EXPERIMENTAL FARMING. 345 



poultry ; and so careless are they of this kind of stock, and so 

 contemptuously do they regard it, that not one in twenty can 

 estimate the cost of his fowls. Poultry are generally consid- 

 ered as causing more expense than profit to the farmer ; and no 

 one can doubt it who has observed the careless manner in which 

 they are reared. As they are generally kept, they annually 

 destroy more produce than they consume, and eat more after 

 they have attained their growth, before they are killed, than the 

 price of their flesh would buy, when they are carried to market. 

 Two important things are yet to be learned in regard to poultry, 

 first, the most economical mode of feeding and taking care of 

 them ; second, the most profitable age at which they should be 

 killed, for the market, or for one's own table. 



From some experience obtained by the writer of this essay, 

 it would appear that there is considerable profit in rearing 

 chickens to the age of three or four months, and that after that 

 period they are expensive unless they are to be kept for laying. 

 It is a rational subject of inquiry, therefore, to determine the 

 cost of a chicken from the time of its first escape from the egg, 

 during the first six months of its existence. It would probably 

 be found that the only profitable period of its life, when raised 

 for the table, is the first three or four months. If, for example, 

 a chicken attain the weight of two pounds, from the time it was 

 hatched, at a cost of six cents a pound, the next two pounds it 

 would gain only at a cost of ten or twelve cents a pound, or in 

 that ratio. 



With regard to laying hens, it is important to learn what are 

 the characteristics of each distinct variety, and whether there 

 is any essential difference in their annual productiveness, sup- 

 posing each kind to receive the most judicious care and atten- 

 tion. The speculators in this kind of stock have purposely 

 deceived the public, sometimes lauding one variety, and some- 

 times another, in order to create a demand for that particular 

 variety which they have for sale. There is not a single variety 

 or sub-variety of the domestic hen, that has not had its turn in 

 being eulogized by respectable authority, as exceeding all others 

 in the production of eggs. 



Some of the questions to be answered by future experiments 

 are these : What is the best variety of the common fowl for 

 the production of eggs, and what the best to raise for its flesh ? 



