DOMESTIC POULTRY. 



folks ot porcine attributes, a better and more easy of accom- 

 plishment. The poor birds, immured in their dark dun- 

 geons, ignorant that there is Hght and sunshine abroad, 

 tuck their heads under their wings and make a long 

 night of it ; while their digestive organs, having no harder 

 work than to pile up fat, have an easy time enough. But, 

 unless we are mistaken, he who breeds poultry for his own 

 eating, bargains for a more substantial reward than the ques- 

 tionable pleasure of burying his carving-knife in chicken-grease. 

 Tender, delicate, and nutritious flesh is the great aim ; and 

 these qualities, I can affirm without fear of contradiction, were 

 never attained by a dungeon-fatted chicken ; perpetual gloom 

 and darkness is as incompatible with chicken-life as it 'is with 

 human. If you wish to be convinced of the absurdity of en- 

 deavouring to thwart Nature's laws, plant a tufb of grass, or a 

 cabbage-plant, in the darkest comer of your coal-cellar. The. 

 plant or the tuft may increase in length and breadth, but its 

 colour win be as wan and pale, almost, as would be your own 

 face under the circumstances. 



The barn-door fowl is in itself a complete refutation of the 

 cramming and dungeon policy of feeding practised by some. 

 This fowl, which has the common run of the farm-yard, living 

 on dairy-scraps and offal from the stable, begins to grow fat at 

 threshing-time. He has his fill of the finest com : he has his 

 fill of fresh air and, natural exercise; and at last he comes 

 smoking to the table, — a dish for the gods. 



In the matter of mmaturaUy stuffing and confining fowls, 

 Mowbray is exactly of our opinion. He says : " The London 

 chicken-butchers, as they are termed, i. e., poulterers, are said 

 to be, of all others, the most expeditious and dextrous feeders, 

 putting up a coop of fowls, and making them thoroughly fat 

 within the space of a fortnight ; using much grease, and that 

 perhaps not of the most delicate kind, in the food. In this 

 way I have no boasts to make, having always found it neces- 

 sary to allow a considerable number of weeks for the purpose 

 of making fowls fat in coops. In the common way this busi- 

 ness is often badly managed, fowls being huddled together in a 

 small coop, tearing each other to pieces, instead of enjoying 

 that repose which alone can insure £ke wished-for object ; irre- 

 gularly fed and cleaned, until they become so stenohed and 

 poisoned in their own excrement, that their flesh actusslly smells 

 and tastes of it when smoking upon the table." 



Sussex produces the fattest and largest poultry of any county 



