50 



Poultry. 



Vol. X. 



a result is undoubtedly very far from his 

 wish or intention. I speak only of the pre- 

 sent result of planting pits of seedling fruit. 

 I have no doubt that by judicious experi- 

 ments upon several generations of trees, 

 one might be obtained who^^e fruit would 

 produce a tree that would bear fruit very 

 nearly, if not precisely similar to its parent. 

 It is on the same principle that gardeners 

 have obtained the seed of many fine varie- 

 ties of vegetables, which, although varieties, 

 will produce the same. Let a person plant 

 the pit of the Oldmixon peach, and inoculate 

 the tree that springs from it with the Old- 

 mixon bud, let him plant the pit borne by 

 this inoculation, and bud the tree again with 

 the Oldmixon in a similar manner, and re- 

 peat this process for several generations, the 

 result, I think, would be, that a peach would 

 be obtained whose pit would uniformly pro- 

 duce the Oldmixon variety. 



The cause of this result, I think, is 

 founded upon true physiological principles. 

 If the fruit of a tree produced from the pit 

 of a budded peach partakes of the nature 

 of the fruit, both of the stock and of the 

 bud — and I have very little doubt that it 

 does — then this "breeding in and in" must 

 gradually assimilate the natures of the bud 

 and of the stock, until the fruit of the one 

 is very nearly, if not quite, the same as that 

 of the other. I hope some amateur who has 

 leisure and taste in these things, will try the 

 experiment, and inform the horticultural 

 public of the result. S. B. P. 



Commercial Garden and Nursery, Flushing, L. 1. 



Poultry. 



The economy of poultry may be classed 

 under three heads; first, in their natural 

 state, which is the department of the natu- 

 ralist ; second in their domestic state in the 

 country with a full range of the farm-yard 

 and fields in which the poultry-keeper is 

 concerned, for his profit; and third, in tlieir 

 artificial state in or near towns, in pens or 

 yards, which will chiefly engage my atten- 

 tion in the present article. The best and 

 cheapest method of feeding I must leave to 

 be detailed by those who keep poultry in 

 large quantities. 



Shelter. — Fowls should always be kept 

 in a dry, warm sheltered situation — a south- 

 erly aspect is to be preferred — for they en- 

 joy and benefit greatly by the "warms in 

 the sun," as well as requiring protection 

 from its scorching rays, and a secure (storm) 

 shed for rainy weather. The roosting-house 

 and laying-house, if separate, should com- 

 municate, that early layers may have early 

 access to the nests, and also communicate 



with the storm-shed for the fowls to run in 

 in security, if they should leave their roosts 

 early in the morning. The nests should be 

 numerous, either in boxes or baskets, not 

 too deep but roomy, some situated high, 

 some low, and as independent of each other 

 as possible; each supplied with sweet, short, 

 and soft straw, and a small nest-egg or two 

 of chalk, the size of a pigeon's egg. If the 

 nests be too deep, they break the eggs in 

 jumping in and out, and if the nests are not 

 roomy, sitting hens have no room to turn 

 easily, and consequently break the eggs by 

 not being able to get to them softly. They 

 then eat the broken eggs, which gives them 

 the habit of doing so at other times. They 

 should roost warm at night, the perches 

 high from the ground and of easy access, 

 by means of lower ones or ladders. The 

 more lightsome the house the better for pro- 

 moting dry air and a free circulation; be- 

 sides, fowls cannot see at all, being quite 

 stupified and helpless in the dark, conse- 

 quently the feather tribe always retire to 

 roost before the sun goes down. Shutters 

 to the glazed windows are unnecessary, ex- 

 cept for better security, or to prevent fowls 

 from leaving their roosts too early in the 

 morning, to disturb ticklish neighbors, other- 

 wise they come out almost as soon as day- 

 light begins to appear. The feeding places, 

 if under cover, so much the better, as a pre- 

 caution for wet weather, and as far as possi- 

 ble removed from the nests, that the hens 

 which happen to be laying at the time, or 

 which may be sitting, may not be disturbed 

 and enticed oft" their nest and eggs at im- 

 proper times. Being evidently natives of a 

 warm country, they are scarcely yet per- 

 fectly acclimated in our variable and colder 

 regions; although so widely diffiised from 

 time immemorial over the whole face of the 

 globe, they have retained a peculiar suscep- 

 tibility of damp and chilliness, most of their 

 diseases arising from rheum, or catarrh — 

 catching colds. The lungs of fowls are 

 particularly tender; the finer the species, 

 the less is it hardy. 



Cleanliness. — Fowls being cleanly by na- 

 ture, thrive when regularly attended, but 

 degenerate and sicken if neglected. In an 

 artificial state of existence, they require to 

 be supplied by art with what in nature they 

 would obtain for themselves. For this pur- 

 pose they should have a regular supply, in 

 some convenient part of their shed, of sifted 

 cinders daily to roll in and cleanse them- 

 selves, and which should be often changed. 

 This precaution will keep them entirely free 

 from vermin of any description. 



Green Food. — This being quite as neces- 

 sary for health as corn, to supply this re- 



