182 THE POULTRY-BOOK. 



has a tendency to accelerate the period when they are more 

 inclined to rest on the floor. 



It has always been a favorite maxim among feeders, that 

 the privation of light, by inclining fowls to a constant state of 

 repose, excepting when moved by the appetite for food, pro- 

 motes and accelerates obesity. It may probably be so, though 

 not promotive of health ; but as it is no question that a state of 

 obesity, obtained in this way, cannot be a state of health, a real 

 question arises whether the flesh of animals so fed can equal 

 in flavor, nutriment, and solubility, that of the same species fed 

 in a natural way ? Pecuniary and market interest may perhaps 

 be best answered by the plan of darkness and close confinement, 

 but a feeder for his own table, of delicate tastes, and ambitious 

 of furnishing his board with the choicest and most salubrious 

 viands, will declare for the natural mode of feeding ; and, in 

 that view, a feeding yard, gravelled and sown with the grasses 

 already described, the room being open all day, for the fowls 

 to retire, at pleasure, will have a decided preference, as the 

 nearest approach to the barn-door system. 



Insects and animal food also form a part of the natural diet 

 of poultry, are medicinal to them in a weakly state, and the 

 want of such food may sometimes impede their thriving. 



The London chicken butchers, as they are termed, are said 

 to be, of all others, the most dexterous and expeditious feeders, 

 putting up a coop of fowls and making them thoroughly fat 

 within the space of a fortnight, using much grease, and that 

 perhaps not of the most delicate kind, in the food. In this way, 

 says. Mowbray, I have no boast to make, having always found 

 it necessary to allow a considerable number of weeks for the 

 purpose of making fowls fat in coops. In the common way, 

 this business is often badly managed, fowls being huddled 

 together in a small coop, tearing each other to pieces, instead 

 of enjoying that repose which alone can insure the wished-for 



