A COMMERCIAL POINT OF VIEW. 113 



feeding, which differs also very much with our own, but 

 which I shall have to notice under a subsequent heading. 

 In conclusion, I feel in justice bound to say that these 

 artificial living protectors are most efficient to shelter 

 chickens in the daytime, and in the evening they are 

 placed with their charge in a shallow box filled with hay, 

 from which they do not move till the door of the room is 

 opened next morning. I must not omit to mention that 

 the chickens are not intrusted to the mother, or a leader, 

 before they are a week old, and then only in fine weather. 



4. FEEDING AND FATTENING. 



The system of feeding poultry in France is far more 

 judicious than our own ; and I may safely assert that I 

 have not noticed a single instance of poultry being fed on 

 whole grain, as it is the case with us. On inquiring the 

 reason why they fed by meal made into a stiff paste, I 

 was informed that whole grain would be too expensive, 

 produce less eggs, too much fat, and cause more disease 

 when the fowls are fed ad libitum, so as to completely 

 fill their crop, which renders the digestion difficult. The 

 food is mostly composed of about one half bran and one 

 half buckwheat, barley, or oatmeal made into a stiff 

 paste, with which the fowls are fed twice a day, namely, 

 at sunrise and sunset ; this diet is given indiscriminately 

 to old and young. In some farms, where the poultry 

 have not the run of meadows, they are provided with 

 a certain amount of animal and vegetable food, which 

 system is so consonant with my own notion that I will 

 now describe that followed at an establishment already 

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