POULTRY-YARD. 47 



gardly practice, and recoils upon the owner. 

 Poor cattle are signs of poor-witted owners, 

 and the same rule will apply to poultry. I 

 have been frequently asked how much food 

 is requisite for any given number of fowls. 

 To this I reply, that I have no certain rule, 

 for I keep it continually before them. Some 

 intelligent farmers, who are aware of the 

 advantages of this practice, throw down the 

 corn in the ear in a heap, and permit *he 

 fowls to help themselves. This, however, 

 invites mice and other vermin, and is a slov- 

 enly and wasteful mode of proceeding. 



To keep them constantly supplied with 

 food, I had been in the habit of keeping a 

 box, covered with a coarse grating, con- 

 stantly filled with grain ; but it was liable 

 to many objections, and did not suit me. I 

 looked into the English works on poultry, 

 and found an apparatus which appeared to 

 answer very well the purposes for which it 

 was intended, but the mechanism was al- 

 most as complicated as that of a watch, and 

 it was too costly. The box is locked above, 

 to keep out thieves, and is closed below, to 



