FIRST OTJTLAT. 71 



Yards.")- This inclosure I should not have covered at the top. 



The height of three rows of "wire, one on top of the other — i. 

 e., 72 inches — -mil be quite high enough to prevent heavy birds 

 getting out over; and the Hamburghs, who are by nature great 

 roamers, must have their wings clipped; it will not improve their 

 appearance, but, as they are not kept for showing, that will not 

 much matter. The wire netting you will be able to fix yourself 

 with a little help, unless you are lone women in the house, in 

 which case you will have to get some man who is clever at doing 

 odds and ends of work to help you. 



It M a fatal error to cramp fowls. Better far to have a small 

 healthy family of poultry than a large sickly one. If a few birds 

 are well looked after and made comfortable they will be more 

 likely to pay than a number badly kept and allowed too little 

 room. 



If from want of space or want of money you can only keep a 

 few fowls, do not be discouraged. A cock and a couple or three 

 or four hens wUl not eat much, but on the principle of "every 

 little helps" the eggs and two or three broods of chickens from 

 them in the year will be something; they will give you amusement 

 in looking after them, and if you do not sell but merely eat the 

 eggs and the chickens, they win help out the household bills and 

 pay for the extra food you will require; for with only three or 

 four birds, household scraps, if carefully economise4, and a little 

 grain daily, will be quite enough to keep them healthy. 



There are a great number of poultry-books, and very excellent 

 ones too; but most of them are written with the object of instruc- 

 ting would-be poultry-keepers in the method of keeping a large 

 number of fowls, but few hilits being given to people who can 

 only afford to keep a few, and those not for exhibition and show, 

 but really for use. It is, however just these small poultry-keep- 

 ers we want to see multiplied in America, for until poultry- 

 keeping becomes a national indust^-^which it caimot unless 



