212 THE FA BM. 



15. Introduce new blood into your stock every year or so, by either buy- 

 ing a cockerel or settings of eggs from some reliable breeder. 



16. In buying birds or eggs, go to some reliable breeder who has his 

 reputation at stake. You may have to pay a little more for birds, but you 

 can depend on what you get. Culls are not cheap at any price. 



17. Save the best birds for next year's breeding, and send the others to 

 market. In shipi^ing fancy poultry to market send it dressed. 



Fisli for Poultry. — In preparing fish for fowls, we prefer to chop them 

 up raw, add a very little salt and pepper, and feed in small quantities in 

 conjunction with gi-ain and vegetables; but for young cliicks it is advisable 

 to boil before feeding, and simply open the fish down the line of the back 

 bone, leaving to the chicks the rest of the task. This food shall be given to 

 layers sparingly, or we may perceive a fishy smell about the eggs, especially 

 if the fish is fed raw. All who can will do well to try this diet for their 

 flocks, and note its effect on egg production. We have always marked a 

 decided increase in the rate of laying following an allowance of fish fed in 

 mcderate quantities. 



There are hundreds of our readers who live near or on rivei-s or lakes, or 

 the sea shore, where they can get considerable offal fish, such as are either 

 too small to market, or are cast out as unfit to be sold. Hundreds of bushels 

 of these fish are annually used for manure, either composted or plowed in 

 direct. In this connection they are very good, though many a basketful 

 could bo put to better account by feeding them to your fowls; and they are 

 very fond of this diet, though care must be taken not to feed it exclusively, 

 for it may cause extreme laxity. 



To Cure Pip. — ^This is a troublesome and soraewhat fatal complaint to 

 which all domestic poiilti-y are liable; it is also a very common one. Some 

 writers say it is the result of cold; others, that is promoted by the use of bad 

 water. But, whatever the cause, the disease is easily detected. There is a 

 thickening of the membrane of the tongue, particularly at the tip; also a 

 ditSculty in breathing; the beak is frequently held open, the tongue dry, the 

 feathers of the head ruffled and the bii'd falls off in food; and if neglected, 

 dies. The mode of cure wliich, if put in practice in time, is generally suc- 

 cessful, is to remove the thickened membrane from the tongue ■with the 

 nails of the forefinger and thvimb. The process is not difficult, for the mem- 

 brane is not adhesive. Then take a lump of butter, mix into it some strong 

 Scotch snuff, and put two or three large pills of this down the fowl's throat. 

 Keep it fi'om cold and damiD, and it will soon recover. It may, perhaps, be 

 necessary to repeat the snuff balls. Some Avriters recommend a mixture of 

 butter, pepper, garhc, and scraped horseradish; but we believe the Scotch 

 enuff to be the safest, as it is the most simple. 



Eggs and Pullets. — Unlesi you want a large proportion of cockerels do 

 not sell all the largest eggs you can pick out. There are no means known by 

 which the sex of eggs can with certainty be determined. Although many 

 thought some sign indicated the sox, yet after repeated fair trials, all these 

 indications have entirely failed with nio, except the one wliich follows: With 

 regard to the eggs of most of the feathered kingdom, if you pick the largest 

 out of the nest, they are the ones that generally produce males, especially if 

 they happen to be the first laid. Even in a canary's nest it is noticeable that 

 the first egg laid is veiy often the largest, the young from it is the first out, 

 keeps ahead of its comrades, is the firet to quit the no»t. and the firet to siutf. 



