136 



the coop and puts a clean coat of whitewash on his coops 

 every year. He fumigaU s his coops by burning a mixture 

 of charcoal, sulphur, saltpetre, cayenne pepper and kero- 

 sene oil in an open portable iron furnace. Ventilation is 

 important and is best when conducted from near the floor. 

 He usually put a shovelful of earth in the nest of a sit- 

 tiiio- hen and found it beneficial ; dry cracked corn fed to 

 3^oung chicks was injurious, but after they were six weeks 

 old it was all right ; dry Indian meal and sprouted oats 

 are good feed for chickens. A hen may lay as well when 

 she is three or four years old as when she is two, but he 

 makes it a practice to change and sell off old hens after 

 two years. A chicken that is hatched out in April and 

 commences to lay in October when eggs are scarce and 

 high is what is wanted ; and this is not so apt to be done 

 with a hen three or four years old. He would commence 

 to feed a chicken with egg producing food — ground bone, 

 03'ster shells, lime, &c., as soon as he commenced to feed 

 them, and thus saturate them with egg food, then they 

 will commence to la}'^ early and be profitable. He esti- 

 mated his profits on fowls to average (exclusive of the 

 work he gave them) i^l.SO each per year. 



REPORT ON ESSAYS AND REPORTS. 



The Committee on Essays and Reports have had 

 unusual good fortune this year in having received several 

 excellent papers for their consideration. In the matter of 

 Essays we mti,j say, in the language of the farm, the yield 

 has been large and the quaUty of the products excellent. ' 



Three essays were submitted to the committee, all of 

 which were gladl}^ accepted and approved. To that by 

 George A. Rogers, of North Andover, upon the theme, 

 " Is it necessarily Hard Times for Good Farmers," the 

 committee awarded the first premium of fifteen dollars. 

 This paper is perhaps more in the line of political economy 



