188 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



the writer has had his attention called to the propriety of admin- 

 istering the egg-producing material in the form of bone-meal. 

 A correspondent writes as follows : — 



" Last winter I procured two barrels of bone-meal, intending 

 to use it for Irish potatoes and other garden crops. My wife, 

 however, appropriated some of it to manuring her roses in the 

 flower garden, by simply strewing it on the surface of the 

 ground around the bushes. The fowls have free access to the 

 garden, and were discovered eating the meal very eagerly. 

 Thinking it might be of service to them, we gave them some 

 for several weeks, and I assure you it was but a short time be- 

 fore the eggs began to come in such numbers as we had never 

 before known ! If a nest was broken up to prevent a hen from 

 hatching, it was but a few days before she was laying again, and 

 thus it continues until the present time. 



" One hen has taken possession of a barrel which has some 

 bone-meal in it, and is laying in the meal. Whether she intends 

 to lay the barrel full or not, time alone will determine. 



" My wife thinks that care and bone-meal are great institu- 

 tions for her poultry yard, and very extraordinary in their effect ; 

 but as the hens have an unusual amount of cackling to do, fears 

 they may bring on bronchitis ! This manuring of hens to make 

 them lay we think is original, but we have no idea of taking out 

 a patent for it, and hence leave the discovery open to the use of 

 all who may choose to try it." 



In closing this Report, your Committee would further urge 

 upon the attention of all our farmers the value of the dung- 

 hill fowl, both as an always marketable product of the farm, and 

 for the virtue of its excrements as manure. In these days, 

 when beef claims such high prices, and pork is liable to the 

 charge of unwholesomeness, we can fall back upon poultry, 

 with the certainty of living as well, if not better ; while that 

 we should be as well off, pecuniarily, we think does not admit 

 of a doubt. A. B. Davis, Chairman. 



BRISTOL CENTRAL. 



Fro7n the Report of the Committee. 

 The kind most largely represented was the Brahma-pootra, 

 and your Committee, as usual from the excellence of the speci- 



