76 THE REARING AND 



A correspondent of the Agricultural Gazette, thus describes 

 the method which he successfully practised for many years in 

 India: "The fowl-house, or rather feeding-house, for only 

 fattening Fowls were permitted to be in it, was kept as cool 

 as possible, (in Bengal, remember,) and almost dark. Each 

 Fowl had a separate pen; they were fed once, and only once 

 a-day, with rice, boiled as rice ought to be for Christians : not 

 to a mash; but so that grain from grain should separate. 

 The quantity to each Fowl was about two ounces (before 

 boiling). For the fir&t three days to each was given about a 

 tea-spoonful of 'ghopr/ a coarse sugar about half as much 

 again of treacle would be an equivalent. This commencing 

 with sugar was held to be very important; it cleansed the 

 birds and disposed them to fatten; no water was given; 

 neither was any chalk or gravel, both being unknown in the 

 country. In about three weeks the Fowls were generally fat. 

 I never, in England, have seen finer than those I have killed 

 within that time, not even at Mr. Davis' s of Leadenhall Market. 

 If they did not fatten in three weeks, we supposed that they 

 did not mean to fatten, but this was a rare occurrence, and 

 proceeded, no doubt, from some ailment beyond my power of 

 discovering; but, fat or otherwise, they were never tough. 

 To boil the rice in buttermilk is by far preferable to boiling 

 it in water; let the Fowls be as young as you can, if of full 

 growth. Many people run away with an impression that 

 Fowls fed on rice will go blind ; it is dirt and sourness that 

 cause it. How often do we see a trough loaded with meal 

 food, sufficient for two or three days, placed before the un- 

 happy prisoner in the pen, who cannot escape from it, or seek 

 other and sweeter food ! When the Fowls have done feeding, 

 the trough should be removed, cleaned, and exposed to the 

 air until the next day's feeding time. At my factory, in 

 India, the troughs were every afternoon thrown into a pond; 

 there they remained until next morning, when ; after an hour 



