'^ LADYBIRDS AND TOADS 105 



He was a red rooster — a Rhode Island red. 

 In chickendom I confess I like the reds; they 

 are good to eat, healthy, and not afraid of foxes 

 or skunks. Like guinea hens and turkeys, they 

 love to roam the woods, which makes them 

 gamy. Their foraging habits make them liter- 

 ally self-supporting, not even a garden being 

 needed. To make them sweet and tender for 

 the table, however, it is well to imprison them 

 the last two weeks of their short life and feed 

 them com, chard, and milk. 



It is too bad that chickens don't behave 

 themselves in a garden. They could do ever so 

 much good by eating destructive bugs and 

 worms ; but their habit of scratching, scratching, 

 scratching all day long (the little chicks begin 

 to scratch the day they are hatched) makes 

 chicken wire a necessity. I wish there was 

 something as simple as chicken wire to prevent 

 the damage by worms and by trees (often 

 unsuspected) to which we must now give our 

 attention. 



