126 FARMING FOR LADIES. [chap. v. 



into effect, should be deterred from keeping 

 as many fowls as can be conveniently managed 

 in a more ordinary way ; for, if only common 

 care be shown them, they will be sure to repay 

 the trouble. 



Having stated thus much on the breeding 

 and management of chickens, we must further 

 trespass upon the indulgence of our fair 

 readers to the following judicious remarks on 

 feeding, made by an experienced country 

 gentleman, on their value in point of economy, 

 and inserted in Middleton's View of the 

 Agriculture of Middlesex : — 



" A chicken, while its weight varies from 

 half a pound to three pounds, does not require, 

 on the highest estimate, more than one ounce, 

 or, in the latter period of its growth, one ounce 

 and a quarter of daily food ; for it will be 

 found that the food every day requisite for the 

 sustenance of such an animal cannot exceed 

 one thirty-sixth part of its own weight. Meal 

 of oats or barley diluted with water, dough 

 of any of the common sorts of meal or flour, 

 pottage of oatmeal, potatoes boiled and 

 bruised, the pith of the boiled cabbage- 

 stem, &c., with a sufiicient quantity of water, 



