18 FARMING FOR LADIES. [chap. I; 



a mixture of bumet, spurry, or star-grass, to 

 be sown within the enclosure of the yard ; 

 but, although the use of these grasses would 

 certainly be salubrious to the poultry, it must 

 yet be evident that it would require, in most 

 cases, a much larger space than can be con- 

 veniently afforded for the purpose, besides 

 partially depriving the yard of that shelter 

 which renders it attractive to the fowls. 



So far as it can be properly attended to in 

 the management of all sorts of poultry, nature 

 should be followed as closely as possible, and 

 if they be not lodged conformably to their 

 habits, they will not be satisfied. Thus, if 

 different kinds be crowded together without 

 any regard to their modes of life — such as 

 having nests on the floor for the web-footed 

 duck tribes, with proper sized roosting perches 

 for the grasp of the clawed-feet common fowls 

 — they cannot repose in quiet ; and quietude, 

 together with warmth, is absolutely necessary 

 to the growth and good condition of all tender 

 white-meat poultry. It is, indeed, well known 

 that the chill of cold so benumbs fowls of that 

 description as to render them in some degree 

 torpid ; while too intense a heat is thought 



