64 Poultry Feeding- Hoppers. 
fixed principle in nature, which we cannot alter if we wished, 
that all animals accommodate their size to the quantity and quality 
of the food on which they subsist, having suitable reference to 
the climate. This rule being admitted, it follows, that a middling 
sized breed is best for us. It is true, that in the keeping of our 
dairy cows, we have of late much improved. Still it would be 
better to have our breeds too small than too large, for our keep- 
ing. If too small, their tendency would be upward. If too large, 
they would degenerate, which should always be avoided. 
There is a practice prevailing with us to a considerable extent, 
which ought to be encouraged, that of sowing corn to feed in the 
fall. It often happens that we are much pinched in the fall, on 
farms used principally for dairying. The green corn is a good 
substitute for pasture, and the yield per acre very large. 
Columbia, Herkimer county, 1848. 
POULTRY FEEDING-HOPPERS. 
It is the practice with most farmers to feed their fowls grain, 
by strewing it on the ground from the hand. This is, however, 
considered by many as a slovenly and wasteful mode, and well 
calculated to invite rats and mice. 
From experience we have found it more economical to keep 
grain constantly before them, where they can help themselves, at 
all times; and for that purpose constructed several kinds of feed- 
ing-hoppers, but have been constantly annoyed by the depreda- 
tions of rats and mice. Some of the patriarchs, grey with age, 
would not only help themselves sumptuously, but actually drive 
the fowls from their food. 
Now, to obviate this difficulty, and to render them rat-proof, 
w^e present a plan, a sketch of which (Fig. 4,) accompanies this, 
which is so simple, that any man or boy who can handle a saw, 
