210 THE POULTRY-BOOK. 



the cold season, even in the dead of winter, it is necesssary to 

 make the fowls roost over an oven, in a stable, in a shed where 

 many cattle are kept, or to erect a stove in the fowl-house on 

 purpose. By such methods, the farmers of Auge have chick- 

 ens fit for the table in the month of April, a period when they 

 are only beginning to be hatched in the farms around Paris, 

 although further to the south. It would be desirable that 

 stoves in fowl-houses were more commonly known near great 

 towns, where luxury grudges no expense for the convenience 

 of having fresh eggs." 



A writer in the Southern Agriculturist says : u To make 

 hens lay in winter, they should be shut up in a warm place. 

 Boiled potatoes, turnips, carrots, and parsnips, are cheap and 

 good food," &c. 



" The reason why hens do not lay in winter," observes a 

 writer in the New England Farmer, " is because the earth is 

 covered with snow, so that they can find no ground, or other 

 calcareous matter, to form the shells. If the bones of meat or 

 poultry be pounded and given to them, either mixed with their 

 food or by itself, they will eat greedily, and lay eggs as well 

 as in warm weather. When hens are fed on oats, they lay 

 better than when fed on any other grain." 



As to the number of eggs, the varieties which possess the 

 greatest fecundity are the Shanghaes, Guelderlands, Dorking, 

 Poland, and Spanish fowls. The Poland and Spanish fowls 

 lay the largest ; the Dorking fowls lay eggs of good size ; 

 while Game fowls and the smaller kinds produce only small 

 eggs. Those eggs which have the brightest yolks are the 

 finest flavored, and this is usually the case with the smaller 

 kinds. The large eggs of the larger varieties have often yolks 

 of a pale color, and are inferior in flavor. 



