■ POULTRY. 223 



strange that those who paid Burnham $25 per pair for fowls 

 whose chief recommendations were long legs and outlandish 

 names, should find, in the end, that the profits, like the 

 " extended " liquors of the celebrated ex-commissioner, were 

 somewhat dUuted. 



2. That large class of farmers and others, who keep a few 

 hens and turkeys more from the force of habit than from any 

 other cause, and who adopt as their rule of action the maxim 

 that all creatures should " cut their own fodder." Conse- 

 quently their fowls are allowed to shift for themselves, and to 

 ramble in whatever direction they please ; and being conscious 

 of the fact that they have got to " scratch for a living," tliey 

 set about it with commendable zeal, helping themselves to 

 every thing that comes in their way, never stopping to discrimi- 

 nate in favor of the young cabbages, or to consider the havoc 

 they arc making with the newly raked onion bed ; and laying 

 their eggs where it is not always convenient for tiieir owner to 

 find them. 



In winter, the only protection given them is often an open 

 shed ; and their feed is dealt out when it best suits the conve- 

 nience of the master. Hence, they eat voraciously when they 

 do get any thing, and the eggs tliey lay are few and far 

 between. This class of people generally consider fowls a nuis- 

 ance : and they are so to them, and the sooner they get rid of 

 them the better. These same persons would not turn a fine 

 cow out into the cold and sleet, and feed her once a day or 

 twice, as happened most convenient, and then expect her to 

 yield the same quantity of milk that she would in a warm barn, 

 with an ample and regular supply of feed. Why should they 

 expect more of a hen than they do of a cow ? And yet you 

 will hear these persons grumbling that their poultry does not 

 lay as well as that of their neighbor. If they would go to 

 their neighbor and find out how he manages, and bear in mind 

 the maxim of Franklin, " No gains without pains," and believe 

 that even they themselves can learn something, they might 

 succeed better. But as they belong to the class of anti-pro- 

 gressives, who know enough already, perhaps this is too much 

 to expect of them. 



We can see no good reason why not only every farmer, 

 but also every mechanic and laborer, of ordinary intelligence, 



