BREEDING CHICKENS. 27 



SECTION IV. 



On breeding and rearing Chickens the necessary 

 Yards and Buildings. 



IT has been already observed, that the warmest and 

 dryest soils are best adapted to the breeding and rear- 

 ing of gallinaceous fowls, more particularly chickens : 

 thence the greatest success, attended with the least 

 trouble, may be expected on such, and far greater 

 precaution and expense will be required on those of 

 an opposite description. Of these last, the wet and 

 boggy are the most injurious, since, however ill 

 affected fowls are by cold, they endure it still better 

 than moisture; whence they are found to succeed 

 well upon dry land, even in the severe climates of 

 the north. The counties of England most productive 

 in poultry, are NORFOLK, SURREY, SUSSEX, HERTS, 

 DEVON, and SOMERSETSHIRE. The largest stock of 

 poultry which I ever saw upon an English farm, 

 was upon one of two or three hundred acres in Herts, 

 many years since, amounting it appeared to many 

 hundred head. It was dry and shingly land, like the 

 sea beach, and I found on inquiry, that scarcely any 

 care was taken of the breeding stock, or shelter 

 afforded them, -yet they multiplied in a most extra- 

 ordinary degree, and preserved a constant state of 

 good health. Upon a boggy or clayey soil, under 



