lEEDINQ.] 



vol LTKV. 



[fkuuino. 



turnipa, cnrrota, parsnips, nmngel-wurzel, oats, 

 wheat, barley, ryo, and dHut >^nunA — sul)- 

 Btaucea too well kuowu to require enuinoratinj^. 

 It will not answer to feed fowls entirely upon 

 aril/ one variefi/ of food ; neither will it be fouml 

 advisable to feed wholly upon any one class of 

 food. 1 must speak of the latter point lirt<t. 

 Fowls require a mixture o^ green with hard food, 

 fully as much as horses or cattle do. When 

 the birds have the advantage of an extensive 

 walk, they will find this for themselves ; when 

 they have no such advantage, you must provide 

 green food for them. Some do so by supplying 

 the birds with cabbages, or other greens, chopped 

 small. My plan is to fasten heads of cabbages, 

 lettuce, rape, or other green herbs, to some 

 fixture, by means of the roots, and to let the 

 fowls pick for themselves. This practice not 

 merely prevents waste ; but is, in consequence 

 of the amusement it afibrds, decidedly conducive 

 to health." 



If we make the health and well-being of our 

 poultry the only consideration, everywhere, in 

 the neighbourhood out of doors, is the best run 

 they can have; and if their hahitat should 

 happen to include rick-yards, with barns and 

 corn -stacks, stock-sheds, with abundance of 

 litter and unavoidable waste food, kitchen- 

 gardens with hotbeds and vegetables of every 

 sort, and flower-gardens, shrubberies, and wil- 

 dernesses composed of fine loam well stocked 

 with insects, it will be first-rate/br the fowls. 

 But, as the master is pretty sure to dislike the 

 little unavoidable derangement of the corn- 

 ricks likely to follow this free range ; and, as 

 the gardener has a prepossession in favour of 

 doing all the raking himself, it is generally 

 necessary to fence in a piece of ground for the 

 fowls. If they can have a run out into a field 

 or lane, although it may be only for a very few 

 hours eacli day, we are sure they will pick up 

 many things for themselves, and supply wants 

 which, with all our study of their habits, we 

 may probably overlook, or of which wo may be 

 ignorant. 



The run, even for a very limited number of 

 fowls, should not be smaller than fifteen feet 

 by thirty. If it is twenty feet by sixty, so much 

 the better, or as much larger as can be con- 

 veniently managed. AVhen confined to one 

 spot like this, there are many requisites towards 

 health and well-being, with which the fowls 



must bo supplied, that they would find for 

 themselves, if tliry enjoyed a free range. Somo 

 of tlieso are grass, lime, jind small stones. 



AVi; consider a mixed dietary the bent, both 

 with regard to giving diflerent kinds of food, 

 and a change from time to time. An intelli- 

 gent and large breeder gives whole corn onco 

 a day, and meal-dough twice a day ; or corn 

 twice a day, and meal once. The meal-dough 

 is mixed with the hand, with 'o little water 

 as to leave it dry enough to i'all to j)iece3 when 

 thrown on the ground ; or it may be mixed 

 with boiling water — not with the hand ; tliat 

 might prove inconvenient — or it may be boiled 

 until quite thick. Ik can bo made of oatmeal, 

 which is very good, but dear; or barley-meal. 

 Either of these, for economy or change, may 

 be mixed with one-third (measure) of middlings 

 or pollard. Potatoes and scraps from the 

 table, bits of stale bread, and pot-liquor to 

 mix with the meal, all make valuable changes 

 in the poultry-yard. These things, and others 

 of a like nature, may form one meal a day, at 

 least, for the fowls. 



This gentleman thinks that fowls should have, 

 at least, one meal a day of corn. Dilferent 

 kinds of grain are favoured in different coun- 

 tries. In this country barley is the staple 

 commodity ; in America, the fowls are fed al- 

 most entirely on Indian corn; in France, a 

 great deal of buck-wheat is used. All these 

 diflerent kinds of grain are good in change, 

 and also oats and wheat. It has been found a 

 good plan to give barley and oats alternately, 

 feeding with each for a fortnight. Wheat, 

 Indian corn, and buck-wheat are used more 

 sparingly, because they are so much dearer ; 

 but a little of each is given every day, some- 

 times for a week at a time, as a change. 



In addition to these regular meals of vege- 

 table produce, fowls require a little flesh meat 

 sometimes. AVhen they run out every day 

 into fields and roads, there is no necessity 

 for the owner to attend to this want, except 

 in continued frost, as the fowls hud the means of 

 supplying themselves with meat, in the shape 

 of worms, flies, insects of all kinds, slugs, 

 snails, frogs, and such comestibles as suit 

 their palates, and their voracity ; nor will a 

 good plump field-mouse escape being turned 

 into hen's meat, if it venture within reach of 

 Dame Partlet's strong beak. But if fowls are 



859 



