CHAP. Ti.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 157 



when no other work is going on ; but a doubt 

 may arise respecting its effect on the flesh, 

 which it might not improbably render flabby. 



Boiled rice is an excellent food, as being 

 not only very nutritious, but as improving 

 the delicacy of the flesh — particularly if it be 

 boiled with skim-milk ; and as the common 

 sorts of East- India rice may now be had at 

 from 10s. to 125. the cwt. — that is to say, 

 for less than three half-pence the pound, al- 

 though grocers charge three pence, — it is 

 nearly as cheap as barley. In saying "boiled," 

 we, however, only mean that the grain should 

 be saturated with either water or milk, so as 

 to occasion it to swell without retaining much 

 of the fluid ; but boiling is unnecessary to 

 digestion, as the gizzard will crush any 

 species of corn, however hard it may be. 



For the purpose of testing this by experi- 

 ment, we lately put up a couple of young 

 Dorking fowls, of the same brood — one a 

 pullet and the other a cock — of about five 

 months old. They were put into separate 

 roomy coops, placed in an airy but rather 

 dark cellar : the cock being fed solely upon 

 barley, and the pullet upon rice partly scalded 



