352 



i\EV. ENGLAND FARMER 



APRII< »», 1S40. 



the wall and the edge of the nests, for the purpose 

 of sweeping, cleansing and white-woshing it; and 

 allowing the nests to project into the room in tlie 

 centre, where they should be well boarded and se- 

 cured by lids to cover the nests from sight. The 

 passage spoken of would forma sort of alcove, with 

 the nests presenting a froijt towards the wall ; but 

 by lifting the lids of the nest, a view of the nests 

 may be had, and the eggs obtained from the hack 

 of the nests towaids the centre of the roojn. This 

 passage should be guarded at the entrance by a 

 door with an aperture at the bottom, sufScieiitly 

 large to admit the easy passage of the largest mem- 

 ber of the flock ; and should also be lighted by a 

 small window in the north end. ■ Tim hen is a prudo 

 and delights in secresy and mystery about her nest, 

 and if watched, and without the advantages of such 

 concealment as is agreeable, will cease laying. — 

 She is, luoreover, like certain politicians in ))ublic 

 life, delighted at the chances to "dodge;" and to 

 please her in this particular, an aperture should be 

 made near tlie tloor at ino north end of the passage 

 for her to retreat into the centre of the room, so 

 that on finding herself pursued in the passage, she 

 Djay dodge out, without being obliged to fly over 

 the person's head or between his feet. This meth- 

 od of arranging the nests secures all the desired 

 advantages of secresy and security, although the 

 hen were as fastidious as a hypocrifp. 



The hen-house should be provided with largo 

 boxes, which for thirty hens, should be each about 

 three feet square and one foot high. One to con- 

 tain wheat or corn and oats; another, dry sandy 

 soil and wood ashes ; another, old lime, mortar, 

 small light colored pebbles or gravel, pounded 

 crockery, glass ware, bones, and clam and oyster 

 shells ; all or either of then], as they may be conve- 

 nient ; and the other to receive the trumbs from 

 the kitchen. A trough cut from solid timber, will 

 be found the best vessel to contain water, as it will 

 not be likely to leak, and in the winter season the 

 ice can be cut from it without injury. 



Neither of the boxes should ever be filled more 

 than half full, or suffered to became ([uite empty ; 

 for if filled, the hens will waste their food — and if 

 allowed to become empty, they will niiss their sup- 

 ply of food, and when again supplied will eat too 



much, in expectation of another similar famine 



By keeping a supply before them they will pick 

 what ihey need, consume iimch less food, and keep 

 in better condition than when fed occasionally^ 

 though plentifully. The soil and ashes are neces- 

 sary for the hens to dust themselves in; and the 

 lime and pebbles, to aid in the digestion of their 

 food, and to supply shells to their eggs. 



Hens suffer from vermin when shut up in filthy 

 pens, and care should be exercised to keep their 

 room clean and sweet, by sweeping, changing the 

 litter in the nests, and whitewashing every part in 

 a thorough manner. A sick hen is always dirty, 

 and a dirty hen is very liable to become sick. The 

 cottagers of Scotland always liave eggs in abun- 

 dance, and of superior quality ; and the reason as- 

 signed is, that the hens share the dwelling of the 

 owner, and lay their eggs among the clean straw of 

 the children's crib. 



There should be affixed n^rthe roofof tlie hen- 

 house, several poles for roost^, under v\'hich should 

 be a scaffold for holding the manure. This ma- 

 nure is highly esteemed by many as a dressing for 

 onion beds, and I believe is sometimes used in the 

 arts. At one corner of the room there should be a 

 ladder, reaching from the floor to the ends of the 



roosts, at an angle of about foriy-five degrees, for 

 the accommodation of young pullets and heavy old 

 hen.s, and for those who, for rca.sons best known to 

 themselves, come down from the roost at too late 

 an hour for them to fly to their places again. 



When the owner desires to raise chickens to in- 

 crease his flock and supply his table, the period 

 from the last of March to the first of June should 

 be taken for sotting the hens, and a larger number 

 of eggs than usual allowed to remain in the nest. — 

 When a hen clucks, and remains on the nest, in- 

 stead of allotting her to set in that situation where 

 she will be constantly liable to disturbance from 

 other hens, I prepare a hard smooth nest in a box, 

 in which I ]/luce the eggs, and in the evening I 

 rai.se the hen, remove the eggs that are under her, 

 put the hen in the box I have prepared, and the 

 box in the original nest. By the next evening the 

 hen has bi come attached to her new nest, which 

 may then Ue removed to stmie secure place, away 

 from other hens, and where she may find room for 

 exercise and a supply ot loou anU urink. 1 have 

 frequently itsed empty flour barrels as shelter for 

 setting hens, by turning them down upon the side 

 in the yard, ami placing the box inside. There is 

 quite a benefit in setting a number of hens at the 

 same time, as advantage may bo taken of their si- 

 nujltaneous hatching to put two broods of chickens 

 to one hen, and remove all the unhatched eggs to 

 the nest of a setting heii, as there is frequently seve- 

 ral days' difference required in perfecting the ope- 

 ration of hatching. The depraved disposition and 

 careless habits of some hens at times, makes such a 

 course desirable, as they appear to he entirely de- 

 ficient in the organ of philoprogenitiveness. 



