June 2, 1881. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
453 
all when a time of year arrives generally devoted to travelling 
and “ change of air,” we are apt to forget our poultry, believe 
that they will get on somehow, and put aside our hobby, to re¬ 
sume it again when the show season comes round and cups and 
prizes are again to be won. 
There are few things obtainable without toil and trouble, and 
certainly success in poultry keeping is no exception to the rule. 
Where chickens are reared solely for the table, and there is no desire 
to produce fine specimens as stock birds for another year, or winners 
in the show pen, it is true that, provided they have a good range, 
a very small amount of attention will suffice for half-grown fowls. 
The days are now long and insect food is abundant, so that they 
pick up much for themselves, and may without harm go many hours 
between their regular meals. But now-a-days most of us wish 
to produce fine and handsome if not exhibition birds. If we are 
to succeed in doing so we must have no seasons of neglect. The 
growth of our young stock must be watched and judiciously 
helped. If we go from home others must be taught to give some 
attention and intelligence to the matter. 
We have often written against the forcing of young poultry by 
condiments and stimulants, and need not here repeat our warn¬ 
ings. Chickens which grow slowly and steadily always turn out 
the largest and best in the end ; but we must be sure that they do 
grow steadily either in development of size or feather, if they 
do not something is wrong and must be remedied. We say “ or 
feather,” because a bird which is producing feathers at once all 
over its body cannot possibly at the same time increase much in 
size. Some kinds, as Game and Dorkings, show an astonishing 
growth of feathers in their earliest days ; others, as Malays, Brah¬ 
mas, and Cochins, are never properly feathered till they are half- 
grown. The special peculiarities of breeds must of course be 
taken into consideration, but when it appears that the young 
stock is not growing, or, worse, if it seems to go back, some steps 
must be taken at once to give the chickens a fresh start. 
Let us look at a few of the causes which check growth, and 
the remedies for them. The following are the chief of them— 
1, Indiscriminate mixing of chickens of both sexes and with old 
birds ; 2, Overcrowding on their ground, or even if there be not 
too many birds for the area, keeping them constantly about the 
same place ; 3, Insufficient housing and bad ventilation of houses; 
4, Bad feeding, or too much sameness of food. 
1. Where there is but one poultry yard for both breeding birds 
and chickens it is almost impossible to rear the larger kinds 
successfully. The old birds peck the chickens and rob them of 
their food ; even if we manage to give them aside enough to eat 
they are not happy, and experience has shown us that chickens 
will not thrive unless they are happy and free. It is a common 
thing to see half-grown broods penned up in miserable wired 
runs or cages, while the adults are occupying the large yard. 
This is a mistake; chickens cannot thrive or grow in such a place, 
while at this time of year with care old birds may be kept healthy 
in confinement. We do not, however, advise anybody to attempt 
to rear more than a few chickens for the table, all to be killed off 
by the time they are four months old, unless there are two distinct 
runs with separate houses for them. Indiscriminate mixing of 
the sexes, too, is after they are three months old an evil. Their 
separation, however, requires judgment. We have often known 
cockerels pine if taken from a free range and placed by them¬ 
selves even in a large enclosed run. If separated at eight or ten 
weeks old, and at first specially well fed, they generally scon 
become reconciled to the change and continue to grow. We 
would, however, rather have a really growing and fine brood 
ranging at large mixed than divide them to be put in small runs. 
Nothing is so bad as letting forward cockerels run about among 
the adult hens. 
2. Few fanciers realise the importance of from time to time 
changing chickens to fresh ground, and of thinning out all useless 
birds as soon as possible. We have always found our own stock 
most successful in the years when we have most ruthlessly killed 
all indifferent specimens ; indeed, absurd though it may sound, 
we are often really pleased to find good reasons for discarding 
some of our chickens when numerous, as we know well that the 
remainder will benefit by their room. A change, too, of ground 
will often give a fresh stimulus to growth. Common sense is 
very necessary for such judicious changes as for all other things. 
