142 FARMING FOR LADIES. [chap. ti. 



at 4s. per bushel, which is higher than they 

 usually cost in the London market, would be 

 nine-pence per day. They will in this man- 

 ner, however, be in the highest condition ; the 

 cocks growing fat, and the hens laying eggs 

 enough to pay for the corn in the winter, 

 and "re-paying it four-fold in the spring." 

 The mode in which the fowls were provided, 

 was by putting the grain in separate com- 

 partments, holding about half a bushel each, 

 which were kept always supplied. And the 

 farmer adds this important remark — "that 

 if allowed to help themselves to what they 

 want, they eat less than if fed in the usual 

 way ; for, in the latter case, each tries to get 

 as much as it can, and thus burdens itself; 

 but finding, in the former case, that they have 

 abundance, they eat less, and that generally 

 in the morning early, and in the evening on 

 going to roost. Of the three kinds of grain, 

 they took in the proportion of twice as much 

 Indian corn as buckwheat or oats." 



There is much truth in this remark, so far 

 as regards fowls in a high state of feeding 

 for being fattened on corn ; but it evidently 

 would not do for those stores which are to 



