292 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



tioii to the size of the fowls than tlie eggs of larger breeds. 

 The expense of keeping them is very small ; I could not esti- 

 mate the expense of keeping mine, having kept them mostly 

 upon the swill and crumbs from the house, but I can safely say 

 that the expense is not over one-half that of larger breeds." 



From accurate experiments made a few years since we found 

 the cost of food consumed by a variety of black bantam was 

 exactly one-half that consumed by ordinary breeds. Mr. Ives 

 exhibited eggs of his Seabriglits, which are of about the aver- 

 age size of the eggs of the Bolton Grey fowl of the first year's 

 laying. 



John I. Ladd, of Groveland, exhibited a hen with 57 chick- 

 ens, all hatched by her and a portion of them raised by her 

 during the past season. Mr. Ladd presented the following 

 statement : " The father of this hen was of the Cocliin China 

 breed and her mother a Booby hen. The father of the chick- 

 ens is a Brahma-poutre, the mother a China Booby. The hen 

 was set March 11 on 19 eggs, and came off April 2 with 17 

 chickens ; she was with these 22 days. From April 21 to May 

 15 she laid 24 eggs, and on the IGth of May she was set on 

 these eggs and came off June 6 with 21 chickens. Her chick- 

 ens were given to another hen to bring up. She commenced 

 laying again on tlie 15th of June, and laid 18 eggs up to July 

 2. She was set again July 3 on these 18 eggs, and came off 

 July 25 with 15 chickens, which were given to another hen. 

 She commenced laying again August 5, and laid 15 eggs up to 

 August 21; she was set August 22 on the 11 eggs, and came 

 off September 14 with 11 chickens, and they are now with her." 

 This stateiuent indicates a fowl of a very hardy constitution, 

 and wonderfully prolific both as a layer and as a setter. Mr. 

 Ladd terms tlie hen a " Booby" hen ; the hen is a large sized, 

 deep bodied, short legged hen of tlie eastern breeds which were 

 so widely disseminated a few years since, and might probably 

 be as correctly called by either of the half dozen names by whicli 

 these breeds are known. It appears that this fowl layed every 

 day throughout the season when not setting or with her chickens, 

 producing in the course of six months 57 eggs and 64 chickens. 



We all remember the great " fowl fever," as it is termed, 

 which spread through the country a few years since. It came 

 and went — one of those spasms which sometimes afflict whole 



