FRENCH POULTRY. 263 



after each meal, washed and kept sweet, as 

 fowls will not thrive if their food is sour and 

 dirty. Milk may be given as drink ; it is sup- 

 posed to whiten the flesh, and certainly it assists 

 in the fattening. Rice boiled in milk forms a 

 very delicate food, but it is not so fat-forming 

 as the meals before mentioned. Suet, molasses, 

 &c., are often given to produce fat, but it is of 

 too rank a nature to please those who are con- 

 noisseurs in poultry. Pure natural food must 

 be best, and no other can be recommended. 

 The feeding-house must be kept warm and 

 quiet, the fowls themselves being quietly and 

 carefully treated. In my own establishment 

 fattening is never required ; the fowls are fed up 

 from the shell for exhibition, and therefore are 

 always fit (after a fast of twelve hours) for the 

 table, the only risk being of their becoming too 

 fat for laying purposes and successful breeding. 



I gladly repeat my testimony as to the superior 

 qualities of some of the French breeds, especially 



