GENERAL METHOD OR PLAN. 37 



other warm place, for a few days to dry. Then let the bags 

 be baked three -or four times, for half an hour each time, in 

 a cool oven, drying for two days between each baking, and 

 the process will be completed. Less trouble than this is 

 often made to suffice ; but the feathers are inferior in 

 crispness to those so treated, and may occasionally become 

 offensive. 



Eggs should be collected regularly, if possible twice 

 every day ; and if any chickens are to be reared from the 

 home stock the owner or attendant should learn to recog- 

 nise the egg of each particular hen. There is no difficulty 

 in this, even with a considerable number : nearly every 

 egg, to the accustomed eye, has a well-marked individual 

 character ; and if there be any hens of value it may save 

 much disappointment in the character of the brood to know 

 the parentage of those selected for hatching. 



There is, finally, the important matter of general plan 

 and method to be considered. When poultry are kept as a 

 branch of domestic economics, it will be obvious that the 

 system to be pursued should vary according to the extent of 

 accommodation which can be afforded, and to the object 

 sought. It frequently happens that a regular supply of 

 eggs is the sole object in view : and indeed if a covered 

 shed fenced in with wire, as described in the last chapter, 

 with a small house at the end for roosting and laying in, be 

 the sole accommodation for the fowls, to attempt rearing 

 them would be folly ; and yet they may be kept so as to 

 yield a good return upon their cost and maintenance. 



The proper plan in such a case will be to purchase in 

 the spring a number of hens proportioned to the size of the 

 run, and none exceeding a year old. A cock is useless, as 

 hens lay very nearly as well without one ; and where eggs 

 only are wanted, this is balanced by his food and his room. 

 All these birds, if in good health and condition, will either 



