208 MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG CHICKENS. 



people confine their fowls in close quarters to fatten, and even 

 tie their feet fast to the floor of their coop. Hear what this 

 cruel fellow did, clipped from an agricultural paper : 



I had a box made and divided into three parts, eight inches by four- 

 teen, just large enough to admit one fowl to each division. It was 

 made tight enough to exclude the light of day, mostly, yet I left 

 openings enough for fresh air. I then placed two roosters and one hen 

 turkey in the box, (one fowl fn each division,) confining their feet to 

 the floor, so that they could not move from the position in which I 

 placed them. The front of the box I hung on hinges, for convenience 

 of feeding, <fcc. 



Most people have noticed that at sunrise and sunset, all kinds of 

 poultry eat voraciously, and I supposed that if they were kept in the 

 dark, (at which time of quiet all animals fatten most,) and the sun- 

 light admitted several times during the day, and fed at that time, they 

 might be induced to take on fat rapidly, and in this I was not disap- 

 pointed. I fed them with rice boiled in milk, and sweetened with 

 molasses, giving them water to drink but once during their confine- 

 ment, and at the end of sixteen days I killed them. Handsomer and 

 fatter birds I never saw. By some such method as this, I have no 

 doubt that the income of farmers from this source, might be greatly 

 augmented. A series of well-conducted experiments of this kind 

 might be of benefit to your readers, and the public generally. "Who 

 will undertake it? 



For fattening, corn is the best food that can be procured. If 

 it is cracked in a mill, and moistened with water, it is consid- 

 ered by many as preferable to the whole grain. 



The system of the forcible cramming of fowls, is barbarous, 

 and unworthy of honorable notice. If a fowl will not fatten 

 by natural means, sufficient to satisfy the gormandizing pro- 

 pensities of epicures, then, I say, let them go without poultry. 



MANAGEMENT OF YOUNO CHICKENS. 



It sometimes happens that the confined chick is unable to 

 break the shell of the egg at the proper time, owing to weak- 

 ness, or to the unusual thickness and strength of the shell. In 

 such cases, no aid can be rendered that will save the life of the 

 chick as a general rule. I have heard the little laborers peck- 

 ing faithfully for a half a day, or more, when I have carefully 

 broken the shells of the eggs, but in most cases, the chicks 

 died, sooner or later, some living several days. In other 

 cases, they are able to break the shell, but go no further, and 

 soon die, unless relieved. This is a very precarious duty, and 



