DOMESTIC rOULTET. 



lEBDING AND FATTENIKG. 



A year or so ago, tliat sound-headed, matter-of-fact lady, 

 Miss Harriet Martineau, presented to the world, through the 

 medium of a popular journal, her experiences of farming on 

 two acres. The poultry-yard comes in for a considerable share 

 of the lady-farmer's attention, and, as the remarks thereto 

 pertaining are of the most valuable kind, we make no scruple 

 of selecting a few of them for the edification and instruction of 

 our readers : — 



" It becomes," she truthfully says, " an interesting wonder 

 every year why the rural cottagers of the United Kingdom do 

 not rear fowls almost universally, seeing how little the cost 

 would be and how great the demand. "We import many 

 mfllions of eggs annually. Why should we import any P After 

 passing dozens of cottages on commous or in lanes in England 

 where the children have nothing to do, and would be glad of 

 pets, you meet a man with gold rings in his ears, who asks 

 you in broken English to buy eggs from the Continent. 

 Wherever there is a cottage family living on potatoes or better 

 fare, and grass growing anywhere near them, it would be worth 

 while to nail up a little pent-house, and make nests of clean 

 straw, and go in for a speculation in eggs and chickens. Seeds, 

 worms, and insects go a great way in feeding poultry in such 

 places ; and then there are the small and refuse potatoes from 

 the heap, and the outside cabbage-leaves, and the scraps of all 

 sorts. Very small purchases of broken rice (which is extremely 

 cheap), inferior grain, and mixed meal would do all else that 

 is necessary. There would be probably larger losses from 

 ' vermin ' than in better guarded places ; but these could be 

 well afforded as a mere deduction from considerable gains. It 

 is understood that the keeping of poultry is largely on the 

 increase in the country generally, and even among cottagers ; 

 but the prevafling idea is of competition as to races and speci- 

 mens for the poultry-yard, rather than of meeting the demand 

 for eggs and fowls for the table." 



The chicks most Kkely to fatten well are those first hatched 

 m the brood, and those with the shortest legs. Long-legged 

 fowls, as a rule, are by far the most difficult to fatten. The 

 most dehoate sort are tiiose which are put up to fatten as soon 

 as the hen forsakes them ; for, as says an old writer, " then 

 they win be in fine condition, and fall of flesh, which flesh is 

 afterwards expended in the exercise of foraging for food, and in 



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