DAIRY. POULTRY. 463 



Dairy. — Look out for improvements in selecting cows for the 

 dairy as well as making butter and cheese. Read How to Select 

 Cows. Make a horse, dog or sheep do the churning. 



Butter. — Give cows an abundance of sweet grass and clean water, 

 and access to salt ; see that boys and dogs do not worry them ; milk 

 regularly with clean hands ; keep milk in clean and sweet vessels, 

 and in a cool, pure apartment ; churn often ; work the butter well 

 with anything but the bare hands ; use only the purest and best salt ; 

 pack in clean jars or tubs ; keep cool, and cover with salt cloths, 

 and the butter will be equal to prime " Orange County," 



Poultry. — To gratify the secretiveness of hens make nests where 

 they cannot be seen by other fowls when they are laying or setting. 

 If nests be too deep, eggs will rest on each other, which should never 

 occur. 



— Confine as soon as the garden is sown, or keep them out of 

 it. Put hens (in coops) and young chickens in the garden. Tur- 

 keys' eggs ought not to be set before the first of May ; when 

 hatched, put the brood in a dry, warm shed, where no other poul- 

 try have been in the habit of frequenting, and keep them out of 

 dewy grass for six weeks. 



— Keep a good dust-bath for the fowls, and add unleached wood- 

 ashes to it occasionally ; watch any appearance of vermin, and clear 

 them out with an application of kerosene, which may be rubbed un- 

 der the wings and on the backs and breasts of the birds. White- 

 wash occasionally and thoroughly houses, perches, nests and all. 



— Collect eggs of all kinds before evening, lest they be injured 

 during cold nights. Place those designed for setting in a pan of 

 bran or oats, little end] down, to keep the yolk from the side and 

 adhering to the shell. Hens and other female birds turn over their 

 eggs frequently, both before and during the period of their incu- 

 bation. Mark choice eggs with red chalk or pencil. 



— Why do so many eggs sold in the markets taste so strongly of 

 straw .^ Because the farmers permit their fowls to work most of 

 their living out of the manure-heap. This not only gives the ^g-g a 

 peculiar taste, but the flesh also. Just feed a hen on onions or 

 turnips for a few days ; kill it, and you will be convinced of the 

 effect of the food on the ^<gg and meat, if you have any doubt on 

 the subject. Give your fowls plenty of sound grain and clean food, 

 and keep the manure for the soil. 



— Feed well ; let them out of the yard before sunset daily ; sup- 

 ply them with a box of sharp gravel where there is none in the 

 soil. Whole grain should be soaked at least twenty hours for them; 

 and if ground it will go much farther. 



