PRIVATION OF LIGHT INSECTS. 65 



much depends upon form in this case, since we find 

 aged cocks and hens of the best shape, which have 

 perched all their lives, with the breast-bone perfectly 

 straight. 



It has always been a favourite maxim among 

 feeders, that THE PRIVATION OF LIGHT, by inclining 

 fowls to a constant state of repose, excepting when 

 moved by the appetite for food, promotes and acce- 

 lerates obesity. It may probably be so, although 

 not promotive of health ; but as it is no question, 

 that a state of obesity obtained in this way cannot be 

 a state of health, a real question arises whether the 

 flesh of animals so fed, can equal in flavour, nutri- 

 ment, and salubrity, that of the same species fed in a 

 more natural way ? Pecuniary and market interest 

 may perhaps be best answered by the plan of dark- 

 ness and close confinement, but a feeder for his own 

 table, of delicate taste, and ambitious of furnishing 

 his board with the choicest and most salubrious 

 viands, will declare for the natural mode of feeding ; 

 and, in that view, A FEEDING-YARD, gravelled, and 

 sown with the grasses already described, the room 

 being open all day, for the fowls to retire at pleasure, 

 will have a decided preference, as the nearest approach 

 to the barn-door system. 



INSECTS and ANIMAL food, also, form a part of the 

 natural diet of poultry, are medicinal to them in a 

 weakly state, and the want of such food may some- 

 times impede their thriving. 



SIZED fowls have been intended thus far ; but 

 the above feeding-rooms are well calculated for fat- 

 tening the younger chickens, which may be put up 



