284 
GENERAL MANAGEMENT 
the stout inch fir was too tough a job, or whether 
they were disturbed, she cannot say ; but they left their 
teeth-marks in every one of the coops, and she beheved 
that the reason they did not attack the hen-roost was, 
because her faithful dog had his kennel close to the hen- 
house door, for the purpose of keeping away both foxes and 
thieves of every other denomination. In the morning she 
sent for the rat-catcher, and when he came he found the 
rats had taken up their temporary abode in the faggot- 
stack, where it was believed the dog had driven them, as 
several were found dead about the place. The men and 
neighbours were summoned to form an outer ring ; and to 
remove the stack was a matter of short work. Suffice it to 
say that, with the aid of dogs and sticks, not a rat escaped, 
though they amounted to hundreds. However, to secure 
the chickens for the future, she had the outsides of all her 
coops bound with tin, eight inches deep from the ground. 
Aunt Jane always fed her poultry after she had had her 
breakfast, when most of them had returned from clearing the 
hedges and grounds of all the worms, snails, slugs, grubs, 
and insects that came in their way, by which they not only 
rendered the farm most essential service, but supplied them- 
selves with animal food — a matter of the utmost importance 
for good laying and general good health. The rest soon 
came at the well-known sound of her silver whistle, and 
then she gave them some barley, or the refuse from thrash- 
ing ; the same again in the afternoon, before going to roost. 
As for the brood-hens, she always opened, up the coops, and 
supplied the chickens with food and water as soon as she 
arose. After dinner, she would amuse herself by setting 
them running, like little race-horses, after pieces of fresh 
meat, cut very small. Then, again, I have often seen her^ 
with spade in hand, turning up the loose mould for worms, 
and her swarming family scrambling around her. But, as 
they became big fellows, and began to scratch, and were too 
unruly for the garden^ they were taken to the hen-house, 
where they soon began to roost, and take their chance among 
the rest. 
This was her method of feeding poultry during the spring 
and summer months ; but in the autumn, when the slug and 
insect tribes became scarce, and the fowls were in the moult^ 