Chickens may be weaned when from four to six 

 weeks old, by providing them with an enclosure to 

 protect them from the attacks of the older fowle, 

 who acknowledge mi right but that of might; and 

 also, so far removed from the motiier hen as to be 

 beyond the sound of lier clucking. Without some 

 efl^orts to wean the chickens, the mother hen will 

 keep from laying a long time, and labor to procure 

 subsistence for her brood when there is no occasion 

 for it. 



When it is desired th.it a hen should not set, al- 

 though disposed to do so, it is only necessary to 

 confine her "ith one or two others and a protector, 

 in a box having grates on one side, and feed them 

 well for two or three days, when she will return in 

 laying again. 



I have already intimated the ood that should be 

 furnished to hens, but that I may be distinctly un- 

 derstood, 1 will siate my own practice, and some of 

 tlie results. I procure pinched wheat and seeds 

 thrown out by the cleansers at a flour mill, for the 

 orincipal fond of my hens, throwing into the box 

 occasionally, a peck or two ot corn and oats. For 

 my chickens, I prepare a dough of boiled potatoes 

 and corn meal, until they arc a week or two old, 

 when I feed them with wheat and such crumbs as 

 are made in the kitchen. With this method of 

 feeding, I have obtained fr«m something less than 

 one hundred and fifty laying hens, over fiineteen 

 hundred eggs in the moi.th of January, a month se- 

 lected as usually the most unpropitioiis in the year. 

 My estimate of the cost of eggs through the year, 

 is four cents a dozen; and chickens weighing one 

 and a half pound each, six cents. 



In my management of hens, I find great pleasure 

 as well as profit. It is my invariable practice, in 

 my visits to the hen-house, to treat them with a lit- 

 tle music, in the way of a familiar whistle. This 



becomes to them, in a short time, a weil known ca] 

 and I have often " put out my whistle" in a hearty 

 laugh, to see my flock of nearly two hundred fowl 

 flying towards me from all directions, when I hav 

 whistled for them. To make this signal effectua 

 a few crumbs or grain should be thrown to them a 

 an encouragement. In the winter I never allo> 

 my hens to go out upon the snow, excepting i: 

 moist warm days; and in the summer I let then 

 out every day just before sunset, when they hurried 

 ly range through the garden in search of bugf 

 grubs and grass, but are too sparing of time to at 

 tempt scratching the beds. 



Willis, in one of his letters publisiied in the Ne? 

 Vork Mirror, gives an amusing and graphic descrip 

 tion of the character and habits of a protector of ; 

 barn-yard flock. But divested entirely of the ideal 

 there will be found as great a diflerence in thi 

 he.ilih, habits and disposition of different hens, a. 

 in their size or color. These difl^erences may bi 

 easier learned and better understood by the atten 

 tive observer, than they can be described. Of tin 

 breed of hens, however, I give a decided preferenci 

 to what is called, for what reason I know nut, tin 

 Poland hen. 



With such arrangements as I have mentioned 

 or a similar plan in a barn or «ood shed chamber 

 every family in a city or village, may, at a triflin; 

 exp-"n3C, keep at least twenty hens, that w ill furnisl 

 each year about three thousand eggs, and not fa 

 from two hundred plump, full grown chickens fo 

 the table. Yet farmers and others have kept hem 

 ranging through their barns, destroying their haj 

 and grain, and scratching and dc^trriying their gar 

 dens, proving an unprofitable pest to themselves anc 

 a nuisance to their neighbors, when by proper man- 

 agement all these troubles would be avoided, anc 

 the fowls would form a source of enjoyment anc 

 profit, of too much profit for any thrifty farmer oi 

 good natured married man to dispei.se with. 



Bangor, March, 1840. J. S. S. 



For the New England Farmer. 



ENQUIRY. 

 Some twenty or thirty years since, I recollect 

 having ri^ai an account of a great hunting or shoot- 

 ing match, which thg inhabitants of Rowley and 

 vicinity hold, perhaps a century since. At that 

 time a very great number of birds, squirrels and 

 other creatures were killed. Their success was 

 the subject of general congratulation, supposing aa 

 most did at that time, that these creatures were the 

 gri'atest enemies which the farmer had to contend 

 with, and thought that they could now look for- 

 ward for crops greatly increased for several years 

 if not through future generations, as it was not like- 

 ly these would soon if ever become so numerous 

 again. But the result was, as every well instruct- 

 ed man at the present time would expect, that the 

 next year every kind of grain and fruit fell a sacri- 

 fice to worms and insects, — a less obvious but a 

 much more powerful and unmanageable part of crea- 

 tion ; — the locust, the cankerworm and caterpillar, 

 each devouring what the other had led. The ac- 

 count of this was to me highly interesting at the 

 time, and I should be very glad to see it again, not 

 only because it was a very well written article, 

 containing many observations of much practical 

 utility, but because if brought before the public 

 again, I must think it would help forward a change 

 in public sentiment and practice, which is certainly 



