No. 4.] POULTRY KEEPING. 117 



clean cash for every one of her, you will agi'ec with us that 

 every small farm in Massachusetts might well keep from two 

 to ten hundreds of happy hens. 



Question. Have you ever had any trouble with rats ? 



Mr. Davenport. Not seriously. The worst enemy I ever 

 found was a crow, who disposed of two hundred chickens in 

 two days. For two weeks he troubled us, and no one could 

 get a shot at him. Finally I hung a lot of barrel hoops on a 

 pole, with a crow a neighbor had shot hung by one wing in 

 them, and my enemy never came again. 



Question. II ow are your flock of old hens doing so far ? 



Mr. Davenport. They averaged seven eggs each for Octo- 

 ber and November, or, at 3I/2 cents per egg, about 29 cents 

 per hen. They ate $0.70 worth of feed in October, and $10.02 

 worth in November. In the summer they will not eat over 7 

 cents' worth each per month, and they will never go over 11 

 cents. 



Question. How do you prevent a hen moulting in Au- 

 gust ? 



Mr. Davenport. I wouldn't prevent her ; I would cut off 

 her head. 



Question. When are the hens hatched that moult in Feb- 

 ruary ? 



Mr. Davenport. I wish I could find out ; I am only too 

 glad to get them, but I do not know when they are hatched. 



Question. Do you ever have trouble in getting hens at 50 

 cents apiece ? 



Mr. Davenport. I have never seen the time until this year 

 when I could not buy all the hens I wanted in Massachusetts 

 at less than 10 cents a pound, and the hens brought in do not 

 average over four pounds apiece. When I have a flock of 

 hens which I am going to send to the market because they are 

 not laying well, and are not worth keeping, for that reason, it 

 has been my custom to shut them up in a yard by themselves 

 and feed them exclusively a corn diet for a week or two, or 

 while they continue to lay, so that they are bound to pay for 

 what they eat. 



