358 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



[From the (Philadelphia) Farmer's Cabinet.] 



MANAGEMENT OF HENS. 



From the statement of James L. Child: 

 My hens laid nearly as well during the winter as in the warm 

 weather. Their habitation was warm, and so constructed as to bring 

 them to the ground, where they found at all times a good supply of 

 old plastering, ashes, pulverized oyster shells, charcoal, fresh water, 

 beef liver once or twice a week, or some other kind of meat. I feed 

 chiefly upon baked or boiled potatoes, giving their food to them 

 warm in the morning and at night, occasionally dealing to them a 

 little corn or oats, and giving them all the crumbs, and skins, and 

 fragments of the cooked vegetables. To prevent their being infested 

 with lice, about once a fortnight I mixed in dough, so as to discolor 

 it, a quantity of flour of brimstone, which is a sure preventive as 

 well as remedy, and may be safely given in small quantities to 

 young chickens for the same purpose. 



It will be seen from my mode of keeping my hens, which average 

 about twenty-five and three roosters, through the winter, that I can 

 not give the precise cost of keeping ; but I am satisfied that potatoes 

 may be given as a general food, and fovAls kept cheaper in this mode 

 than in any other, and they will always be ready for the spit, if 

 not stinted in quantity. I find my fowls fat at all seasons. 



I estimate that my hens aff"ord me from their eggs, without regard 

 to their meat, a clear profit of 50 per cent. 1 confine them to their 

 yard, hen-house, and barn cellar, during gardening, and to their 

 house and cellar in the winter ; and think, with that degree of con- 

 finement, they lay better than they do when allowed to wander at 

 large. Hen-houses and roosts should be kept neat, and often white- 

 washed ; and their nests should always have half an inch or more of 

 ashes or lime on the bottom, under the hay. Broken or rotten eggs 

 should never be allowed to remain in the nests. Dirty water should 

 not be given them. To do well, they require pure water, and all 

 their food fresh and uninjured from taint or fermentation. I estimate 

 that during the year ( deducting the time of their moulting, and 

 inclination to set ) , I have got daily one half as many eggs as I 

 have had laying hens. 



Every family can, with a very little trouble, with their flock of a 

 dozen hens, have fresh eggs in plenty during the whole year, say 

 in all 2000, and 100 full grown chickens ; and of all the animals 

 domesticated for the use of man — if such be the fact — the hen 

 is capable of yielding the greatest profit to the owner. It is a plea- 

 sant recreation to feed and tend a bevy of laying hens. 



Care should be taken to change roosters often, as otherwise the 

 best variety in the world will run out, and cease to be profitable 

 from breeding in and in ; and I feel great confidence that much im- 

 provement may be made by due attention to crossing, and in this 

 way some of the evils from breeding be averted. I have stated that 



