PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 311 



loss is sustained by neglecting to furnish good warm apartments 

 for the hennery, which should always front the south, and a por- 

 tion of the front should be in glass to give plenty of light and 

 warmth to the apartment by the rays of the sun. It is also 

 important that the roost should be properly constructed; the 

 best plan is to lay the poles similar to a flight of stairs, com- 

 mencing about two feet from the floor and continuing them to 

 the peak; the poles should be about two and a half inches in 

 diameter, and always cut from the woods, and the bark left on. 



Great care should be taken to eradicate lice from the hennery, 

 they are destructive to a healthy condition of the fowls ; when 

 infested with lice they will not lay well, and these little pests 

 often become so numerous that their attacks so exhaust the hens 

 that many of them die. As a preventive in the hennery, the 

 roosting poles should be well greased at the ends where they 

 rest on the uprights ; grease should frequently be put in these 

 joints ; the house should be thoroughly washed with lime, spring 

 and fall ; and a box four feet square and ten inches deep should 

 always be provided for the hennery, and kept half full of wood 

 ashes ; this is highly necessary for winter, as they delight to 

 wallow in this, and at the same time it will free them from lice. 



Feed, and the manner of feeding, is another important con- 

 sideration. A box should be provided for feed in the hennery, 

 and should always contain something for them to eat ; their feed 

 should be varied ; no one kind should be given them for more 

 than a week at a time. The number of eggs depends much on 

 the feed that is given them. It is only in winter that poultry 

 needs our especial care. It is highly necessary that they be pro- 

 vided with meat and vegetables ; nature does this for them in 

 summer — the angle-worm and insects for their meat, and the grass 

 for vegetable diet, is abundantly supplied. These are as neces- 

 sary in winter as in summer, and should always be supplied, if 

 we expect them to furnish us with eggs. For winter use a few 

 cabbages should be stored for them, which they are very fond of, 

 also onions and carrots are good ; pigs' and sheeps' harslets may 

 often be furnished on the farm. A very excellent article may be 

 procured here from packing-houses called scrap cake, at a very 

 cheap rate. With this attention, hens will lay as many eggs in 

 winter as in summer. 



It is said that two eggs furnish as much nutriment as a pound 

 of beef. Eight eggs weigh one pound ; a good hen will produce 



