IN THE POULTRY YARD, 73 
Broods Increase and Cronble Begins. 
HEN, under ordinary conditions, a hen steals her nest 
and brings out a brood, the owner rarely has much 
trouble with the chickens. The mother cares for the 
eggs, generally hatches out a goodly proportion—often the entire 
lot—leads her young progeny along hedgerows and through cop- 
pices, and brings to the barnyard a fine lot of strong, healthy little 
birds. And even when the farmer’s wife sets her dozen hens in 
different nooks and corners, and lets them wander at will along the 
roadsides and through the orchard, there is rarely any trouble. 
The hens easily keep so far apart that there is no danger of their 
babies getting “mixed up,” consequently there is seldom any dan- 
ger of their fighting, or of chickens getting killed by straying to the 
wrong coop. At first, therefore, we had no trouble to speak of. 
We lost some chickens from different causes, but this always hap- 
pens; one got its leg broken by being caught in the cleft of a split 
board, and another had a fracture from a small stone which was 
loosened by the scratching of a hen and rolled down a bank. In 
both cases a good cure was made by simply wrapping the broken 
limb with a narrow strip of muslin which had been smeared with 
very thick paste. The paste soon dried, and held the bones firmly 
in position until they had united. In both cases the chickens be- 
came useful fowls. In another case, however, the little thing wan- 
dered off and was not seen until it was too late. The leg healed 
up, but the foot was turned the wrong way, and the poor little 
chicken found it difficult to walk, and impossible to scratch. But 
some one has said that everything—even evil—has its uses, and.as 
an instance he names diseases, without which he claims that we 
could not have wise and learned physicians!* So this poor little 
* To which some irreverent Phillistine has replied by asking, which, in this 
case, was the good, and which the evil? 
