410 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



convert the milk more rapidly into flesh than do older animals. 

 Generally, in well-settled neighborhoods, and in the vicinity of 

 towns, the price paid for weaning-pigs is much greater in propor- 

 tion to their weight than that paid for fat hogs. 



If it is considered profitable, owing to the low price of grain, 

 or the probable high price of pork, to feed grain, it will be found 

 better in all cases to steam this, or otherwise to cook it. If it is 

 previously ground the profit will be still greater. Especially 

 if it is not to be steamed or cooked, all except nubbins and waste 

 grain should be finely ground, and soaked in water before feeding. 

 The question of steaming, which is a very important one, is dis- 

 cussed at length under its proper head. It may be stated, in 

 general terms, that there will be an economy of fully one-third of 

 the food, if it is properly cooked before being given to the animals. 

 If there are no facilities for cooking or steaming, it will be a good 

 plan to mix the meal with hot water, and to leave it a few hours 

 in a covered barrel, or other closed vessel, before feeding it. 



POULTRY. 



There is a good deal more to be said about poultry, which it 

 would be of advantage for every farmer to hear, than I can 

 properly take room for in this connection. Ideas as to the best 

 manner of keeping poultry vary so much that it is only on a care- 

 ful consideration of the farmer's local circumstances that it will be 

 safe to make a decision as to the kinds to be raised, the size of 

 the flocks, and the manner in which they are to be kept. It has 

 \ono- been believed, and perhaps it is true, that it is impossible to 

 keep a thousand hens with the same proportional profit that one 

 may obtain from a flock of a dozen or twenty. But there is a 

 large class of poultry-fanciers who discard this idea, and think 

 that if the same amount of freedom were given to the larger flock, 

 the deo-ree of profit would be the same. This is, to a certain ex- 

 tent, demonstrated by the experience of Mr. Warren Leland, of 

 the Metropolitan Hotel in New York, who, at his farm near Rye, 

 on the New York and New Haven Railroad, keeps several thou- 



