CHAP. II.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 57 



It is, also, very important to ascertain, so 

 far as possible, whether both the cock and 

 the hens which are to become his mates, are 

 of sound constitution ; for if not, they will 

 breed clutches of weakly chickens, which will 

 die off ere they grow to maturity. Their 

 mode of feeding should, therefore, be closely 

 observed : if they eat corn enough to fill 

 their crops and digest it quickly, it is a sign 

 of health ; but if they eat but little, and 

 their digestion is slow or incomplete, they 

 will probably be found sickly, and equally 

 unfit for breeding, or their flesh from being 

 eaten. Sheep which have the rot are, indeed, 

 constantly eaten, without people being con- 

 scious of the fact, and their flesh, when suf- 

 ficiently fat, is by many persons thought su- 

 perior ; for in the early stages of the disease, 

 the fat and flesh increase with wonderful 

 rapidity. In like manner, it has been as- 

 serted in a treatise published some years ago 

 on the breeding of game-cocks, that, " if two 

 chickens of the same age be killed, letting 

 one be thriving and hardy and the other rather 

 weakly, and dressed exactly alike, when they 

 are brought to table the thriving chicken 



