CHAP, v.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 123 



tion ; but when a little older, and that an 

 egg is boiled for them, the shell should be 

 pounded and left for their use. The stomach 

 of a newly-hatched chicken is so inconceivably 

 small as scarcely to contain more food than 

 the size of a pea ; it however, of course, gra- 

 dually grows larger, according to the growth 

 of the bird, and increases so rapidly that in a 

 couple of months their crop will hold nearly 

 as much as that of a common-sized pullet, and 

 the power of the stomach is so effectually 

 aided by their gizzard that it will digest the 

 hardest species of corn. 



The crop is a species of bag into which the 

 food descends after being swallowed, and is 

 capable of very considerable distension. From 

 thence the food passes through the gizzard, 

 which grinds it with such force as to reduce 

 the hardest substance to the consistence of 

 powder before its being received into the 

 stomach ; acting, in fact, in much the same 

 manner as teeth in mastication. Such, indeed, 

 is the providence of nature in furnishing every 

 creature with those organs best suited to their 

 habits and means of life, that while granivor- 

 ous fowls are thus enabled to reduce corn to a 



