16 FARMING FOR LADIES. [chap. I. 



require a considerable portion of food in addi- 

 tion to the grain which they may thus pick up. 

 Ducks and geese find their way to the ditches 

 and ponds, which abound with every de- 

 scription of garbage wherewith to fill their 

 stomachs ; whereas the common fowls are 

 usually confined to a poultry-yard, contain- 

 ing nothing but the bare earth. They must 

 therefore be supplied with everything, and 

 it is unnecessary to explain — that if stinted 

 in food, they will suffer in their growth, and 

 be deficient in the size, quality, and number 

 of their eggs. 



Clean and pure water too is indispensable ; 

 for if foul, it generates disease, and at length 

 renders the poultry leprous. It is seldom 

 that a pond is found in the small space of a 

 poultry-yard ; nor is it desirable that there 

 should be one, for if the ducks have access 

 to a field with water in it, a pump with pro- 

 per troughs is better. 



If the fowls be allowed to range over the 

 stable-yard and farmery — if there be one — or 

 if they have the use of any adjoining paddock, 

 a very small enclosure will be sufficient. The 

 latter is, indeed, a point of more importance 



