Sec. 9.] 



POULTRY. 



125 



about poultry keeping, particularly to small farmers and villagers, to know 

 how to keep liens in confinement. It is very convenient for many persons 

 who could not allow them to run at large to annoy themselves and neigh- 

 bors, to keep enough to supply the family with fresh eggs, and perhaps a 

 few chickens. 



As coniiueincnt is un unnatural condition for fowls, it is often an iin- 

 hcidthy condition. The question is, can they be kept shut up in close quar- 

 ters and keep healthy? If large numbers are together, they are very apt to 

 get a disease which makes them lose their feathers. Sometimes they i>ull 

 them off of one another. Great attention should be paid to cleanliness, 

 where fowls are shut up. Lime for the hens to eat — lime scattered over tlio 

 floor — lime used as whitewash, should never be neglected. The following 

 rules are very good : 



1st. Do not keep more than ten hens confined in one small yard. They 

 will be more profitable than fifty. If you wish to keep a large number, have 

 several places for them. 



2d. Do not confine them in a damp or shaded jdace, but in a dry one, 

 where they can have both shade and sunshine. The latter is very important. 



3d. As they can not remove from the filth that accumulates, it sliould be 

 removed from them. Tliere is no permanent success in keeping fowls in 

 confinement without the utmost neatness. Their droppings should be daily 

 removed from the roosting-place, and the yard should be well littered witii 

 fi\>li straw, tan, or other material, us often as is necessary. 



4th. The hen is omnivorous — that is, she cats almost everything ; insects, 

 flesh, grain, and fruit arc taken with avidity. All attempts, therefore, to 

 confine hens to a single article of diet will fail. Give them a good sujiply 

 of grain and butchers' scraps, boiled potatoes, sour milk, and the refuse of 

 the kitchen, and during the summer months an occasional taste of fruit, and, 

 in addition, egg-shells and oyster-sholls crushed ; or, if you can not get 

 these, pound up the bones that always collect about yards. It is wonderful 

 with what avidity fowls, especially when confined, will cat broken bones. 



[>th. J'ltuti/ (if clean water is always necessary. Stagnant or filthy water 

 will not do. It alone is sufficient to cause disease. Ilunning water is best, 

 but clean, fresh water will answer. 



()th. Kxoreise is quite an important part <>( the plan. Turn them out an 

 hour before sunset to pick up insects, gravel, and other substances, and it 

 will quicken their circulation and add much to their jiowers of resisting dis- 

 ease. We have heard a poultry keeper say, who followed these rules, that 

 with him the balance-sheet gave a large i>riifit. 



Althougii the above remarks are applicable principally to re.-iidents of 

 towns or villages, yet we would like to add a word tor the benefit of farmers. 

 How few of them keep poultry ar. a profit ! Indeed, as generally kept about 

 the farm, with free range of the barn, grain, and often portions of the house, 

 they are of no profit, and very often are an almost intolerable nuisance. 



177. The Food of FowISi — This is a very importaut question. A great 



