CHAP, v.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 129 



them, for this is necessary to assist their di- 

 gestion. While they run about they can pick 

 up what will serve the same end for them- 

 selves. I am inclined to think that a little 

 salt given with their food, or occasionally with 

 their water, would both assist their digestion 

 and make them fatten more quickly. 



" I have hitherto spoken only of chickens ; 

 but older fowls are not less profitable. Any 

 hen, even though fed with food for which 

 money proportionate to its first market value 

 must be actually paid, v.'ill by her eggs pay 

 annually at least three times the cost of her 

 subsistence. The very dung of these crea- 

 tures is sufficient almost to pay for their 

 whole food. In your garden you will find it 

 the richest and most exciting of manures for 

 your beds of leeks, onions, &c. About every 

 house in the country there is a certain pro- 

 portion of farinaceous food which goes daily 

 to waste if there be not domestic fowls to feed 

 upon it ; and would every family throughout 

 these kingdoms keep constantly just as many 

 fowls as it might thus feed without expense, 

 we should never want abundance of poultry 

 at reasonable cheapness." 



