90 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



EGGS AND POULTRY. 



Among all nations, and throughout all gi-ades 

 of society, eggs have been a favorite food. 

 But in our cities, and paiticulai-ly in win- 

 ter, they are sold at such prices that lew fam- 

 ilies coidd atlbrd to use them at all, and 

 even those in easy circumstances consider 

 them to be expensive for common use. There 

 is no need of tliis. Every family, or nearly 

 eveiy family, can, with veiy little ti-ouble, have 

 eggs ui plenty dui-ing the year ; and of all the 

 animals domesticated for the use of man, the 

 common dunghill fowl is capable of yielding 

 the greatest profit to the owner. In the month 

 of November I put apart eleven hens and a 

 cock, and gave them a small chamber in the 

 wood-house, defended from stonns, with an 

 opening to the south. Then food, water and 

 lime were placed on shelves convenient 

 for them, with nests and chalk nest-eggs in 

 plenty. These hens contiiuied to lay eggs 

 through the winter. From these eleven hens 

 I received an average of six eggs daily during 

 winter ; and whenever any one of them was 

 disposed to sit, namely, as soon as she began 

 to cluck, she was separated from the others 

 by a grated partition, and her apartment dark- 

 ened. These cluckers were well attended 

 and well fed. They could see and partly as- 

 sociate through the grates with the other 

 fowls, and as soon as any one of these prison- 

 ers began to sing, she was liberated, and 

 would veiy soon lay eggs. It is a pleasant 

 tiling to feed and tend a bevy of laying hens. 

 They may be trained so as to follow the chil- 

 dren, and will lay m a box. Egg-shells con- 

 taui lime, and when in winter the earth is 

 bound in fi'ost, or covered with snow, if lime 

 be not provided for them they will not lay ; 

 or if they do, the eggs of necessity must be 

 without shells. Old rubbish lime, from cliim- 

 iieys and old buildings, is proper for them, 

 and only need to be broken. They will often 

 attempt to swallow pieces of lime and plaster 

 as large as walnuts. The singing hen will- 

 certainly lay eggs if she find all thmgs agree- 

 able to her -, but the hen is so much a prude — 

 as watchfiil as a weasel and fastidious as a 

 hypocrite — she must, she will have secrecy 

 and mystery about her nest. All eyes but 

 ber own must be averted. Follow or watch 

 her, and she will forsake her nest and stop 

 laying. She is best pleased with a box cov- 

 ered at the top, with an aperture for light, 

 and a side door by which she can escape un- 



seen. A farmer may keep 100 fowls in the 

 barn, may suffer them to trample on and de- 

 sti'oy his mows of gi'ain, and have fewer egg,s 

 than the cottager who keeps a dozen, pro- 

 vides secret nests, chalk nest-eggs, pounded 

 bricks, plenty of corn or other gi'aui, water 

 and gi-avel for them, and takes care that 

 his hens be not disturbed about their nests. 

 Tlu-ee chalk eggs in a nest are better than 

 one, and large eggs please them most. I have 

 smiled to see them fondle round and lay in 

 a nest of geese eggsi Pullets will begin to lay 

 early in life, when nests and eggs are plenty, 

 and when others are chuckling around them. 

 A dozen dunghill fowls, shut up away from 

 other means of obtaining food, wiU require 

 something more than a quart of com a day. 

 I tliink fifteen bushels a year a fair allow- 

 ance for them ; and after they have become 

 habituated to find at all times a plenty in 

 their little manger, they take but a few ker- 

 nels at a time, except just before going to 

 roost, when they will take nearly a spoonful! 

 in their crops ; but just so sure as their pro- 

 visions come to them scanted or uregularly, 

 so sure will they raven up a whole cr'opfull at 

 a time and stop laying. A dozen fowls well 

 attended will furnish a family with more than 

 two thousand eggs a year ; and one hundred 

 full grown chickens for the fall and winter 

 stores. The expense of feeding a dozen fowls 

 wll not amount to more than eight bushels 

 of gi'ain. They may be kept in cities as well 

 as ui the country, and will do as well shut up 

 the year round as to run at large. A grated 

 room well hghted, ten feet by five, partitioned 

 from a stable or outhouse, is sufficient for the 

 dozen fowls, with their roosting, nests and 

 feedmg-troughs. In the spring of the year 

 five or six hens will hatch at a time, and the 

 fifty or sixty chickens may be given to one 

 hen. Two hens will take care of one hun- 

 dred chickens well enough until they begin 

 to climb their little stick roosts. They then 

 should be separated from the hens entirely. 

 I have often kept the chickens when young 

 ui my garden. They keep the May-bugs and 

 other insects from the vines. In case of con- 

 fining fowls in summer, it should be remem- 

 bered that a ground floor should be chosen ; 

 or it would be just as well to set in their pen 

 boxes of well-dried, pulverized earth, for them 

 to wallow in during warm weather. Their 

 pens should be kept clean. [Scot. Ref. Gaz. 



Wheat. — One hundred parts of wheat gi-own on a soil manui'ed with cow-dung, afforded 

 only 11-9.5 parts of gluten, and 62.34 parts of starch; while the grain growTi on land manuu'ed 

 with human ui'ine gave 35-1 of gluten, or neai-ly tlu-ee times the quantity. 



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