GOOD MANAGEMENT. 31 



eggs. But in general we have found the average cost of fowls, 

 when properly fed, to be about Id. per week each for smaller 

 sorts, and not exceeding 1 Jd. per week for the larger breeds ; 

 when the cost is more we should suspect waste. A good 

 ordinary hen ought to lay 120 eggs in a year, and if good 

 laying breeds are selected, such as we have named in Chapter 

 II., there ought to he an average of fully 150, not reckoning 

 the cock. Of course, good management is supposed, and a 

 regular renewal of young stock, as already insisted upon. For 

 domestic purposes eggs ought to be valued at the price of new- 

 laid, and from these data each can make his own calculation. 



Finally, let the whole undertaking large or small be 

 conducted as a real matter of business. If more than three or 

 four hens are kept, buy the food wholesale and in the best 

 market ; let the grain be purchased a sack at a time potatoes 

 by the cart-load or hundred-weight, and so on. Let a fair and 

 strict account be kept of the whole concern. The scraps of the 

 house may be thrown in, and the cost of the original stock, 

 and of their habitation, may be kept separate, and reckoned as 

 capital invested ; but let everything afterwards for which cash 

 is paid be rigorously set down, and on the other side, with 

 equal strictness, let every egg or chicken eaten or sold be also 

 valued and recorded. This is of great importance. The 

 young beginner may perhaps manage his laying-stock well, but 

 succeed badly with his chickens (though not, we hope, if he be 

 a reader of this book), or vice versa ; and it is no small matter 

 in poultry-keeping, as in any other mercantile concern, to be 

 able to see from recorded facts where has been the profit or 

 where the loss. The discovery will lead to reflection ; and 

 the waste, neglect, or other defective management being 

 amended, the hitherto faulty department may also contribute 

 its quota to the general weal- 



