276 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



had an egg spoiled by a hen stealing her nest for six years, and 

 there has not been a day for the last nine months but some one 

 has laid. I keep a bin of dry ashes for the hens to roll in, and 

 their roosts are made of sassafras poles, with the bark on ; the 

 bark is supposed to keep off the lice. I feed them with corn 

 meal mixed with warm water in winter and cold in summer, 

 corn, wheat, oats, boiled potatoes j meat, burnt bones, old lime 

 mortar, cabbage leaves, grass in summer and rowen hay in 

 winter. The greater the variety of food the better. They want 

 drink at all times. They will eat and drink almost any thing 

 that man or beast will, except beans, tobacco and rum. If a 

 healthy animal dies by accident, and the meat is not fit for 

 family use, or any other meat whatever, if vjell salted, and 

 boiled until it is tender, the salt will not hurt them, and they 

 will devour it greedily if confined and not able to obtain insects. 



I was riding leisurely a year or two since through a distant 

 neighborhood, when I noticed at almost every house there would 

 be one, two, and sometimes three dogs, lying on the terrace or 

 playing in the yard, ready to yelp at every passing traveller. 

 The thought struck me very forcibly how much better it would 

 look if there was a respectable hen-yard filled with a few fat 

 hens, — not in the front yard how^ever, — in some warm, dry and 

 pleasant place. Hens will not do well in a cold, wet and dark 

 place ; they want the sun. Eggs have been worth here from 

 seventeen to tvrenty-five cents per dozen, chickens thirteen cents 

 per pound, when dressed, or fifty cents apiece alive. 



One important item in keeping your fowls shut up is, that 

 you can save the manure much better. It may be favorably 

 compared with guano. Last spring, when I planted my corn, I 

 scraped up what I could conveniently, and put about a quarter 

 of a shovelful on the top of the barnyard manure in the hill. 

 Whether this was too much, or not enough, I do not know, 

 but the result was, that the corn was about one-third heavier, 

 and the pumpkins were double in quantity those in the adjoin- 

 ing rows. While I recommend keeping hens shut up, they 

 may be let out some parts of the year, just before night, if your 

 garden is not too near. Chickens will grow better to run at 

 large if they are well fed, but if you are blessed with near 

 neighbors, you will do well to see that your fowls do not trouble 

 them. It makes some people nervous to have their crops 



