[II 



FANCIERS' JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 



All such works are calculated to do move harm than good. 

 Far better encourage them to turn their minds to the beau- 

 ties of nature and the handiwork of their Creator ; encourage 

 them in their fancies ; a few pairs of pigeons or rabbits, some 

 good work on the same, will be of far more benefit than 

 reading the hobgoblin stuff such as the country is flooded 

 with at the present time. 



Thomas S. Armstrong. 



Trenton, N. J. 



HOW I MANAGE MY POULTRY. 



I will tell you how I manage my hens, and they always 

 lay the year round, in winter as well as in summer. The 

 first of April I had two broods of chickens hatched. As 

 soon as they were large enough, I killed all the old hens. 

 When one wanted to set, I had her killed. I think young 

 hens lay better than old ones. The chickens are a cross be- 

 tween Brahma hens and Leghorn crower. My coop is on 

 the north side of the barn, but the south side is much better, 

 if one can have it so. I give them warm water two or three 

 times a day, and keep corn by them all the time, and also 

 give them a few oats occasionally, and what crumbs are left 

 from the table. I throw old bones to them to pick, as they 

 are fond of them. Three of the pullets commenced to lay 

 the first of September; the other four the last of September. 

 These have laid three, four, and five eggs a day ever since. 

 They haven't been outdoors once since snow came. I think 

 hens won't lay unless they have bones, meat, sun, and a 

 little salt .n their food. — Mrs. E. G. Bennett, in Maine 

 Farmer. 



BREEDING TURKEYS FOR PROFIT. 



The Land and Water says : No kind of poultry will yield 

 a profit unless they are attended to with some degree of 

 common sense and in a business-like manner. The absolute 

 rule has hitherto been for farmers to consider poultry as the 

 least remunerative part of their farm stock. Most of them 

 know no reason for saying so, but "they say so," conse- 

 quently they receive little or no attention. We were lately 

 at a large farm where this was most truly exemplified. The 

 pigs, 160 in number, were well housed, well littered down, 

 and well fed ; the cows 87 in number, the same ; and even 

 the punkahs, worked by steam power, were continually fan- 

 ning the poor beasts to keep them cool and drive the flies 

 off; but the poor fowls, and especially the turkeys, had not 

 where to lay their heads. Definitely, the poor creatures in- 

 variably roosted upon the iron hurdles near the back of the 

 steam engine-room, and the owner said, in reply to some 

 questions as to how many he had reared, " Oh, drat the 

 things I They are no use to any one ; I wish the foxes had 

 the lot." The common-sense way to have turned the tur- 

 keys to a good account would be first to make a proper 

 roosting and set of laying compartments in a large, perfectly 

 dry, and airy building ; and on the premises alluded to a 

 good cart-shed abutted on to the engine-room, which could 

 have been converted, at a small cost, into a most excellent 

 house, and, from its contiguity to the warm room in ques- 

 tion, it would have been most invaluable for such a purpose, 

 while the carts could have been far better provided for away 

 from the warmth. If the soil is tolerably dry and the farm 

 well drained, turkeys may be raised with considerable profit. 

 The hens lay freely, and if properly attended to they lay 



early, which is one of the great secrets towards success, as 

 the hens soon become broody and ready to take their nest of 

 eggs. They are most exemplary sitters, and when once 

 broody they may be kept on sitting for four months on any 

 kind of eggs, and if they are made to take proper exercise 

 to find their food and water twice a day, they do not take 

 any harm from the continuous sitting; on the contrary, 

 nearly always come off in better condition at the end of the 

 time than when first set to hatch. The young are not more 

 difficult to rear than other poultry. They must not be al- 

 lowed to become saturated with rain too often while young 

 (neither should any other poultry), and they must have an 

 unlimited supply of fresh varied green food, specially lettuce, 

 dandelion leaves, dock, young nettles, and onion tops ; and 

 they must be entirely fed on soft food for some weeks, very 

 gradually introducing whole grain, in small portions for the 

 first few months ; even when six months old they should not 

 have an entire meal of hard grain, as their powers for grind- 

 ing their food are very limited at first, and it is those per- 

 sons who force on with the unground grain at too early an 

 age, to save themselves a little trouble, that complain of the 

 delicacy of turkeys. Look at the beautiful barle}- and maize 

 meal, and the fine and coarse food the farmers lavish on 

 their pigs ; the same would rear turkeys well ; and, by the 

 time the corn is being carried, the young birds will be ready 

 to subsist almost wholly upon what they glean from the 

 fields ; a small boy or girl should be trained to know them, 

 and quietly drive them to the fields required to be cleared, 

 and should remain among them to protect and watch them, 

 and to drive them back to their properly sheltered quarters 

 for the night. With this kind of management turkeys may 

 be bred in large numbers on a mixed farm, with profit. 



A CODE ON POULTRY-KEEPING. 



SHOWING HOW EVERY PULLET REARED MAT BE MADE TO 

 RETURN A PROFIT OP £1 IN EIGHTEEN MONTHS. 



The French are pre-eminently celebrated for their poul- 

 try, both as to the quality and quantity they produce. 



The principle adopted by them in their successful and 

 economical rearing may be explained in a few words — early 

 hatching, early killing, liberal feeding, stimulating food, both 

 for fattening and egg-producing. They keep only the best 

 breeds, celebrated either as egg-layers, or quick growth to 

 maturity. They keep their stock always young, and by lib- 

 eral feeding with stimulating food, both flesh and eggs are 

 produced with the regularity of machinery ; risk of disease 

 being prevented by the rapidity with which they fatten and 

 realize, keeping up a constant succession. 



The domestic fowl is admittedly of all birds the most gen- 

 erally useful ; but although so commonly kept, and highly 

 appreciated, it is quite a rare exception to find any in this 

 country who know how to rear, and keep them profitably, 

 even at the exorbitant prices they at present command. 



The object in keeping poultry should be to produce their 

 flesh and eggs as expeditiously as possible, and at the smallest 

 cost ; and it is only from want of proper knowledge of their 

 management that eggs and poultry are the rich man's deli- 

 cacy, rather than what they should be — food for the million. 

 I say want of knowledge alone, because no greater trouble, 

 and far less expense, is involved in making them a source of 

 profit than of loss. 



Fowls should be looked upon as mere machines for con- 



