rEEDIlTG. 



POULTRY. 



[feed IN O. 



these cold eggs chilled the two she had. 

 Another hatching, by the same gentleman, 

 was better managed. He gave the hens good 

 roomy nests; almost all the eggs contained 

 chickens, and the egg-shells began to crack on 

 the twenty-first day. Two or three times in 

 the course of the day, he had the hen-house 

 watered with hot water, so as to produce steam 

 in the place, where, as a matter of course, 

 there were no fowls to roost. The next 

 morning, bonny broods were popping in and 

 out round the mothers ; but a few of the eggs 

 were still unhatched. One was a good deal 

 broken ; but the white skin looked hard and 

 dry, and the chicken was unable to extricate 

 itself. This he opened carefully, dividing the 

 two skins sufficiently for the chicken to expand 

 itself. He replaced it under the mother, and 

 the next morning could not tell it from the 

 rest. On the twenty -third day, two eggs only 

 remained uncracked. These he opened, and 

 found dead chickens inside, the lives of which 

 might have been saved if he had opened the eggs 

 the day before. "We do not blame him for the 

 delay, although it proved unfortunate in this 

 instance, as the chickens were not crying in 

 the eggs, and as we have known the egg-shell 

 to be, sometimes, opened on the twenty-second 

 day, and found that it should have been left a 

 day later. 



Premising that a constant supply of suitable 

 food is the great essential which enters into 

 the rearing of the delicate birds, such as 

 turkeys, pheasants, and guinea-fowl, the fol- 

 lowing hatching-table shows the periods of 

 incubation of a few tame birds : — 



If'EEDING. 



All who have bestowed attention on the 

 feeding of stock of diflerent descriptions, tell 

 us tliat various kinds of food are necessary for 

 the diflerent functions which it is the object of 

 food to perform. One kind is required to give 

 warmth, and to aid respiration ; and anotlier to 

 858 



restore the muscular waste of the matured, or 

 to increase the bulk of the growing animal. If 

 we give only warmth-producing substances, the 

 consumers will fail in the increase of bone, 

 muscle, &c. ; and if we give too much flesh- 

 producing nourishment, it goes to waste, or 

 becomes injurious. Experimentalists say that 

 peas, beans, wheat, pollard, oatmeal, and some 

 other vegetables, contain much flesh-forming 

 substance ; but it is difficult to say what pro- 

 portion of them should be used, or what 

 quantity given, without doing mischief. We 

 have known chickens to be fed on two meals 

 a day of these nourishing kinds of food, making 

 up the other meals with barley-meal, potatoes, 

 ground corn, and green food ; and they have 

 thriven well. 



Powls, however, are blessed with capital 

 appetites, as every breeder can prove by his 

 bill at the corn-dealer's. The plan of feeding 

 which used to be followed by almost all poultry- 

 keepers (what one may call private poultry- 

 keepers), and which still is followed by some, 

 was to give the fowls plenty of barley, and 

 nothing else. This is neither good for them 

 nor for their owners. Eowla do not thrive on 

 it, and are constantly ravenous. It is proved 

 by the elaborate experiments of M. Eeaumer, 

 that each fowl will eat a quarter of a pint of 

 grain ^cr die)n, when fed on this kind of food 

 only. A great objection which we find to it 

 is, that it is the most expensive kind of feed- 

 ing we can use. Mr. Bement, the American 

 writer on poultry, found that eight Poland 

 fowls consumed a peck of Indian corn in eleven 

 days ; a peck of oats in six days ; a peck of barley 

 in seven days ; a peck of wheat in ten days ; a 

 peck of millet in eight days ; and a peck of 

 wheat screenings in seven days. During the 

 experiment, the fowls had a few boiled potatoes 

 only, in addition. 



Opposed to this plan of feeding on grain 

 only, is that of some of our most experienced 

 breeders, who feed entirely on meal dough. 

 We do not think, however, that fowls would 

 remain healthy, year after year, fed on meal 

 food only, with no mixture of hard corn to 

 swell in their interior, and to give work to the 

 gizzard. 



"The substances that may be used in 

 poultry-feeding," says Mr. Kichardsou, "are 

 very numerous and various— viz., cabbage, rape^ 



