4 FARMING FOR LADIES. [chap. i. 



Warmth is truly an essential point, as any 

 one will admit who has witnessed the swarms 

 of poultry which are reared in the smoky 

 cabins of the Irish peasantry. What che- 

 mists say about the "necessity of cool air, 

 and the prejudice which smoke occasions to 

 human health,^^ may be all very true, but, in 

 fsict, folds never thrive so well as in warmth 

 and smoke — the one being congenial to their 

 nature, the other a preventive against ver- 

 min ; and we well recollect having, when a 

 boy, been resident in an old manor-house, in 

 Kent, in the huge kitchen-chimney of which 

 several hens roosted upon the rafters and 

 projections of the walls, though exposed to 

 the heat and smoke of a wood fire, and many 

 of them layed eggs during the whole winter. 

 It is indeed no bad plan, in very cold weather, 

 to put in the fowl-house, at night, an iron pan 

 with hot embers, covered by damp straw or a 

 log of green wood, for the purpose of creating 

 smoke as well as warmth. We are far from 

 objecting to fresh air ; but those who recom- 

 mend poultry -houses to be " lofty buildings, 

 thoroughly ventilated," are mere theorists, 

 who know nothing practically about the matter. 



