7oG DR. CHASE'S RECIPES. 



post as would be worth f50 in bone-meal; that is to say, if he threw away his 

 hen-droppings, and had to buy the same amount of fertilizing salts in bone- 

 dust, it would cost him $50. He has paid special attention to the comfort of 

 his hens on the perch. They sit on a slat 2% inches wide; their breast-feathers 

 come down and cover their feet, and protect them from freezing in the coldest 

 nights. Of course, there is no lack of dry ashes in their house, and he finds 

 that after the fire goes out the hens use the hearth as a place to nestle and 

 shake ashes through their feathers. They enjoy it, and it keeps them sound 

 and comfortable. 



"The offal of the farm, as entrails, feathers, heads, scraps from lard, and 

 all the odds and ends from the kitchen are thrown into this bouse, and the 

 hens pick it over, eating all they want. Then, as soon as spring opens, all this 

 trash is shoveled and scraped out, composted and taken to the corn-field. 

 Besides this refuse, his poultry eat about 1 bushel of corn a day in winter, and 

 J^ a bushel in summer. He raises large crops of corn because he has strong 

 manure to feed his crops with. In spring, after a hen has hatched, her nest is 

 taken out, the straw burned, and the box whitewashed inside and out, then 

 filled with fresh straw and put back for another family party. 



Best Breed. — "After many trials of breeds he has settled upon the 

 White Brahmas. They lay more uniformly the year through, make the best 

 mothers, and the chicks grow the fastest. During summer his poultry have a 

 wide range, and scour the fields for lialf a mile or more consuming grasshop- 

 pers. His turkeys nearly make their weight on grasshoppers and beetles, with 

 a handful of corn night and morning. One man has little to do in spring and 

 summer but to take care of chickens and young turkeys. In winter they 

 require but little attention, and this man then attends to the calves and lambs." 



"The cost of his poultry-meat — and he often kills in a season 300 turkeys 

 and 3,000 chickens — he considers to be about 250 bushels of corn, and the 

 wages of his hen-wife for half the time. His gains he cannot give exactly, for 

 the poultry is eaten very freely by a large family and sent to the Metropolitan 

 when prices are high, or the supply in market defective in quality. He does 

 not keep exact account of his eggs, for, as a rule, he says the best thing to do 

 with an egg is to let a good motherly hen make a chicken of it. Your com- 

 mittee conclude their report by an expression of opinion that the common ideas 

 on the subject of poultry-raising on a large scale are erroneous. It has been 

 said again and again in this Club and in farm journals that there is no use in 

 trying to keep more than about 50 hens; if one goes deeper into the poultry 

 business there is backset from lice and roup and gapes and cholera and the 

 sudden death of hens and chicks from causes unknown. This is a fallacy. 

 In the manner above described, by the wise use of smoke and lime and ashes 

 and a fire, by cleanliness and a wide range in mild weather, we find Mr. 

 Leland taking about 4,000 feathered animals through the season, for year after 

 year, without calamity or loss, and on an expense that is very trifling and 

 unfelt on a large farm." 



Remarks.— 1 wish to speak here of two points particularly, which I believe 

 to be worthy of absolute confidence. First, the perches being made of 2% by 

 1 inch slats, fastened so they sit upon the flat or broad side of the perch, mak- 

 ing it not only easier for the hen to sit upon it, but she does not have to cling 

 her toes around a pole to be able to keep her position, which strains the cords 

 and makes them more liable to freeze in winter. And second, these slats will 

 not crack open by shrinking, as everybody knows poles do; thus preventing a 

 harbor for lice, right under the hen, which amounts to more, as I know it 

 must, than one would suppose by a mere thought upon the subject. 



