COCHIir FOWLS.] 



POULTEY. 



[cOCHIir FOWLS. 



prefer those of a medium size, deep in the 

 breast, broad across the back, and with short 

 legs. Putting aside all these minor points, 

 however, which are mere matters of taste to 

 the fanciers of these fine birds, we may safely 

 say, tliat the light-coloured varieties are in 

 general highly prized ; while, for strength and 

 weight, the dark birds are superior ; but for 

 beauty, the yellows, fawns, and bulFs carry off 

 the palm. Eed cocks, with hackles of a uni- 

 form gold colour, produce a variety of good 

 light birds, especially if with light hens, and 

 thus materially strengthen the stock. 



In rearing and keeping these birds, rice, 

 boiled and kept well, and stirred for six minutes, 

 so that the grains are separated one from an- 

 other, should form a portion of their food. 

 When young, it is particularly grateful to them. 

 In the spring, when the hens are laying, the 

 most suitable food is the best heavy barley, 

 with occasionally a few oats and wheat, and, 

 once a- week, some offal meat, such as sheep's 

 pluck, well cleaned and cut in pieces ; sheep's 

 noses, with the hair scalded off; worms, plenty 

 of chickweed, and now and then a cow-cab- 

 bage. 



When moulting, barley, oats, wheat, Indian 

 corn, and soft meat of barley meal, with the 

 best sharps, mixed rather stiff together — not 

 exactly scalded, but made up with warm water 

 — should be given. Fowls are fond of a variety 

 of food, and like it frequently to be chauged ; 

 but for staple food, give them the best heavy 

 barley. Put some lettuce-seed into the ground 

 early, and, as soon as fit, transplant in a warm 

 place. Give the fowls plenty of these, as well 

 as cabbage-leaves, as they like most kinds of 

 green meat. To be kept up, they must have 

 their meat constantly by them. It will not do 

 to feed them at stated times, for then they 

 glut themselves, and do not lay so weil ; 

 whereas, if the food is by them, they take it 

 regularly. 



In rearing chickens, much attention must 

 be paid to their food, giving them frequent 

 changes, and tending them with great care. 

 Bread scalded in milk, rice, grits, barley ; and, 

 for a change, put some rice into the side-oven 

 with water, leaving it to be scalded only to 

 such an extent as will make it separate or 

 granulate easily ; the same with barley ; and 

 8^ soon as the chickens eat well, let them 

 82S 



have barley- meal. They should also have, 

 once a-day, some chopped meat, such as beef 

 and mutton ; and of chopped green meat, such 

 as lettuce, they will eat abundance. 



An eminent writer on poultry states, that 

 he allows three pints per day of grain to twelve 

 fowls, besides a dish of potatoes, and a quart 

 of middlings made into porridge. He also 

 gives them the run of a small orchard a few 

 hours each day. 



To attain those heavy weights for which 

 this breed is distinguished, the birds must not 

 only be liberally, but judiciously fed. To the 

 growing chicks, the materials necessary to 

 form bone, as well as flesh and sinew, must be 

 supplied. " At Birmingham, a cockerel, other- 

 wise perfect, was supposed to have suffered 

 some injury or fracture in the legs; but 

 he was only rickety. His frame abounded 

 in all requisites, except phosphate of lime, 

 which, of necessity is a great essential. Ifc 

 should be remembered, that quadrupeds suck 

 in this luilding-material of their skeleton with 

 their mother's milk, which contains it in suffi- 

 ciency ; but that gallinaceous birds, to attain 

 weight and corpulency, must take it with their 

 food. Therefore calcined oyster-shells, broken 

 egg-shells, chopped bones, pollard mixed stiff 

 with milk, and such like, should be allowed to 

 be freely eaten ad libitum.'''' 



The whole of the Cochin- China race are ex- 

 cellent layers — a circumstance which, in an 

 economical point of view, adds greatly to their 

 value. With the exception of a short interval 

 at moulting, they lay the whole year round ; 

 and a supply of young pullets would produce 

 eggs even at the time when the old ones cease 

 laying. A hen exhibited by her majesty at a 

 Dublin show, laid ninety-four eggs in 103 

 days. Pure birds will generally lay from 

 thirty to thirty-five before wanting to sit. 

 The number of Cochin eggs laid at poultry 

 shows, especially when the exhibition is one 

 that happens to be open for several days, and 

 the fowls, therefore, have to be on the spot 

 some time before and after, is surprising. 

 But this may not be a subject of wonder, 

 when it is recollected that most of the birds 

 are in the best possible health and condition. 

 On such occasions, the poor things are sadly 

 puzzled to know what to do with their incon- 

 veniuntly-timed produce ; and to see a hen, 



