22 GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY. 



With respect to the morning meal of pultaceous food, when 

 only a few fowls are kept, to supply eggs for a moderate 

 family, this may be provided almost for nothing by boiling 

 daily the potato peelings till soft, and mashing them up with 

 enough sharp?, slightly scalded, to make a tolerably stiff and 

 dry paste. There will be sufficient of this if the fowls kept do 

 not exceed one for each member of the household ; and as the 

 peelings cost nothing, and the sharps very little, one-half the 

 food is provided at a merely nominal expense, while no better 

 could be given. A little salt should always be added, and in 

 winter a slight seasoning of pepper will tend to keep the hens 

 in good health and laying. This food may be mixed boiling 

 hot over night, and covered with a cloth, or be put in the oven ; 

 in either case it will remain warm till morning the condition 

 in which it should always be given in cold weather. 



If a tolerable stock of poultry be kept, such a source of 

 supply will be obviously inadequate ; and in purchasing the 

 food there is much variety to choose from. Small or " pig " 

 potatoes may be occasionally bought at a low price and similarly 

 treated, though experience proves that much of regular potato 

 diet is not suitable, leading after a while to few eggs and 

 derangement of the digestive system ; or barley-meal may be 

 mixed with hot water ; or an equal mixture of barley-meal 

 and " sharps," or of Indian meal and sharps : either of these 

 make a capital food. Bran in place of the sharps sometimes 

 seems to do very well, but has an awkward habit of every 

 now and then causing inflammation of the bowels. In some 

 places a cart-load of swede or other turnips, or mangel-wurtzel, 

 may be purchased ; and when boiled and mashed with meal 

 or "sharps," we believe forms the very best soft food a fowl 

 can have, especially for Dorkings ; but they cannot everywhere 

 be obtained at a cheap rate, and the buyer must study the local 

 market. 



A change of food at times is necessary, and in making 



