Ch. XLII.] ON POULTRY AND RABBITS. &Sl 



pears in languor and decline of appetite, followed by small pustules in the 

 throat, together with red and purple eruptions, more distinct after death 

 than during the life of the animal ; but may, it is said, be removed in this 

 stage by giving small quantities of levigated crude antimony in the food. 



Generally speaking, even if tlie animals be in health, a small quantity of 

 nitre and sulphur, occasionally mixed up with their food, besides stimulat- 

 ing their appetite, will frequently prevent disease : neither can we too much 

 insist upon cleanliness, nor upon the punctual regularity of feeding at 

 stated times. 



Chapter XLII. 



ON POULTRY AND RABBITS. 



Although poultry are fed upon everv farm, and it therefore might be 

 expected that we should give a detailed account of the various breeds and 

 their respective management, yet v/e, upon reflection, thought that it would 

 only uselessly swell the work, as every country housewife is so well ac- 

 quainted with the means of rearing them, that, upon that subject, we could 

 teach little that is not generally known ; and, as to the history of the diffe- 

 rent sorts, and their peculiar habits, we must leave them to naturalists, for 

 we much doubt whether our farmers' wives would re;!d it. We shall, there- 

 fore, confine ourselves to remarking, that we think the breeding of poultry 

 could with a little more attention be carried to a far greater extent than at 

 present; for it is in all our great towns an expensive luxury, which un- 

 (juestionably would pay well for any care bestowed upon it*. 



The most common species of domestic poultry are foxols. On the Conti- 

 nent of Europe such quantities are reared that they are very nearly as 

 cheap as butchers' meat, and throughout Ireland poultry swarm in every 

 hut, although tli^ inhabitants have little else to feed them with beyond the 

 refuse of their own meal of potatoes; the broods share t!ie fireside of the 

 cottar, and the v.armlh, which is so essential to their health, assists in 

 rearing them without dilliculty. In this country, however, the large farmers 

 breed only for their own use : the industrious yeomanry, who formerly were 

 content with farming a few acres, and whose thrifty helpmates furnished our 

 markets with an abunchant supply, have now in a great measure dis- 

 appeared ; and, either from the want of sufficient shelter, or from ob- 

 jections to their being kept by the peasantry, poultry are seldom seen 

 around their cottages ; so that the tables of the Londoners are in a great 

 measure supplied from France. 



Not only in the peasant's cot, but in most of our farm-houses, the poultry 

 are, indeed, very indifferently accommodated with shelter; for it is gene- 

 rally thouglit that anv shed which covers them from the weather is sufficient. 

 This want of attention to their comfort, however, checks their fatting, and 

 occasions the loss of a number of eggs, which the hens would lay during a 



* It is stated in a lutter from the Rev. Mr. Cooper to the Bishop of Lincoln, quoted 

 in the Bedfordshire Survey, '" that an open field-farm, of .30/. per annum, has produced 

 annually from thirteen to sixteen guineas from this article only ; while occupiers of 

 a meadow-enclosure, of eight times that rent, raised no more than supplies for his own 

 tahle." p. 570. 



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