14 POULTRY BREEDING IN 



dietary sca'le is conformable to the confined state, and, 

 in fact, providing poultry with an equivalent of such 

 food as they could pick up when in a free state. The 

 poultry home I suggest is applicable alike to amateurs 

 and large breeders, and is intended for the accommoda- 

 tion of one cock and six hens for breeding, or twelve 

 hens for laying, and twenty-four to thirty half-grown 

 chickens ; and as the same principle must be carried 

 out, whether in small or large establishments, it follows 

 that where it requires only one* home for seven, twelve, 

 or thirty birds, it will require one hundred homes for 

 seven hundred, twelve hundred, or three thousand birds, 

 and so on in proportion to the magnitude of the breeding 

 establishment. This plan has, moreover, the advantage 

 of keeping the races and sexes separate, of affording 

 an easy inspection, and of extending and multiplying 

 the homes gradually with the growth of the establish- 

 ment, besides facilitating the labor in feeding and hatch- 

 ing, and the sanitary requirements. Another erroneous 

 idea entertained is, that poultry will never thrive well 

 in a confined state ; whilst, in fact, they will thrive much 

 better, and be much more productive than when left 

 roaming about in all weathers in search of food, pro- 

 vided the directions given hereafter are implicitly fol- 

 lowed : however, it is so far true, that poultry confined 

 in a damp and ill-ventilated place, and having a deficient 

 and ill-adapted diet to their confined state, can never 

 thrive; but whose fault is this? Why, it might as well 

 be said that a person cannot thrive during solitary con- 

 finement, when it is well known that prisoners with a 

 regular diet, comfortable cells, and appropriate labor, 



