56 FEEDING MODES. 



SECTION VIII. 



On feeding and fattening Chickens and Fowls. 



THE points for consideration on this branch of the 

 subject are the local CONVENIENCES, the modes, 

 common, or extraordinary, the variety and quality of 

 the FOOD, and the length of TIME necessary for com- 

 pletion of the object. 



The well-known common methods are, to give 

 fowls the run of the farm-yard, where they thrive 

 upon the offals of the stable, and other refuse, 

 with perhaps some small regular daily feeds ; but at 

 thrashing time, they become fat, and are thence 

 styled BARN-DOOR FOWLS, probably the most delicate 

 and high-flavoured of all others, both from their 

 full allowance of the finest corn, and the constant 

 health in which they are kept, by living in the na- 

 tural state, and having the full enjoyment of air and 

 exercise ; or they are confined during a certain num- 

 ber of weeks, in coops, those fowls which are soonest 

 ready, being drawn as wanted. It is a common 

 practice with some housewives, to coop their barn- 

 door fowls for a week or two, under the notion of 

 improving them for the table and increasing their 

 fat ; a practice which, however, seldom succeeds, 

 since the fowls generally pine for their loss of liberty, 

 and, slighting their food, lose instead of gaining ad- 



