GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY. 27 S 
in, one generation after the other. The consequence is, thej 
dwindle down in size and quantity, till at last their eggs aro 
few and very small, and the hens themselves no bigger than 
chickens ought to be. Pray, are prize cattle, pigs, and 
sheep produced in this way 1 
The Bantam Cock. 
Some years since, at a roadside inn, in the neighbourhood 
of Oxford, I had an opportunity of witnessing the effect of 
this in and in breeding. The landlord had a handsome lot of 
fowls of the spangle Polish breed. Their size and beauty 
attracted my attention and admiration. I was in the habit of 
seeing them daily. Presently, however, some one made him a 
present of a bantam cock. Pie put it down in the yard 
with the other fowls, when a fight instantly took place, in 
which the bantam, after a hard struggle, proved the 
conqueror. The landlord was so pleased with the little 
fellow's courage, that he kept him, and killed the other. 
The result was, that in the space of four years, the whole 
stock was reduced to a race of mongrel-bred bantams, and 
very little bigger than partridges. 'Now there were two 
reasons for this. In the first place, no other cock was kept ; 
consequently the bantam was breeding with his own 
offspring down to the third generation. In the second 
place, when a fowl was wanted for the table, they always 
took the largest, and left the smallest for stock. 
Farmers' wives should do the very reverse of this ; they 
should always keep the finest birds for stock, and introduce 
two or three of the finest cock birds that friendship or 
money can purchase, keeping all the largest eggs for sitting ; 
by this means they will have a . yard of poultry that will 
pay them handsomely for their trouble. Moreover, if 
farmers' wives in general would do the same thing, then 
could they exchange birds with each other, and the finer and 
more distant the male birds are from your own stock, the 
finer and more vigorous will be the chickens. 
Qualities necessary to make a good Fowl for the Farm. 
I must tell you that, for my own satisfaction and the 
benefit of farmers and their families, I have tried various 
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