BREEDING CHICKENS. 



SECTION IV. 



On breeding and rearing Chickens the necessary 

 Yards and Buildings. 



IT has been already observed, that the warmest and 

 dryest soils are best adapted to the breeding and 

 rearing of gallinaceous fowls, more particularly 

 chickens ; thence the greatest success, attended with 

 the least trouble, may be expected on such, and far 

 greater precaution and expense will be required on 

 those of an opposite description. Of these last, 

 the wet and boggy are the most injurious, since, 

 however ill affected fowls are by cold, they endure 

 it still better than moisture, whence they are found 

 to succeed well upon dry land, even in the severe 

 climates of the north. The counties of England 

 most productive in poultry, are NORFOLK, SURREY, 

 SUSSEX, HERTS, DEVON, and SOMERSETSHIRE. The 

 largest stock of poultry which I ever saw upon an 

 English farm, was upon one of two or three hun- 

 dred acres in Herts, many years since, amounting 

 it appeared to many hundred head. It was dry and 

 shingly land, like the sea beach, and I found on 

 enquiry, that scarcely any care was taken of the 

 breeding stock, or shelter afforded them, yet they 

 multiplied in a most extraordinary degree, and pre- 

 served a constant state of good health. Upon a 

 boggy or clayey soil, under such circumstances, they 



