CHAPTER XII. 



POULTRY AND BEES. 



jAEMERS usually keep a little Poultry, and yet but few 

 are aware that they are the most profitable stock on the 

 farm. The farmer can well keep a liberal supply ot 

 fowls by feeding them three or four months in the year; 

 the remainder of the time they will forage for themselves. 

 They will, if given the range of the barnyard, the orchard, the 

 stubble field, or the tobacco plantation, secure worms, irrubs 

 bugs, and scattered seeds from April to November, sufficient to 

 keep them in good flesh and return their owners from three 

 to six dozen eggs each, to pay for the privilege. We coiisider that 

 a flock of hens or turkeys turned into the orchard or tobacco 

 field ^\ ill pay for their winter's keep in destroying worms and 

 insects. If the hen only lays fourteen weeks out of the fifty-two, 

 (which is less than the average for two, three, or four year old 

 fowls,) say one hundred eggs at three cents a piece, you have 

 three dollars for her keep, and a little pile of the strongest manure, 

 besides her services among your insect enemies. But what will 

 it cost to keep her through the winter. A peck of grain will 

 feed a large hen about three weeks; so if you feed four months, 

 you will feed six pecks of grain. Will any other animal return 

 you so much for so small an outlay ? But this is not all ; you still 

 have the hen either to put in the pot, send to market, raise yen 



471 



