332 EARLY CHICKENS. 



raise to fatten for winter sales, if hatched thus early, will com 

 inence laying about September, and produce you Eggs, at a 

 time when they command the best price. 



A word to the Fancier : If you adopt the system of early 

 hatching, you will see the advantage of it in the extra size 

 your Fowls attain the first season. You will not be subject to 

 the vexation of seeing your young Chicks die off, one by one, 

 when exposed to the hot sun of July, August, and September ; 

 for they will have attained size and strength to bear it. You 

 have probably had some Chickens out as early as April, and if so, 

 have you not observed how much better they thrived than those 

 clutches hatched out two or three months later ? And then, 

 when these April Fowls were nine months old, have you 

 weighed them ? and also, when your June Fowls reached the 

 same age, did you weigh them, and compare the weights ? Lest 

 you did not do so, I will tell you what would have been the 

 result : the early Fowls would have weighed twenty -five per 

 cent, heavier than the late ones ; and I am well satisfied, if the 

 experiment had been tried with January and June Fowls, the 

 result would have been thirty-three per cent, in favour of the 

 former. 



Being fully satisfied of the importance of early hatching, I 

 this year temporarily arranged a small room for the purpose, 

 by placing in it an air-tight wood-stove, and a thermometer. 

 Around the stove, and fast to the floor, I nailed strips of 

 boards, four inches wide, and filled the enclosure thus formed 

 with clean sand, for the Chickens to dust themselves in. By 

 the time these arrangements were completed, (Nov. 2d, 1850,) 

 I had a clutch of eight Shanghae Chicks nearly ready to take 

 possession of the room. I would here remark, that I do not 

 set my Hens in this, warm room, but suffer them to hatch out 

 their Eggs in the chicken-house, where I keep no fire. 



On January 16th, 1851, I had another clutch of Chicks, 

 (Royal Cochin China's, eight in number,) ready to remove to 



