532 Transactions of the American Institute. 



the nits also, and does not injure the chicken in the least. The 

 oldest chickens now are about like quails in size, and very healthy. 

 We find poultry-keeping an agreeable and profitable employment in 

 connection with farming. 



The Chairman — These statements are not only interesting and 

 valuable as affording further proof of what may be done with poultry, 

 but they are also models for conciseness. I wish every person who 

 addresses the Club (and we can't have too many of these records of 

 experience) would say what he or she has to say in as condensed and 

 straightforward a way as possible ; and then let them further imitate 

 Messrs. Pratt and Flomerfelt, and write on one side of the paper 

 only. A sheet with writing on both sides provokes profanity in the 

 printing office ; and, beside that, I notice that the gentlemen of the 

 press (who are generally models of patience, but who always seem 

 hurried and overworked, and without whom the Club would soon be 

 very dead indeed) not infrequently cast aside such objectionable manu- 

 scripts. 



A member asked the broad question, what breed or cross of chick- 

 ens is most profitable, all things considered ? 



Mr. D. B. Bruen — I repeat what I have been saying, off and on, 

 for the last fifty years, that it is more in care than in crosses. I have 

 kept fowls almost from my youth up, losing few by disease, and having 

 always plenty of spring chickens and omelet timber in abundance. 

 My hens bring me each, on an average, 147 eggs a year. From fifty- 

 seven, in one year, I got Q67 dozen and eight eggs. I have never 

 bothered my brains about breeds. I fight shy of the fowl dealers iu 

 eggs at six dollars a dozen. Feed well, keep clean quarters, give 

 plenty of range, give water three times a day, supply pounded oyster 

 shells, in winter a dust heap, fumigate with sulphur, if by any chance 

 lice appear, and, my word for it, you will have eggs enough and to 

 spare. I have a neighbor who keeps nothing but white Leghorns, 

 and when he wants chickens he puts their eggs out to be hatched by 

 a Dorking, or other good getting breed. He has no trouble about 

 deterioration, but he breeds well. The reason people do not make 

 chickens pay is because they make them shift for themselves. 



Mr. Henry Stewart — I kept a Dorking hen setting steadily till she 

 hatched out 100 chicks. This took her about three months. At the 

 end of that time I moved away from that part of the country. My 

 successor may have kept her at the same business till this day, for all 

 I know to the contrary. 



Dr. J. M. Crowell — When certain things are to be accomplished, 