Where there is variety of ground much good may be done by 
selecting it according to weather. In a dry season we take our 
most promising chickens to rich damp pastures and orchards, in 
a wet one to dry and sunny banks with dusting places protected 
by rocks. Last year we saw a most striking proof of the benefit 
of a change and removal to a less crowded yard. Most of our 
Dorking pullets ranged about a valley ; it is true that they 
had many houses at considerable distances, but they congregated 
together too much through the dry month of August, and a flock 
of fifty Ducks often made their way from a piece of water at 
feeding times and doubtless got the lion’s share. A northern 
fancier applied to us for a pullet, and we candidly told him that 
we could not part with our two best, but would let him have 
about the third finest. He was content. Our best pullets of 
this breed did not continue to grow as they ought, and by the 
time of the great shows were disappointing after splendid early 
promise. At a certain show about four months later we made the 
acquaintance of the purchaser of this pullet and complimented 
him upon his splendid first-prize bird. To our great astonishment 
we learnt that it was none other than our own pullet, which 
seemed to us to have far outgrown her superior sisters ; indeed 
she looked two months older, and must have weighed 2 lbs. more. 
Such is a practical instance of the advantage of a change to a 
new air and less populated yard. 
3. Nothing is more detrimental to the development of chickens 
than close and crowded houses. Hot and unwholesome air sows 
the seeds of maladies innumerable. Only those who have opened 
the doors of a crowded and ill-ventilated poultry house after a 
hot night can fully realise how unwholesome foul air really is. 
On the other hand, the beginnings of cold, roup, and consumption 
are often contracted from a draught or drip through a time-worn 
roof. In all these cases a knowledge of the evil suggests the 
remedy. 
4. Bad feeding and too much sameness of food is the last and 
a very fertile source of young birds’ decline. It is commonly 
thought that anything in the way of grain or meal will do for 
fowls : this is a great mistake. Corn merchants produce mildewed 
wheat and heated barleymeal, observing “ Here is something that 
will just meet your requirements, as you are a poultry fancier.” 
It is true that much small and occasionally slightly damaged 
grain, unfit for grinding, will do well for chickens, but to give 
them mildewed and heated stuff is the very'worst economy. There 
is little nourishment in it, fermentation takes place, the diges¬ 
tions of the poor creatures are utterly deranged, and what living 
creature can thrive, much less grow rapidly, when the digestion, 
the source of all its nourishment, fails ? Buy sound corn and 
sound meal. Probably you have to pay a good price for it, but 
be assured that you get your money’s worth in the rapid growth 
of your chickens, in the strength of their bones and delicacy of 
their flesh. Not only must food be good, it must be varied. 
Chickens like human beings get sick of the same diet, however 
excellent, administered regularly three or four times a day. In 
the way of grain, wheat which we recommend as a general food 
may at times be changed to barley, a little maize, or, better still 
if it can be got, to dari. The meal can be mixed in various ways. 
Sometimes bran, a good former of bone, can be added to the oat¬ 
meal porridge instead of barleymeal; sometimes quite a small 
amount of Spratt’s food boiled or scalded can be mixed in sharps 
and the oatmeal discontinued. Boiled rice in hot weather makes 
a good variety, and kitchen scraps seem always to induce an 
appetite where all other things fail. Lastly, if chickens become 
dainty without any apparent cause a judicious day’s starving will 
often bring back their appetite and cure satiety. 
There is one more cause of growth being checked which we 
have almost omitted, because we have too often insisted upon 
perfect cleanliness in houses and runs for it to seem necessary; 
we mean parasitical vermin. Infested by such a plague chickens 
cannot possibly grow. We have often given remedies for it, and 
only now mention the subject because a young fancier might 
possibly see his young stock droop mysteriously and have no 
idea of this occult but very disagreeable cause. However, we 
believe that chickens are almost always weak or ill from some 
other cause before they are tormented much by insects. Strong 
birds rid themselves by natural means of such enemies, while 
weakly ones succumb to them. 
An intelligent person will soon observe when chickens flag or 
fail, and will almost intuitively see the cause and remedy. We 
offer these few suggestions to those who have little experience in 
gallinaceous birds, or whose time is too much occupied for real 
study of their habits.—C. 
PRACTICAL SCIENTIFIC BREEDING. 
GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 
(Continued from page 411.) 
Want of space forbids us entering into any detailed account of 
the special considerations as to breeding applicable to each variety ; 
and as it is only in this way that much could be said as to the 
breeding of Pigeons beyond what we have already said as to 
poultry, we must content ourselves with merely adding a few 
general hints as to management. 
