CHAP. VIII.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 191 



the mode in which they have been fed. Those 

 which lay during the autumn and winter, will 

 cease during the summer, and when they fall 

 off in laying at the latter end of the spring, 

 they will then be in prime age and order for 

 being fattened ; and thus, having pullets and 

 hens of different age and temperament, both 

 eggs and fowls may constantly be kept in 

 succession. 



In putting up hens with the intent of getting 

 them to lay during the winter, most people 

 have them accompanied by a cock ; which, 

 although for some reasons, perhaps advisable, 

 is not absolutely necessary, for it is well 

 known to naturalists that hens will lay eggs 

 which are brought to perfection without any 

 connection with the male ; in proof of which, 

 they have been separately shut up for two 

 years together without any diminution of the 

 number of eggs which are usually produced 

 by those hens which are accompanied by a 

 cock, nor was there the least perceptible dif- 

 ference in the quality.* They will not, in- 

 deed, produce chickens ; but when the object 



* See Olivier de Serres, "Theatre d'Agriculture," 2nd 

 edit. vol. ii. p. 156. 



