56 



THE ILIJNOIS FARMER. 



Ffb. 



I 



IlifU'i 



Fro:n tlio Country Gcutleinan. 



All About Hens. 



Did tlic readers of t'ne " Couatry Gontloiii'in'' 

 over notice that hens ure not alhidGil t) in t!ie Old 

 T(3stamcnt ? In the Nch- Testament tliny are ic- 

 fcrrcd to in t'lr.t woU kiio^vn npostropho of our 

 Savior to Jerusalem (Matt. 20), oV), and tlie erod- 

 ing of the cock is mentioned in connection with 

 Peter's denial of his ina^^ter, and as markinp; the 

 watches of the night. And yet t!ie Jews could not 

 say, as did one of the ciiaractcrs in Sh-.d-;s;>e:irc'.s 

 " Winters Tade," "I have no pheasant, cock or 

 hen," as the barn-door fowl W!>.s a na.tive of tlic 

 East, and the present inhabitants of tlie Holy 

 Land cherish it as their most common associate, 

 and substitute it and its' eggs for nearly every other 

 kind of meat. Neither are there any representa- 

 tives of poultry in the discovered Egyptian sculp- 

 tures or painting, neither of camel-, aiul as the 

 latter were known in Egypt, cerhiiidy as early tg 

 the time of Abraham, it is no proof that barn-door 

 fowls v/ere ever rare with that ancient jjcoplc. 



Among the (Jreeks they v,-cre liigldy esteemed, 

 and cocks and hens were imported fi'om Egypt and 

 India. Tise fowl house was so contrived as to re- 

 ceive from the kitchen a snpfily of smoke v.'liich 

 was supposed to be agreeable to tis'se delicate 

 foreigners. Fifty fowls was the lijnit allowed to 



one fariii-\ard, a; id on 



lie 



uivc. 



to six hen.-". 



They were put to sit about tiie verna! equinox dur- 

 ing the first ciuarter of the moon, in nests carefully 

 made, and into whicli as a tallsimin against thun- 

 der an iron nail and sprigs of laurel were thixiwn. 

 In the story of the ass, the ox and tlie laborer, in 

 the introduction to the Arabian ]S"ig]its, the cock 

 has fifty l\ens, and rebulces his master foi' his ob- 

 servienee to one wife in tins wise: '"Eyallah! 

 our master has little sense. I have tifty wives, and 

 I please this and provoke that, v.-liile h(^ has but 

 one wife and cannot manage with her.'' It would 

 appear from this, and the accounts we have of the 

 Greek farm-yards, that fifty was the usual number 

 of hens or cocks and hens thought necessary for a 

 single homestead. 



The ancients had many superstitions about hens. 

 Plutarch, among other curious things, " whose 

 causes we cannot discover," mentions that of the 

 " ben's turning round with a straw in her mouth 

 after she had laid ;" and also asserts that " winds 

 passing through hens at breeding time impregnate." 



Phiny says, ' ' the hens of country houses have a 

 certain ceremonious religion. When they have 



laid an egg they fall a trembling and quaking and 

 all to shake tliemsclves. They turn about also oa 

 in procession to be purified, and keep a ceremony 

 of hallowing (see hallowing, i. e., cackling) as well 

 themselves as their eggs." 



According to the notions of the Ilomans, (tally- 

 irg r.i a measiu-e with ours), a good and kindly hen 

 was known )iy her coml) being straight and up- 

 right, ar.d double crested. The extra loed (see 

 Dorkings), were always jireferred, and there was 

 also a dwarfish kind, called by the English travel- 

 ers, " gig ]:n\s, cxtraoi-dinary little, and yet fruit- 

 ful, a thing not seen in any ctiicr kind of fowl, 

 wliich lay and miss not, but seldom sit they on any 

 eggs ; aihl if they do, it is liurtful to them." 



Tlie brst eggs, they thought, to put rmdcr hens 

 when they sit, were those that were laid ten days 

 b<^fore at t!ie utmost. "For neither old eggs nor 

 yet very ;)ew laid be good for that purpose." 

 Sometimes a.a iicmy as twenty-live wei'o pr.t under 

 one hen ; luit the general rule was to "lot them 

 cover thirteen eggs, howbeit never under nine." 



Tlir.t v.l.'ieh trrmbh d the licr.s of anii(iuity, as 

 well as the '' biddies" of o\ir era, v.';is '' a certain 

 distillation of a p'degmatic humor, which causcth 

 tlie ' ]ii;>,' and most of all between harvest time 

 and vini;;ge." The cure was to keep them liungry 

 and long fasting ; also to let them ])erch in a 

 snu,ky phice, especially v/hore the fume v/as made 

 oi' l);:y I'Mvcs ;;nd tlie herb of savine. It is good 

 moreover to dravr a little ([uill or feather tlirough 

 tiielr nosu-i!s, across, and to remove or shift it 

 every dr.y. As for tiu ir meat, let it be .some cloves 

 of garlic ih.reil among their corn, or ''else let 

 their i.ical be well infused and steeped in water 

 wr.eiein an owl hath waslicd and bathed herself.'' 

 Pliny. 



In the ear!;/ and purer history of tlie Koman 

 Commonwerdi!i, one of the sumptuous laws provi- 

 ded that no man should have his table served with 

 any fowl, " unless it vren; one hen, and the same a 

 '• runner only, and not fed up and crammed fat." 

 Cooping uj) poultry was then recently devised by 

 one Strabo, a gentleman of Rome, and the statute 

 was leveled against this practice of " keeping 

 fowds witliin nsirrov.- comj)ass and cages, as prison- 

 ers, to winch creatures nature had allowed the 

 ■til and air for their scope and habitation." 



< ag 



(!|;^^Chickens should, in winter, wdiere a quan- 

 tity are kept together, be provided with a roosting 

 place, open on the south and closed on the north. 

 Th.eir own warmth will protect them from the 

 cold when thus provided, and hen lice and other 

 vermin will not then trouble them. 



