APPENDIX. 301 



lished, will not bear the close scrutiny , of those who 

 have attempted the business on a large scale. I do not 

 wish to be understood to say, that such accounts are 

 heralded to the world with any improper motive, or in- 

 tention to deceive ; but, in general, to use the apt com- 

 parison of another, " they are no more to be relied on, 

 for practical purposes, than would the ship owner's ac- 

 count of the whale fishery, if it made no allowance for 

 bad luck — the loss of time of the crew, the cost of pro- 

 visions, and other outfits-^-worth $30,000; to say 

 nothing of wear and tear, and the widows of drowned 

 whalemen to assist." Nothing is more likely to mis- 

 lead the novice whose experience is insufficient to judge 

 of their incompleteness, leaving error out of the question. 



Thus, one writer in the London " Agricultural Ga- 

 zette," of Sept. 23, 1848, tells us that, by adopting the 

 regimen advised by one good Mrs. Doyley, hens may be 

 made to sit four times in the season. Each time they 

 sit, they are to hatch two broods, (that is, eight broods 

 of three weeks each per annum,) by the withdrawal of 

 the first clutch of chickens, and replacing them with 

 fresh eggs ! The kidnapped chicks are to be reared by 

 an artificial mother. Now, if the hen hatches only ten 

 chickens from each set of eggs, which is considered a 

 low estimate, this gives eighty chickens per annum from 

 each hen ! ! or four hundred in the course of the year, 

 for the expense of maintaining five hens, and, it is sup- 

 posed, one cock, (though the poor fellow is not men- 

 tioned,) or more than one chicken per day ! ! ! But, 

 alas ! for such extravagance. Hens are made of flesh, 

 blood, bones and feathers — not qf wood, hot water, 

 India rubber, sheepskins, nor iron ; and if their incu- 

 bating powers are overtasked, they will invariably suffer 

 for it afterwards, which will often take them the whole 

 autumn and winter to recover, if they ever recover at 

 all. Accounts like the above, which we often see going 

 the " rounds" in agricultural papers, it is almost needless 

 to say, deserve only to be treated with ridicule and dis- 

 respect. 



I clip the following egg-laying story, from the fourth 

 volume of the " American Agriculturist," as having oc- 



