46 Barred and White Plymouth Rocks. 



CARE. ' 



General" Treatment.— In the general treatment of Plymouth 

 Rocks care should be the first duty of the breeder ; for it has much 

 to do with improving their looks, size, weight and useful qualities. 

 Care, however, does not imply that they should be stuffed like a 

 bolster nor coddled by over zeal or mistaken kindness. Care is that 

 which bestows a kind hand and supplies their daily wants. 



Cleanliness. — We cannot too strongly impress on the breeder 

 the absolute necessity of scrupulous cleanliness in and about the 

 fowl house. One may feed his fowls on the milk and nectar of the 

 gods, all the developing powder and egg food that Yankee ingenuity 

 could devise and all the varied cereals of the earth, and without 

 cleanliness, all would be of no lasting use. 



The floor should be kept clean, the perches frequently saturated 

 with kerosene, the walls thoroughly whitewashed and the birds 

 dusted with insect powder. Many a piping chicken and many an 

 emaciated hen can lawfully curse uncleanliness for the lice on their 

 bodies and the ailments which mark them for life. 



Exercise. — Ever since the day Adam quitted his rosy couch at 

 Eden, all living things, the festive tramp included, are forced to take 

 more or less exercise to get their daily food. Even the sloth, the very 

 embodiment of indolence and ease, takes exercise by climbing 

 through the branches of the Imbauba (Cecropia) tree. 



One of the secrets of raising Plymouth Rocks and other large 

 fowls successfully, is to make them be up and doing, with a " heart 

 for every scratch." If allowed to remain inactive and receive plenty ■ 

 of hearty food, they will become loggy and lazy and fat. Excessive 

 obesity in man, beast or bird is a disease, for it affects the repro- 

 ductive organs to the verge of sterility ; it affects the egg producing 

 functions of the hens ; it causes inflammation of the egg passage, 

 •'bagging down," and frequently apoplexy and death. 



If, however, it becomes necessary to keep Plymouth Rocks in 

 close confinement, a wise provision of the keeper would be to make 

 them scratch for a large share of their supper through the day. 

 Broken corn, tail wheat, or millet buried in the loose earth of the 

 floor, or in a heap of sand, coal ashes, leaves, cut straw or chaff, 

 would give them exercise by scratching for the kernels. The work 

 of scratching would produce warmth, and warmth is conceded to be 

 one of the best elements for the production of eggs. Inactivity is 

 the bane of domestic fowls ; it engenders vicious habits and morbid 



