foundation of cholera and other dangerous dis- 

 eases. Vermin are also to be dreaded in a filthy and overcrowded 

 hennery, and, if you value your fowls, and your reputation, never 

 overcrowd your houses, or you will be the sufferer. Cleanliness will 

 do a great deal to avert rapid decimation, but it cannot save all, and 

 there is nothing more certain than that sickness, death, lice and de- 

 crease of eggs will follow the massing of a large number of fowls in 

 one place. 



HATCHING AND REARING OF CHICKENS. 



Most all beginners in chicken culture think this is simple, and 

 needs no previous experience. They begin with the assurance that 

 there is no knack in making a nest, depositing eleven or thirteen 

 eggs, and placing a broody hen over them. The hen becomes 

 broody of her own accord, and will set three weeks if not disturbed; 

 the chicks will come out in due time, and thoroughbreds will repro- 

 duce themselves, so it does not matter whether one is skilled or not, 

 the chicks come all the same. A little cornmeal dough in the 



