FOOD OF FOWLS. 141 



barnyard, and are allowed to rim about 

 the fields in spring and summer during a 

 part of the day, as recommended in the pre- 

 ceding pages, they will scarcely consume 

 more than half that quantity. 



The best practice we believe to be, not 

 to confine them for any length of time to 

 any particular kind of food, but to vary it 

 every week or two ; or, mix up in one 

 bin equal quantities of corn, wheat, rye, bar- 

 ley, oats, and buckwheat, and from this fill 

 up the feeding-hopper already described. 

 If the food is previously soaked in water, I 

 have no doubt that it would go much far- 

 ther than in a dry state, but I have as yet 

 made no precise experiments on this subject. 

 Once or twice a. week it is a good plan to 

 give them raw potatoes, chopped up into 

 small p^eqes, or, what is better, potatoes 

 which have been steamed or boiled. Sweet 

 and rotten apples, all the refuse vegetables 

 of the kitchen, fat skimrned from the kettles, 

 and tainted pieces of meat, will be greedily 

 devoured by fowls, and may be given to 

 them without stint. In short, there is hard- 



