MANAGEMENT OF FOWLS. 81 



have never seen Jalap mentioned, and I have ever found it 

 most efficacious ; indeed, for many years I have never used 

 any other : as it appears to me to be the natural medicine 

 for Fowls. It is astonishing how soon it sets them up. In 

 the country, where they have a good run, they may not require 

 so much physic ; but even there I should imagine it would be 

 occasionally useful : as, for instance, when they have had the 

 incubating fever on them late in the season, and I have not 

 wanted them to sit, one or two doses have relieved them from 

 it entirely. In short, with me, it is a regular ( Morrison's 

 PilP for Fowls ; as it seems to cure all their complaints. The 

 dose for a full-sized Fowl is 15 or 16 grains. I moisten a 

 small piece of crumb of bread about the size of a hazel nut, 

 and mix the powdered jalap with it." 



An inquiry has been made whether common salt would not 

 be a good thing to promote laying in Hens that were necessarily 

 kept in close confinement. But among the most experienced 

 practical rearers of Poultry there is an old, and I believe well- 

 founded prejudice against their eating salted food, even in 

 very small quantities. I have seen in some books Glauber's 

 salts recommended, but should be sorry to try them, except as 

 an experiment on a lot of worthless or diseased Fowls. Galli- 

 naceous birds reared by the sea-side or on the banks of a salt- 

 water river, avoid the saline stream, and search for food and 

 drink as far inland as they can range. I know not either how 

 common salt could be administered to them. It is more than 

 doubtful whether the Hens would pick it from the ground in 

 its crystalline form, and it would be difficult to distribute it in 

 equal doses by means of bread, &c., soaked in salt water : the 

 chances are that some of the Hens would be poisoned. Pi- 

 geons, I think, are the only domesticated birds to whose health 

 salt is beneficial, and they prefer it in combination with ani- 

 malised matters; the more offensive it is to our senses, the 

 more agreeable it appears to be to theirs, 



