INTRODUCTION. 



like the little trouble it may create, and looking 

 upon it as an insignificant item, are apt to say, 

 "/ believe it pays, but can not speak positively" 

 and are content to go on as before ; but at the 

 same time they have no right to be surprised if 

 their rough calculations neither convince others 

 nor fill their own pockets. 



From our own experience we can safely say 

 that there are few parts of the farmer's prem- 

 ises that can be made to contribute, according 

 to the capital invested, more effectually to the 

 comfort of the family, and, if properly managed, 

 to the aggregate pi-ofit of the season, than the 

 poultry-yard ; and we are pleased to observe that 

 more attention of late has been directed to the 

 subject of domestic fowls. " Take care of the 

 cents, and the dollars will take care of them- 

 selves," is an old maxim, and, so far as the 

 farmer's profits are concerned, we think a true 

 one. 



But few species of animals are of so much 

 utility as that of the fowl. Whether young, 

 adult, or old, male or female, these birds af- 

 ford light, wholesome, and strengthening food, 

 which is equally suited to those in good health 

 and to those in a sick or convalescent state, 

 which the art of our modern epicures knows 

 how to transform in a thousand different ways, 

 and always agreeable, but which is not less suc- 

 culent Avhen dressed with temperate plainness. 



But though most farmers keep fowls and 

 raise their own eggs, there are many who have 

 not learned the difference there is in the rich- 

 ness and flavor of eggs produced by well-fed 

 hens and those from birds that have been half 

 starved through our winters. There will be 

 some difference in the size, but far more, in the 

 quality. The yolk of one will be large, fine 

 colored, and of good consistence, and the albu- 

 men, or white, clear and pure ; while the con- 

 tents of the other will be watery and meagre, as 

 though there was not vitality or substance suf- 

 ficient in the parent fowl to properly carry out 

 and complete the work that nature had sketch- 

 ed. In order, therefore, to have good eggs, the 

 fowls should be well fed, and also provided with 

 gravel during the months they are unable to 

 come to the ground, that they may be able to 

 grind and prepare their food for digestion. 



Of eggs, those from the domestic hen are de- 

 cidedly the best; but those of ducks and geese 

 may be used for some of the purposes of do- 

 mestic cookery. 



The way in which the farmers in general, in 

 this country, manage their poultry, is not the 

 best for them or the fowls. They are allowed 

 to run where they please, to lay and sit at any 

 time they may deem expedient ; when the hen 

 comes off with her chickens, she is suffered to 

 ramble about, exposing the young brood to cold 

 and wet, which thins them off rapidly ; no suit- 

 able accommodations are provided for their 

 roosting-places, and they are allowed to find a 

 place to roost where they can, probably in some 

 exposed situation in a tree or shed ; no atten- 

 tion is given to feeding them ; and under such 

 circumstances it is not to be wondered at that 

 few or no chickens are raised, and that fowls 

 are sickly or unprofitable. 



When with so little expense to himself a 

 farmer may have an abundant supply of eggs 

 and raise one or two hundred chickens, it would 

 appear strange that the poultry business should 

 be so little attended to by the owners of the soil. 

 Where crops are sown immediately around the 

 barns, it may be inconvenient to have fowls run 

 at large, but in many cases fifty or one hundred 

 of these birds may be kept, not only without 

 injury but with benefit. There are generally 

 large quantities of grain scattered in the barn- 

 yards and lost unless eaten by fowls ; there are 

 myriads of insects, such as flies, bugs, worms, 

 grasshoppers, etc., which require to have their 

 numbers diminished by the cock and his follow- 

 ers ; and even if constantly kept up and fed, ex- 

 perience shows that for the amount of money 

 invested the poultry-yard contributes in propor- 

 tion as great a return as any other part of the 

 farm. 



The following rules may be safely given 

 and they are useful ones moreover, in many oth- 

 er matters besides those of which we are now 

 speaking : Never keep poultry without thinking 

 it worth your while to give it a fair share of your 

 attention without satisfying yourself, if your 

 time is otherwise employed, that it has the at- 

 tention of j'our servant. Never keep persona 

 for that purpose who do not show, by activity and 



