POUTRY. 421 



CHAPTER XXI. 



POULTRY. 



Choice varieties of fowls, add a pleasant feature to the 

 farm premises. They engage the attention and sympathy of 

 the juvenile farmers, and the time bestowed in the poultry 

 yard, keeps them from mischief, is an agreeable and salutary 

 relief for toil and study, and elicits the taste, the judgment, 

 and the kindlier feelings of humanity, which are to be ma- 

 tured in the future accomplished breeder. When properly 

 managed, poultry are a source of considerable profit, yielding 

 more forthe food they consume, than any other stock, although 

 their value is not often considered. The agricultural statis- 

 tics of the United States, for 1839, give us over $12,000,000 

 in poultry, and it probably exceeds $15,000,000 at the present 

 time. It is estimated by McQueen, that the poultry of En- 

 gland exceeds $40,000,000, and yet McCulloch says, she 

 imports 60,000,000 eggs annually from France, McQueen 

 states it at near 70,000,000 ; and from other parts of the 

 continent, 25,000,000 ; besides 80,000,000 imported from 

 Ireland. Poultry then ceases to be an unimportant object of 

 agricultural attention, and assumes its appropriate place 

 among the other staples of the farmer. 



HENS 



Are the most numerous and profitable, and the most gen- 

 erally useful of the feathered tribe. The hen is peculiarly 

 an egg-producing bird. She has the same predisposition for 

 laying, that the cow has for secreting milk. Some breeds 

 are better adapted for this object than others ; but in all that 

 have ever come within our notice, the proper food and cir- 

 cumstances are alone wanting, to produce a reasonable quan- 

 tity of eggs. The egg consists of three distinct parts ; the 

 shell, the white, and the yolk. A good-sized egg will weigh 

 1,000 grains, of which about 107 are shell, 604 are white, 



