174 FARMING FOR LADIES, [chap, vin, 



"hen's eggs" are, however, the only sort in 

 daily use, because hens are of all fowls the 

 most prolific, and the most generally reared. 

 Indeed, it has been truly said, that " of all 

 sorts of animal food, the fowl, the chicken, 

 and the hen-egg are most salutary to child- 

 ren, to women of tender health, to the 

 sedentary, and to the sick," 



The egg is composed of three different 

 substances. The outward covering, or shell, 

 is formed of calcareous, chalky matter, in the 

 proportion of ninety-five parts in a hundred of 

 carbonate and phosphate of lime ; and, look- 

 ing to the rapidity of the formation of the 

 egg, this shows the necessity of supplying the 

 fowls with those materials of which the shell 

 partakes. When " soft eggs," as they are 

 called (which are eggs surrounded by a film, 

 instead of a perfect shell), are layed, it is 

 evidently because the hen has either not had 

 or has not eaten suflacient chalky matter. It 

 has indeed been frequently remarked, that 

 fowls reared upon calcareous soils are gene- 

 rally finer in their flesh and more healthy 

 than those bred on clayey land : therefore 

 pounded bones, egg and oyster shells, and 



