POULTPwY AND BEES. 479 



should never be kept on any one kind of food ; oats, kitobcu 

 scraps, buckwheat, bonny clabber, sunflower seeds, and other 

 changes should be made. Never feed all they will eat, but 

 stop when they cease to be greedy for the food. Lime, burned 

 oyster shells, and the shells of their own eggs will assist them 

 in forming new shells. Give chickens plenty of room and 

 plowed ground to scratch in. If you do not want the hens in 

 the plowed land, fasten the coop near it and let the chickens 

 run. But it is better, after the first week or two, to let them all 

 run, calling them to the house at least once a day to make 

 them feel at home there. 



What are the best Breeds ? We have already advised 

 the purchase of cocks of some good breed, and we will now 

 give the characteristics of the best breeds. Says a poultry 

 raiser writing to the Prairie Farmer: " Our common barnyard 

 fowl, with good care, will lay one hundred and forty eggs each 

 year, and give them time to rear each a brood of chickens. A 

 Black Spanish vnll lay one hundred and twenty eggs, but does 

 not set at all. A Leghorn fowl will lay two hundred eggs in a 

 year; this breed does not set till three years old. Hamburgs 

 (Grolden Pencilled) will lay from two hundred to two hundred and 

 forty eggs each year, but does not set till three years old, and 

 sometimes not even then. Bramah fowls will lay one hundre4 

 and forty eggs, and bring up two broods of chickens each year. 



" The average cost of keeping fowls, of all kinds, with corn, at 

 one dollar per bushel, and small grain in that proportion, wiL 

 be not far from one dollar and twenty-five cents each per year." 



We indorse the above estimate of the Hamburgs, their 

 refusal to set being no objection to them if you have Cochins to 

 set their eggs under. The game cock put upon common fowls 

 of good size is one of the best investments we ever made in 

 poultry. Their chicks make great layers, are hardy, always 



