GENERAL VIEWS. 



37 



they are only beginning to be hatched on the 

 farms around Paris, although farther to the 

 south. It would be desirable to have stoves 

 more common in poultry-houses near cities, 

 where luxury grudges no expense for the con- 

 venience of having fresh eggs. 



"Man," says Farmentier, "who thinks of 

 nothing but his own interest, has attempted sev- 

 eral means of arousing hens from their torpid- 

 ity, when they cease at the natural period of 

 the year to lay, inasmuch as it seems very hard 

 to pass through the winter without the luxury 

 of eating new-laid eggs." 



M. Reaumur made several experiments with 

 a view to the object in question. A certain 

 class of food and of seeds, he says, are much 

 extolled in many places, as tending to promote 

 the laying of eggs, but nothing has yet been 

 determined by our choice ; for in this way the 

 sum of the eggs laid by the hens of a poultry- 

 yard might be distributed in a far more equa- 

 ble manner over the several months of the 

 year ; and if, as is probable, each hen can only 

 produce a certain number of eggs, we should 

 lie glad to have a portion of them yearly pro- 

 duced in winter. The necessity we are under 

 of keeping great quantities of eggs in the sea- 

 .son when they are laid, causes an uncommon 

 quantity to be spoiled every year, from too long 

 keeping or want of proper caution in preserv- 

 ing them; and hence the importance of the 

 question, "Whether it may not be possible to 

 make hens lay in winter?" 



The method adopted by the ancients was 

 rich and stimulant food, such as toasted bread 

 soaked in ale or wine, barley half sodden, tares, 

 and millet. 



FECUNDITY. 



With repect to fecundity, some hens will lay 

 only one egg in three days, some every other 

 day, others every day, and a hen was exhibited 

 at the Fair of the American Institute, at New 

 York, a few years since, that was said to have 

 laid two eggs in a day, and Aristotle mentions 

 a breed of Ilissian hens which laid as often as 

 thrice a day. 



According to our experience much depends 

 on circumstances, such as climate, accommo- 



dations, feed, and the attention paid to the hens, 

 as to the number of eggs annually produced. It 

 is asserted by Buffon, that a hen, well fed and 

 attended, will produce upwards of 150 eggs in 

 a year, besides two broods of chickens. 



The act of laying is not voluntary on the part 

 of the hen, but is dependent upon her age, con- 

 stitution, and diet. If she be young, healthy, 

 and well fed, lay she must ; if she be aged and 

 half starved, lay she can not. All that is left of 

 her own choice is where she shall deposit her 

 egg ; and she is sometimes so completely taken 

 by surprise, as not to have her own way even 

 in that. The poultry-keeper, therefore, has 

 only to decide which is the more convenient 

 that his hens should lay here and there, as it 

 may happen, about his premises, or in certain 

 places indicated to the hens by nest-eggs. Yet 

 it is quite a mistake to suppose that the presence 

 of a nest-egg causes a hen to sit earlier than 

 she otherwise would. The sight of twenty nest- 

 eggs will not bring on the hatching fever; and 

 when it does come, the hen will take to the 

 empty nest, if there be nothing else for her to 

 incubate. Such is her determined inclination 

 to incubate that she will sit upon stones. Any 

 one whose hens have from accident been de- 

 prived of a male companion, can not be ignorant 

 of the fact that they have not done so well till 

 the loss has been supplied. During the inter- 

 regnum matters get all wrong. The poor, deso- 

 late creatures wander about dispirited, like sol- 

 diers without a general. It belongs to their very 

 nature to be controlled and marshaled by one 

 of the stronger sex, who is kind, though a strict 

 master, and a considerate though stern disciplin- 

 arian. 



A writer in the Connecticut Courant says 

 " a dozen hens, properly attended, will furnish 

 a family with more than 2000 eggs in a year, 

 and 100 chickens ;" but from our experience we 

 think this an overestimate, especially for this 

 cold climate. From 80 to 100 eggs per hen a 

 year would be a fair estimate for any number 

 of fowls kept together. 



We find in statements from practical writers 

 recorded in our American journals, several in- 

 stances of very extraordinary products of hens, 

 which will enable us to form some judgment 



