53 



ON POULTRY. 



DANIEL PUTNAM'S STATEMENT. 



Gentlemen, — The lot ofVowls presented for your notice 

 to-day, are a sample of my small stock. They have been kept 

 entirely confined to the henery, — a minute description of which 

 I gave your Society, two years since, and may be found on your 

 records. Of their variety, they are the common "Dunghill," 

 crossed with the Black Spanish. The following statement of 

 my hens, would have been more creditable, had not some one, 

 on the night of the 10th of February, entered their premises, 

 and selected from their roost, five of my very best pullets. I re- 

 gret, that I cannot give you the name of the person who took 

 them — as a good judge of hens — whose knowledge if honestly 

 used, might be of service to your Society, and the community. 



In addition to the food estimated in my statement^ I would 

 say that, during the warm season, they are supplied with 

 grass, sorrel, chickweed, and tops of vegetables, as freely as 

 they will eat. Also the meat of several calves, killed when 

 a few days old, have been given them. They are daily sup- 

 plied with fresh water. 



It may be stated that three pullets, hatched the 12th of 

 March last, commenced laying, at the average age of four 

 months, and five and one-third days, and have laid 72 eggs. 



September 1st, 1850, my stock consisted of one crower, 

 seven hens, and thirty-one chickens, from three to five months 

 old. September 1st, 1 S51, of one crower, ten hens, and twenty- 

 nine chickens, from two and a half to five and a half months old. 

 Number of eggs laid 



