236 



SKETCHES OF RURAL AFFAIRS. 



throw down to fowls. Even broth and pot-liquor, when 

 mixed warm with bran or pollard, affords a nourishing 

 diet, and is greedily eaten, although the liquor by itself 

 would be refused. Fowls are also very fond of pieces 

 of suet or fat, as well as of tender meat. They will 

 pick bones more completely than almost any other 

 animal. In Scotland, a hen and her chickens are some- 

 times carried out, in June or July, to the turnip-field, 

 in a sort of basket, called a brood-basket. A large 

 woollen cover keeps the family secure until they arrive 

 at the field, when, this being 

 removed, the chickens go 

 out and pick up the larvae 

 and insects, which are so de- 

 structive to young turnip- 

 plants. When a space is in 

 this way cleared of insects, 

 the brood-basket, with the 

 mother enclosed, is moved 

 to another place, and the 

 chicks follow and proceed 

 with their task. The same plan is found beneficial in 

 gardens. This brood-basket is also useful in the early 

 spring ; its warm covering affording protection to a 

 large family of chickens in frosty weather. The basket 

 opens at the end to admit the mother. 



Persons who do not understand the management of 

 fowls are often disappointed to find that, after a time, 

 their hens become unproductive, and lay very few eggs. 

 The fault, doubtless, is in keeping the same stock too 

 long. For the most part, cocks should not be kept more 

 than three years, nor hens more than five years; but 

 the best and finest of the young brood should be brought 

 up to supply their place. Fowls may be considered in 

 their prime at from two to three years old. 



The hatching of eggs in the ordinary way, even with 

 the best mothers, is necessarily a slow affair, and cannot 

 be increased beyond a certain extent. But there have 



BROOD-BASKET. 



