POULTRY. 395 



feeding to the end he has in view. If rearing for the table, lie 

 will look for plump bodies, fine-grained and flavored flesh, and 

 early maturity, and will give hearty food, and keep his fowls 

 quiet. If rearing for eggs, he will ehoose the kind which lays 

 the largest number of rich, heavy eggs, and has least tendency 

 to set, and will feed on stimulating food, and give his fowls 

 abundant scratching room. 



The different grains are to be chiefly depended on for food 

 for fowls ; certain proportions of raw vegetables and animal 

 food are also necessary. In summer, if allowed a free range, 

 they will obtain sufficient quantities of both the latter. In 

 winter, the hen especially requires a regular portion of raw 

 vegetables. Late-cut rowen hay is probably the best and 

 cheapest article of this kind for hens. They eat it greedily, 

 and will need no other. 



Fowls of all kinds should be under the charge of one and 

 the same keeper, with whom they may become acquainted. 

 They soon learn his looks, and ways, and calls, and when to 

 expect food, and are not disturbed when he enters the yard or 

 house. The feeling of security and quiet thus insured has 

 much to do with the prosperity of the flock. Equally essential 

 is it that the keeper should understand the peculiar nature and 

 habits of the fowl he tends. Their natural mode of nesting, 

 the first indications of a desire to set, their habits of perching 

 and sleeping, and the various symptoms of disease to which 

 they are subject, are points of seemingly trivial consequence, 

 yet essential. Ignorance on such points is a prominent cause 

 of the failure of so many poultry experiments. 



J. H. Temple, for the Committee. 



HAMPSHIRE. 



Report of the Committee. 



The question, whether the farmer can afford to spend much 

 time or money in this department, is one which is not very 

 definitely settled. That it is a very comfortablejuatter to have 

 a generous number of eggs and fat chickens and turkeys dur- 



