768 DB. CHASE'S RECIPES. 



Poultry Maxims, or Short Statements of Important Facts. — 



1. Give hens constant access to lime, of which to make shells, and always 

 give them access to gravel 



2. A fresh egg has a lime-like surface, old ones become glossy and 

 smooth. 



3. Charcoal in pieces the size of a pea, or burned corn once a week is 

 valuable for all poultry. 



4. If eggs are expected, give a warm feed every morning of mashed 

 vegetables so moist as to allow thickening with middlings, or corn, oats, wheats 

 and buckwheat ground together in equal quantities; buckwheat alone, or the- 

 mixed small grains, buckwheat being one of them, for the noon feed, and 

 cracked corn, or whole kernels at night. Once a week putting a tea-spoonful 

 of cayenne into the morning feed, for 1 dozen fowls, and once a week, black, 

 popper, twice as much, in its place, which not only increases the production o£ 

 eggs, but wards off disease. 



5. Meat, chopped, and fed once a week induces laying, and poultry,, 

 young or old, are very fond of warm dish water in winter, with a little com 

 meal, or mixed meal in it; and are also very fond of oatmeal gruel; and all 

 the better if it can be made of milk, or at least half milk. It promotes warmth 

 and makes flesh ; but better with water only, than none. 



6. Wheat, oats, and barley boiled together, promotes laying, or either 

 two of them; buckwheat is good with them, but does not want boiling more 

 than half as long. 



7. Feed only what will be eaten up clean and at once, else they 

 become too fat and quit laying; while in summer, any of the mixed or mashed 

 feeds not eaten up, soon sours, and invites disease. 



8. Fine gravel, or coarse sawdust are as essential to the thriving of poul- 

 try as good and varied food. They will not keep healthy without them. 



9. Early chickens must be fed by lamp-light at night, if expected ta 

 mature quickly. They will soon learn to enjoy it ; and four times by day- 

 light, the last of these at early dark, the final at bed-time, if for an early 

 market. 



10. Pullets generally begin to lay eggs in about eight months from hatch- 

 ing ; then those hatched in March or April, if properly cared for, will be tha 

 more certain to make excellent winter layers. 



11. Gather eggs twice daily in summer, and three times in winter. 

 Young Chickens— Best Food For— How Often to Feed, Etc. — 



The following well-written and sensible instructions are from " Fanny Field," 

 in the Ohio Farmer. She says: 



" The first meal, which should not be given until the chicks are at least 

 twelve hours old, is hard-boiled egg. crumbled fine, or stale wheat bread 

 crumbs, moistened with milk. We make it a rule to feed nothing tlie first 

 week except the egg, bread crumbs and curds. When a week old we begin on. 

 cooked oat meal, boiled potatoes, cooked rice, etc. Cooked corn meal may ho 

 fed the second week, but we think they do better without any corn meal unlii 

 the third or fourth week •, then we give almost any cooked food, adding a 



