110 FOOD FOR CHICKENS. 



Chopped chives are also highly recommend- 

 ed. They should also be furnished with 

 earth worms, chopped into fine pieces. 

 The decided taste which chickens and fowls 

 have for insects, worms, and grubs, has sug- 

 gested in France a curious mode of multi- 

 plying them for use. A sort of paste is 

 made with yeast, oats, and bran, mixed up 

 with horsedung. This is placed in a proper 

 vessel, and if the weather be warm, it will, at 

 the end of three days, be filled with worms. 

 Another method is practised on a large scale, 

 In a square pit of suitable size, and lined 

 either with wood or stone, are placed alter- 

 nate layers of chopped straw, horse-dung, 

 earth mixed with blood, pumice of apples, or 

 grapes, intestines of animals, &c., until it 

 is full. The worms generated are kept foi 

 cold weather. 



At the end of a month or six weeks, the 

 hen may be liberated. If the portable coop 

 be employed, it may be propped up with a 

 stick, and the hen allowed to return to it ol 

 her own accord, when it may be let down, 

 and kept so until the dew of the morning is 



