ii8 HISTORY OP FARM 



mow and among the fodder where their eggs could be more 

 easily found than in tiie woods. Here was another reason for 

 encouraging intimacy. Nests were made for them; at first, 

 as nearly as might be, after their own models. Then shelters 

 were erected over their roosts: then pens were btdlt to keep 

 them from their enemies. So, by some such easy stages, 

 poultry husbandry probably began. 



The most valuable fowls are those that fvmiish eggs as well 

 as meat. Eggs are pure food, containing no refuse. Among 

 animal foods they are natures choicest product. They are 

 edible without cooking and are at their best when most 

 simply prepared for the table. AU the world eats eggs; and 

 in any land to which one may travel, whatever its culinary 

 offerings, one may eat eggs, and live. 



Among domesticated fowls, chickens hold first place. The 

 obvious practical reasons for this are the excellent quality of 

 their flesh, the rapidity of their growth, their productivity of 

 eggs, and their hardiness and ready adaptabiUty to the 

 artificial conditions under which we keep them. The less 

 obvious but none the less real reason is that we like chickens 

 for their interesting ways^ They are eminently social 

 creatures, endowed with a wonderfiil variety of voice and signs 

 for social converse. Their beauty strongly appeals to us. 

 We are interested in the arrogant complacency of the cock, in 

 his cheerful pugnacity, his lusty crowing, his watchfulness 

 over his flock, and his warning call when a hawk appears in the 

 sky; in his great gallantry toward the hens; how ostenta- 

 tiously he calls them when he finds a choice morsel of food 

 (tho he may absent-mindedly swallow it himself). We like 

 the hen for her gentle demeanor, her cheerful, tho immelo- 

 dious, song; her diligence and capability in all her daily 

 tasks ; her fine maternal instincts and self sacrificing devotion 

 to her brood. The chicks also appeal to us by their downy 

 plumpness of form, their cheerful sociabUity and their soft 



