CHAP. VI.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 141 



as much as they chose to eat; but the 

 same being tried at their liberty, and peck- 

 ing about, with cabbage-leaves occasionally 

 thrown to them, did not eat so much barley 

 in the week, although allowed all they de- 

 sired." 



Now, in this there would seem to be some 

 discrepancy ; for, supposing the fifteen chick- 

 ens, which were two, three, and four months 

 old, to be equal to the consumption of ten 

 hens, these, together with the cock and three 

 other hens, may be considered as amounting 

 to fourteen fowls, and, though " kept in high 

 condition," only ate a quart of corn per day ; 

 while the cock and two hens appear to have 

 eaten two quarts in a week : or at the pro- 

 portionate rate of four to three more than the 

 larger stock. 



A farmer in North America states, that he 

 has confined in a room and separately fed 

 sixty fowls of eight to nine months old, dur- 

 ing the winter, solely on corn, without allow- 

 ing them to go out to seek any other kind of 

 food, and that the daily consumption was six 

 quarts of grain — Indian com, oats, and buck- 

 wheat ; which, calculating the average price 



