12 



lEW ENGLAPiD j-ARMER. 



Jan. 



THE QBSAT S'H.ENCH HENNEHY. 



With care and good management, no branch 

 of domestic industry is more profitable than rear- 

 ing poultry. Many persons have supposed that 

 what is profitable on a small scale might be made 

 still more so Vv'hen carried on to a larger extent, 

 but repeated experiments in this and other coun- 

 tries have proved this to be a mistake. The se- 

 cret of the matter is, that hens cannot thrive and 

 lay, wilhout a considerable quantity of animal 

 food. Where but a limited number of fowls are 

 kept about the farm-yard, the natural supply 

 of insects is sufficient to meet this demand, 

 and hence, when attempts have been made to 

 extend the business beyond this source of sup- 

 ply, they have not prospered. It will be seen 

 from the following interesting account that 

 Mons. de Sora, of France, has adopted a method 

 that has proved completely successful by afford- 

 ing an artificial supply of this essential portion 

 of food. 



The French practical philosophers certainly 

 know how to make the most of things. A Mons. 

 de Sora has recently discovered the secret of 

 making hens lay every day in the year, by feed- 

 ing them on horse flesh. The fact that hens do 

 not lay eggs in winter as well as in summer, is well 

 known, and the simple reason appears to be that 

 they do not get the supply of meat in winter M'hich 

 they obtain in the warm season for worms and 

 insects. 



M. do Sora was aware of all these facts, and 

 living at the time upon an old dilapidated estate, 

 a few miles from Paris, the acres having been 

 bequeathed to him a few years previously — he 

 set himself earnestly at the task of constructing 

 a hennery, which should be productive twelve 

 months in the year. He soon ascertained that a 

 certain quantity of raw mince meat given regu- 

 iatly with the other feed, produced the desired 

 result, and commencing only with some 300 fe- 

 male fowls, he found that they averaged, the first 

 year, some twenty-five dozen eggs, each, in the 

 ?>Go days. The past season he has wintered thus 

 far, about 100,000 hens, and a fair proportion of 

 male birds, with a close approximation to the 

 the same results. During the spring, summer 

 aiul autumn, they have the range of the estate, 

 but always under surveillance. In the winter, 

 their apartments are kept at an agreeable temper- 

 ature; and, although they have mince meat ra- 

 tions the year round, yet the quantity is much 

 increased during cold weather. They have free 

 access to pure water, gravel and sand, and their 

 combs are always red. To supply this great con 

 sumption of meat, M. de Sora has availed him 

 self of the constant supply of superannuated and 

 damaged horses, which can always be gathered 

 from the stables of Paris and the suburbs. 

 These useless animals are taken to ar abatto 

 owned by M. de Sora himself, ana there neatly 

 and scientifically slaughtered. The blood is 

 saved, clean and unmixed with offal. It is sold 

 for purposes of the arts at a remunerative price. 

 The skin goes to the tanner — the head, hoofs 

 shanks, &c., to the glue maker and Prussia blue 

 manufacturer ; the larger bones form a cheap 

 substitute for ivory with the button maker, while 

 the remainder of the osseous structure is manu- 

 factured into ivory black, or used in the shape of 



bone dust for agricultural purposes. Even the 

 marrow is preserved; and much of the fashionable 

 and highly perfumed lip salve and pomade, was 

 once inclosed within the leg bones of old horses. 

 Uses are also found for the entrails — and in fact 

 no portion of the beast is wasted. 



The flesh is carefully dissected off the frame of 

 course, and being cut into suitable proportions, 

 it is run through a series of revolving knives, the 

 apparatus being similar to a sausage machine on 

 an immense scale, and is delivered in the shape 

 of a homogeneous mass of mince meat, slightly 

 seasoned, into casks, which are instantly headed 

 up, and conveyed per railroad, to the egg planta- 

 tion of M. de Sora. 



The consumption of horses for this purpose, 

 by M. de Sora, has been at the average rate of 

 twenty-two per day for the last twelve months, 

 and so perfectly economical and extensive are all 

 his arrangements, that he is enabled to make a 

 profit on the cost of the animals by the sale of 

 the extraneous substances enumerated above — 

 thus furnishing to himself the mince meat for 

 less than nothing delivered at his hennery. 



It has been ascertained that a slight addition 

 of salt and ground black pepper to the mass, is 

 beneficial to the fowls, yet M. de Sora does not 

 depend upon these condiments alone to prevent 

 fermentation and putrefaction, but has his store 

 rooms so contrived as to be kept at a tempera- 

 ture just removed from the freezing point through 

 all months of the year, so that the mince meat 

 never becomes sour or offensive ; the fowls eat it 

 with avidity ; they are ever in good condition, 

 and they lay an egg almost daily, in all weathers, 

 and in all seasons. 



The sheds, offices, and other buildings, are 

 built around a quadrangle, enclosing about twen- 

 ty acres, the general feeding ground. This lat- 

 ter is subdivided by fences of open paling, so 

 that only a limited numbtr of fowls are allowed 

 to herd together, and these are arranged in the 

 different compartments according to age, no 

 bird being allowed to exceed the duration of four 

 years of life. At the end of the fourth year, they 

 are placed in the fattening coops for about three 

 weeks, fed entirely on crushed grain, and sent 

 alive to Paris. 



As one item alone in this immense business it 

 may be mentioned that in the months of Septem- 

 ber, October and November last, M. de Sora 

 sent nearly one thousand dozen of capons to the 

 metropolis. 



He never allows a hen to set ! 



The breeding rooms are warmed by steam, 

 and the heat is kept up with remarkable uni- 

 formity to that evolved by the female fowl dur- 

 ing the process of incubation, which is known to 

 mark higher on the thermometer than at any 

 other periods. A pp'-Vs of shelves, one above 

 ^ho ctrier, loim ine nests, wnue blcnl--pts are 

 spread over the eggs to exclude any accidenta. 

 light. The hatched chicks are removed to the 

 nursery each morning, and fresh eggs laid in to 

 supply the place of empty shells. A constant 

 succession of chickens are thus insured, and 

 moreover the feathers are always free from ver- 

 min. Indeed a lousy fowl is unknown upon the 

 premises. 



M. de Sora permits the males and females to 

 mingle freely at all seasons, and after a fair trial 



