58 PRIVATION OF LIGHT INSECTS. 



much depends upon form in this case, since we find 

 aged cocks and hens of the best shape, which have 

 perched all their lives with the breast-bone perfectly 

 straight. 



It has always been a favourite maxim among 

 feeders, that THE PRIVATION OF LIGHT, by inclining 

 fowls to a constant state of repose, excepting when 

 moved by the appetite for food, promotes and acce- 

 lerates obesity. It may probably be so, although 

 not promotive of health ; but as it is no question, 

 that a state of obesity obtained in this way, can- 

 not be a state of health, a real question arises 

 whether the flesh of animals so fed, can equal in 

 flavour, nutriment, and salubrity, that of the same 

 species fed in a more natural way ? Pecuniary and 

 market interest may perhaps be best answered by 

 the plan of darkness and close confinement, but a 

 feeder for his own table, of delicate taste, and am- 

 bitious of furnishing his board with the choicest and 

 most salubrious viands, will declare for the natural 

 mode of feeding; and in that view, A FEEDING- 

 YARD, gravelled and sown with the grasses already 

 described, the room being open all day, for the fowls 

 to retire at pleasure, will have a decided preference, 

 as the nearest approach to the barn-door system. 



INSECTS and ANJMAL food, also, form a part of the 

 natural diet of poultry, are medicinal to them in a 

 weakly state, and the want of such food may some- 

 times impede their thriving. 



SIZED fowls have been intended thus far; but 

 the above feeding-rooms are well calculated for fat- 

 tening the younger chickens, which may be put up 



