On the Rearing and Management of Poultry. 



181 



pan}' of the othpr sex, it would have been useless to keep a cock. 

 As it is, the number of hens to one cock may be as high as thirty. 

 Recollect we are speaking of the laying stock of hens, and not of 

 the breeding stock. The very eminent French writer, M. Par- 

 mentier, if we mistake not, witnessed the productive powers of a 

 cock fifty times in one day. We restrict three hens to one cock, 

 when the eggs are wanted for hatching. 



Selection of Eggs for Hatching. — Writers on poultry give direc- 

 tions for the selection of eggs for hatching without noting whether 

 the eggs are laid by the handsomest or by the ugliest hens in the 

 yard; a system which cannot be too strongly condemned. Ail 

 breeders are aware that "like produces like" in all pure breeds 

 of animals. No doubt there are exceptions to all rules, but^ if 

 this maxim be kept in view, the right line will seldom be deviated 

 from. By the method we have adopted of selecting the finest 

 hens to breed from, and by keeping them in a yard with a cock 

 not related to them, and by selecting eggs from those laid by 

 them, considerable advantage is gained over the method of 

 selecting the eggs for sitting from those laid by the whole stock 

 of hens. I give preference to such eggs as are a little above the 

 average size, having ahvays found them to produce the strongest 

 birds. All irregular-shaped eggs must be rejected. 



A discovery was made by Columella, and laid hold of by 

 others, of great importance to the practical breeder ; as it enables 

 him to select such eggs as W'iil produce male, and such as will 

 produce female birds. I say of great importance, because he 

 who depends on the sale of eggs for profit does not want male 

 birds, and therefore it would be useless for him to breed them. 

 To him Columella would say, Select the round eggs, for they 

 contain female birds, and reject the oblong shaped, for they con- 

 tain birds of the opposite sex."' By the position of the air cell at 

 the butt end of the egg, those may be selected which will produce 

 the male sex : in these the air cell is in the centre of the end ; if 

 the cell be a little at one side the egg will produce a female chick. 

 The position of the air cell is easily discovered by holding the 

 egg between the eye and a light." 



Incubation, or Hatching. — The process of incubation is accom- 

 plished either naturally or artificially. None are so ignorant as 

 to require instructions as to how the process is naturally accom- 

 plished. There are various artificial methods of incubation, of 

 which I shall speak after having disposed of some important 

 points in connexion with natural hatching ; the first of which to 

 be considered is the number of e2"G:s which ou^ht to be s"iven to 

 a hen. In consecjuence of our abode adjoining a plantation of 

 considerable magnitude, our hens, notwithstanding all attempts to 

 prevent them, often stray to seek nests for themselves. (We 



