306 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



pans, giving them only as much as will quite fill them at once. 

 When you put fresh, let the pans be set in water, that no 

 sourness may be conveyed to the fowls, as that prevents 

 them from fattening. Give them clean water, or the milk 

 of rice, to drink ; but the less wet the latter is when per- 

 fectly soaked the better. By this method the flesh will have 

 a clear whiteness which no other food gives ; and when it 

 is considered how far a pound of rice will go, and how much 

 time is saved by this mode, it will be found to be cheap. 

 The pen should be daily cleaned, and no food given for six- 

 teen hours before poultry be killed. A proportion of animal 

 mixed with vegetable food is said to cause poultry to thrive 

 •rapidly, but they should be confined to a vegetable diet for a 

 fortnight or three weeks before they are killed for eating. 

 A quantity of charcoal broken in small pieces and placed 

 within the reach of poultry is said to increase their appetite, 

 promote their digestion, and expedite their fattening. 



To choose Eggs at Market and 'preserve them. Put the 

 large end of the ^^g to your tongue ; if it feels warm it is 

 new. In new-laid eggs there is a small division of the skin 

 from the shell, which is filled with air, and is perceptible to 

 the eye at the end. On looking through them against the 

 sun or a candle, if fresh, eggs will be pretty clear. If they 

 shake they are not fresh. 



Eggs may be bought cheapest when the hens first begin 

 to lay in the spring, before they sit ; in fall and winter they 

 become dear. They may be preserved fresh by dipping 

 them in boiling water and instantly taking them out, or by 

 oiling the shell ; either of which way is to prevent the air 

 passing through it : or kept on shelves with small holes to 

 receive one in each, and be turned every other day ; or close 

 packed in the keg, and covered with strong lime-water."^ 



BIRDS. The following remarks on shooting birds, &c., 

 are from a communication, published in the New England 

 Farmer, vol. ix. p. 338, by a writer with the signature 

 ^ Cultivator.^ 



*For Treatises on Poultry and their different varieties, see Fessenden's 

 Mowbray, published by Lilly and Wait, and New England Farmer, vol. 

 ix. p. 254, 278,293, 318, 341. 



