DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 769 



tittle cooked meat when the egg is dropped from the bill of fare, unless insects 

 are plenty. As soon as they are old enough to swallow the grains, give cracked 

 corn, cracked oats, wheat, etc., at night. Two or three times a week mix a 

 little bone meal with the feed— a table-spoonful to 1 pt, of feed. Season the 

 food slightly with salt and pepper. Give milk to drink if you can get it. Feed 

 often — five or six times a day. Feed all they will eat up clean, but do not 

 leave any food around to sour. Sour, sloppy food is responsible for a good 

 deal of mortality among the infant chicken population." 



Bemarks. — The " bone meal " referred to here is undoubtedly good ; and 

 if it cannot be obtained at the stores, which has been finely ground and put up 

 for sale, the best substitute is to burn bones til' white, then pound and pulverize 

 them in an iron mortar as finely as practicable, will do very well, and is 

 especially important until the chickens are allowed to take the range of the 

 fields. 



Fattening Poultry for Market— Best Pood for. Etc.— Ameri- 

 can, French and English Plans, Etc. — " No fowl," says the American 

 Agriculturist, "over two years old, should be kept in the poultry yard, except 

 it be an extra good mother or a finely-feathered bird, desirable for breeding — 

 such may be kept till 10 years old, or as long as useful. All other hens or 

 roosters should be fattened for market at the end of the second year." They 

 should be confined in a room or shed that can be closed and made quite dark, 

 if you wish the greatest speed in fattening ; the floor to be covered with two or 

 three inches of sifted coal ashes, dry sand, dry earth, or dry straw ; best in the 

 order named. The food should be given four times a day, and pure water 

 always before them. 



1. The Americans think buckwheat meal, mixed with skimmed milk 

 into a thick mush, with a tea-spoonful of salt to enough for 1 doz. fowls, is 

 the best food for fattening ; and that two weeks should do it, if the room is 

 dark and cool. Then ship at once to market, 



2. The French claim that no meal for fattening should be made from 

 grain less than one year old, and that the water used in mixing should have 

 suet added to it, at the rate of % oz. to each 2 qts. of meal ; and a small 

 quantity of coarse gravel also added to aid the digestion ; and no food to be 

 given within twelve hours of the time the fowl is to be killed. They also feed 

 largely of the Belgian yellow carrot, boiled or stewed, and mashed, claiming a 

 very rich and peculiar flavor is imparted to the flesh by its use. All carrots, 

 that I ever saw are yellow, but the Belgian may be peculiarly so, and may be 

 richer in flavor than our common kinds, still I think they will " fill the bill.'^ 



3. The English have a great liking for the flesh of the Dorking fowls, and 

 prepare them for the London market by shutting up in a dark room, the sama 

 as the Americans and French do; but they feed a mixture of suet, 1 lb., 

 chopped fine; sugar, ^ lb. with each 4 lbs. of meal ; and give milk as their 

 drink five or six times daily, and claim a gain of 2 lbs. a week ; and with 

 young turkeys, that even 3 lbs. a week is often gained. Thus turkeys might 

 be brought up to about 40 lbs. for the New York market, where, of this weight 

 at Christmas time, I see some of the papers claim they are worth $1 a pound. 

 Beai in mind, however, that in all cases their droppings must be often removed 



