GENERAL VIEWS. 



Millet. Fowls prefer raw millet to that which 

 lias been boiled, though it would evidently be a 

 saving in other respects to boil it, as boiling in- 

 creases its bulk above one-half. We have found 

 millet excellent food for young chickens. 



Rice. Boiled rice might be supposed to be a 

 very nourishing food for poultry, though it is 

 too expensive for daily feeding, and they are 

 at first very fond of it ; yet their liking for rice 

 does not continue, and in a week or two they 

 come to dislike it. One reason may be that it is 

 too clogging ; and were it mixed with some less 

 nourishing substance, such as bran, the fowls 

 would continue to relish it just as well as they 

 do barley. 



Potatoes. As potatoes contain a great pro- 

 portion of nutriment comparatively to their bulk 

 and price, they constitute one of the most eco- 

 nomical articles upon which poultry can be fed. 

 The poultry-keepers in England consider po- 

 tatoes excellent for promoting laying in fowls ; 

 while M. Parmentier advises that they should 

 only be given for the purpose of fattening, since 

 he thinks they will render the fowls so fat as to 

 hinder them from laying. 



Potatoes are, according to our experience, a 

 cheap, wholesome, and nutritious food for fowls, 

 though it would require experiments similar to 

 those already detailed with respect to grain to 

 ascertain the quantity which each fowl would 

 consume when potatoes are supplied with over- 

 abundance. If fed alone, without grain, they 

 are very apt to make them scour. 



And we have found it indispensable not only to 

 feed them in a boiled state, but hot; not too hot, 

 however, as they are so stupid as to burn their 

 mouths, if permitted. It is likewise necessary 

 to break or mash them a little, for they will not 

 unfrequently leave a potato when thrown down 

 unbroken ; taking it, probably, for a stone, since 

 the moment the skin is broken, and the white 

 of the interior is brought into view, they will 

 pounce upon it greedily. 



Fowls are not fond of raw potatoes, beets, 

 carrots, or parsnips, though they relish carrots 

 when cut into very small pieces, and mixed 

 with corn meal or wheat middlings. Boiled 

 vegetables, mashed with bran or meal of any 

 kind, are excellent food for poultry, and answer 



well for their evening meal, when grain has 

 been given them in the morning. 



Green Food. From seeing fowls when at lib- 

 erty devour plants and leaves, it is 'generally 

 supposed that they will eat any thing that i.s 

 green; but such is not the case, as I have 

 found by experiment. Among the plants which 

 they reject, are the leaves of strawberries, celery, 

 parsnips, carrots, and potatoes. They are more 

 partial to the leaves of lettuce, endive, spin- 

 ach, cabbage, and chick-weed. They also eat 

 grass, purslain, pig-weed ; and M. Reaumur says, 

 " that if hens have a green plot to go a-grazing 

 in from morning till night, which they are nat- 

 urally inclined to do, and which they will be nat- 

 urally compelled to do if they are sparingly fed 

 on grain, the expense of keeping them will not 

 be half what it would be if they were furnished 

 with as much boiled barley as they choose to 

 eat." 



Poultry, however, are none the better for be- 

 ing fed entirely on raw greens, as it is very apt 

 to relax and scour them, and cabbage and spin- 

 ach are still more relaxing to them when boil- 

 ed than raw. M. Parmentier recommends, and 

 this accords with our own experience, giving 

 them all the refuse of the kitchen, such as bits 

 of spoiled fruit, parings of apples, and the like 5 

 but I have found that my fowls are not fond of 

 the latter. 



The left pieces and crumbs of bread, pie-crust, 

 fragments of pudding and dumplings, all fowls 

 are fond of. There can be little doubt but that 

 biscuit-dust from ship-stores, which consists of 

 biscuits mouldered into meal, mixed with frag- 

 ments still unbroken, would be excellent food 

 for poultry, if soaked in boiling water, and given 

 them hot. It can sometimes be had in largo 

 sea-ports, and at a very reasonable price. It 

 will be no detriment to this material though it 

 be full of weevils and their grubs, of which fowl j 

 are fonder than of the biscuit itself. 



Butchers' -meat. Fowl, and Fish. A fowl ap- 

 pears to be delighted when, after having scratch- 

 ed up the ground, she discovers an earth-worm, 

 on which she does not fail to pounce with avid- 

 ity ; and from the ravenous voracity with which 

 they pounce upon any scrap of meat they dis- 

 cover, we might suppose that they are more 



