MANAGEMENT COOPING. 87 



stantial food was always our chief dependence with 

 this brood, nor did we ever find it necessary to waste 

 time in collecting ants' eggs or nettle seed, or give 

 clover, rue, or wormwood, according to the directions 

 of the elder house-wives. Eggs boiled hard are 

 equally proper with curd, and generally nearer at 

 hand ; the eggs being rotten, is said to be no objec- 

 tion, although we -never used such. 



Our first preference of water to milk for turkey 

 chicks, so much recommended by the old writers, 

 arose from the observation that chickens at large, 

 among the troughs of milk-fed pigs, generally were 

 sickly and scouring, and rough in their feathers ; 

 and more particularly so when they had access to 

 potatoe-wash, which not only purged them, but glued 

 their feathers together, keeping them in a comfort- 

 less and unhealthy state. 



The weather being remarkably favourable, we 

 have usually cooped the hen abroad, about two hours 

 in the forenoon, in ,a moderately warm sun, whilst 

 the chicks were only three or four weeks old, great 

 care being taken that they did not stray far from the 

 coop. Six weeks is their longest period of confine- 

 ment within doors, after which it is more safe to 

 coop the hen for another fortnight, that the chicks 

 may acquire strength abroad sufficient to enable them 

 to follow the dam, they being naturally inclined to 

 stray too far, and to weaken themselves by fatigue. 

 When full half-grown and well feathered, they be- 

 come sufficiently hardy, and in a good range will 

 provide themselves throughout the day, requiring 

 only to be fed at their out-letting in the morning, 



8 



