154 A COUNTRY READER. 



You can understand when the wild fowl were 

 surrounded on all sides by enemies it was far 

 safer for them, when they did find food, that 

 it should be swallowed at once and digested at 

 leisure in some place of safety. 



If they had to pick their food and chew it as 

 they took it, they would be more exposed to 

 danger, and would run a greater chance of being 

 killed by their enemies. 



For the same reason, namely, as a means of 

 safety, cows, bullocks, antelopes, and sheep de- 

 veloped, when in their wild state, a formation of 

 stomach that enabled them to rapidly take in a 

 store of food, and then retiring to a place of 

 safety, quietly digest it, chew it up at leisure, 

 " chewing the cud," as it is termed. 



The gizzard of a fowl, as you know, is a large, 

 fleshy, thick substance supplied with two horny 

 pads ; these horny pads rub against each other 

 and grind the food just as mill-stones grind 

 wheat. 



Fowls swallow small stones to help these 

 horny pads to grind their food more thoroughly, 

 and therefore, if the run does not naturally 

 possess a supply of the necessary small stones, 

 the poultry-keeper must supply them. The 

 gizzard and the stones do the work of teeth. 



A larger number of poultry ought to be reared 

 in this country, and a great many more eggs 



