1084 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



III. 



7433. In ordinary cases, where poultry are kept on a farm merely to consume what would otherwise 

 be lost, one or two compartments of the low range of buildings on the south side of the yard are usually 

 devoted to them, or any dry convenient place, according to the general plan of the farmery. 



7434. The furniture or fixtures of the poultry houses are very few ; the roost is sometimes a mere floor 

 or loft, to which the bird fly up or ascend by a ladder ; at other times it is nothing more than the coup- 

 ling timbers of the roof, or a series of cross battens : but the most approved mode is a series of rough 

 polygonal or angular battens or rods rising in gradation from the floor to the roof, as already explained 

 (5840. and 2842.) ; the battens placed at such a distance horizontally, as that the birds when roosting 

 may not incommode each other by their droppings. For this purpose they should be a foot apart for hens, 

 and eighteen inches apart for turkeys. The slope of the roost may be about 45, and the lower part should 

 lift up by hinges in order to admit a person beneath to remove the dung. No flying is requisite in the 

 case of such a roost, as the birds ascend and descend by steps. 



74-55. Nests are sometimes fixtures, in which case they are nitches built against the wall, not unlike 

 wine bins ; where there is more than one tier on the ground floor, each superincumbent range must 

 have a projecting balcony in front of about a foot in width, with stairs of ascent at convenient distances. 



7436. A small boiler for preparing food may sometimes be requisite, though on a small scale this may be 

 done in the kitchen. Watering troughs are generally fixed in the yards. In confined situations there 

 should be a large cistern of sand, in which the fowls may nestle and roll about in order to free themselves 

 from vermin ; there should also be a spot composed of gravel, sand, and soft earth, for nearly the same 

 purpose, but more especially for exercising tlie young chickens. A roof for shelter and protection from 

 the sun may very appropriately be placed over this last compartment, or a part of it. 



7437. The utensils are the portable nest, [fig. 926. a), coops (6 c), portable shelter (</) ; feeding dishes, 



926 



corn bin for retaining a store of food, egg basket, and feather bags. We avoid enumerating the utensils 

 used in cramming, considering that unwholesome and disgusting practice as unfit for the present age. 



An improved poultry feeder (fig. 927.) has 

 lately been published in the Transactions of 

 the Highland Society. It is made to hold 

 half a quarter of grain, not one particle of 

 which can be lost. When once filled, it re- 

 quires no more trouble, as the grain falls 

 down into the receiver below, as the fowls 

 pick it away ; and the covers on that, which 

 are opened by perches, and the iron cover 

 above, which is secured by a padlock, com. 

 pletely keep the grain from the rain, so that 

 the fowls get it always quite dry ; and as 

 nothing less than the weight of a hen on a 

 perch can lift a cover on the lower receiver, 

 sparrows, and other small birds, are com- 

 pletely excluded, whilst the small cross bars 

 through which the fowls pick prevent cattle 

 and other large animals from getting at the 

 grain. It is astonishing with what facility 

 the fowls learn to leap upon the perch, and 

 so open the cover of the receiver which 

 covers the grain. 



928 



Sect. II. GaUhiaceous Fowls, their Kinds, Breeding, Rearing, and Matiagement. 



7438. Under the order GaUinetB are included the common hen, tuikey, Guinea, and 

 peacock ; and we shall here treat of each of these birds in succession. 



743a The different species offowls,, that is, of cocks and hens, inhabit in their native state the continent 

 and islands of Asiatic India. Naturalists have not agreed whether 

 these numerous varieties of this most useful bird, seen in a domes- 

 ticated state, have originated from one or from two species. M. Tem- 

 minck considers the Bankiva co<;k (Gallus Banklva) as the origin of 

 our domestic poultry ; while others think they may have sprang from 

 the Jungle cock i^fig. 928. G. SonnerJitn), still found in tne greatest 

 plenty in the forests of India. The term chicken is applied to the 

 female young of gallinaceous animals till they are four months old; 

 afterwards they are called pullets, till they begin to lay, when they 

 oecome hens. The male is a chicken till he is three months old, 

 then he is a cock bird till the age of twelve months, when he becomes 

 a cock ; unless, indeed, he has been artificially deprived of the faculty 

 of procreation, when he becomes a capon ; and when the ovarium is 

 taken from a pullet or hen, she is called a hen capon. 



7440. The varieties of a bird so long under culture may naturally 

 be expected to be numerous ; those most esteemed in Britain, at the 

 present time, are the following : 



7441. The common dunghill cock and hen, middle size, of every 

 colour, and hardy. 



7442. The game cock and hen {fig. 929.), rather small in size, deli- 

 cate in limb, colour generally red or brown ; flesh white, and su. 



