CHAP. XV.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 315 



home, the stock get little else than barley and 

 oats, along with the fowls in the poultry- 

 yard, with perhaps a few tares, — of which 

 they are very fond — or those small beans 

 which are sold in the markets as " pigeon- 

 beans." Squabs are fed by the old birds ; but 

 squeakers, when about the period of being 

 able to feed themselves, should have some 

 coarse meal, or small seeds, thrown to them 

 at night and morning. 



If thus regularly fed at home, and kept 

 until they become old, they consume so much 

 as probably to cost more than they are worth. 

 Dealers, however, who keep pigeons for sale, 

 make them profitable, by maintaining them 

 chiefly at the public expense, through the 

 depredations which they commit on the corn 

 of the farmers during harvest and seed time : 

 for they roam far and wide for their liveli- 

 hood ; and, when pressed by hunger, they 

 unhesitatingly attack the growing turnips, 

 which they bore with their bills, and also root 

 up the sets that are planted for potatoes. 

 They are not, therefore, usually in very 

 high esteem among the neighbours ; for, not- 

 withstanding all the care which persons of 



