FANCIERS’ 
JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 

meal (together with potatoes) moistened with milk, is suffi- 
cient to fatten any fowl during the 14 days she is cooped. 
The profit and loss account will stand thus : 


Dr. CR. 
s. d, Ges. ads 
Cost of eggs, . . 0 1/ 234 new laid eggs at 1s. 3d. 
Cost of rearing Berkon! i perdozen, .. ea 6 
egg-producing time, . . . 1 6/ Produce of fowl 2s. 6d. io 
Cost of feeding during the 12 35; fe" i eee en et eee ee 0 te) 
months sheis laying, . . 4 2|Excrements* .....0 2 4 
Fortnight’s fattening, . . . 0 6 
—— £1 9 10 
6 3 Deducticost; = . . 0 6 3 
Total profit, ~£L 3 7 
Leaving a profit on each pullet of £1 3s. 7d., or 300 per 
cent. The profit and loss account on the cockerels will be 
as follows: 

Dr. CR. 
& 8. a. 3) Se id. 
Cost of egg,. . . . . . 0 0 1) Value ofcockerel, weight 
Cost of 12 weeks’ keep,... 0 0 7] 54lbs.,88,6d.to . . . 0 8 9 
Cost of two weeks’ fatten- Excrements,* . 0 0 5 
ing, 0 0 6 —— 
— 0 
£0 102 Deducticost. rar... O07 1292 
Total profit, -£0 3 9 
Leaving a profit on each cockerel of 3s., or over 150 per 
cent. 
Now, from actual experiments, it has been proved over 
and over again, that the finest fowls can be kept in the 
highest state of perfection at the cost of 1d. to 14d. per week ; 
and this, without even the advantage of anything of a run, 
beyond an inclosed yard or small garden. 
Those who doubt the sufficiency of such allowance had 
better refer to Mr. Mowbray’s standard work, or to the 
comprehensive experiments of M. Réaumer, M. Parmentier, 
&c. I can certify to its sufficiency from my own experience, 
having kept nearly 100 large fowls during the past twelve 
months upon a weighed and measured allowance of food, 
and which never exceeded $d. per week. They were the 
whole time in laying condition, and in ane highest state of 
perfection as to plumage, &c. 
This sum will allow of the best quality of food being given, 
and such will always prove the cheapest. 
Wheat at 5s. 9d., barley at 4s. 6d., oats 8s., buckwheat 4s. 
9d., maize 4s. 38d. per bushel; broken rice, 14d. per lb. ; small 
potatoes (siftings), 2s. per cwt.; bullock’s liver and sheep’s 
pluck, 13d. per lb.; will enable you to keep your fowls in 
the highest possible perfection, within the price named, 
averaging the value of one grain against another. 
In Ireland, Scotland, and parts of Wales, where fowls can 
have liberty, and milk and potatoes are plentiful and cheap 
(as well as corn), fowls may be kept at probably one-half 
the cost named, producing eggs at $d. per dozen, and flesh 
at 14d. per lb. It is owing to the liberal feeding of warm 
potatoes, accompanied with warm housing, that the poultry 
in Ireland are good egg-producers, and this, in spite of the 

* A fowl will void at least 1 oz. of dry dung in 24 hours, and which is 
worth 7s. per cwt. (Stephens.) Those who cannot find a market for this 
valuable manure at such a price, let them use it themselves in their own 
gardens, and make as much again. I can speak with confidence of the 
power of 1 cwt. to produce from 4 to 5 cwt: of potatoes, value 25s. 

most miserable puny breeds, deteriorating year after year 
from breeding in and in and with absence of fresh blood. 
To encourage and keep the pullets laying through the 
winter months, it is necessary that they should be kept warm 
at night, fed liberally, and on stimulating food. In the 
morning each pullet should have 1} oz. of barley, buck- 
wheat, or meal; midday, boiled potatoes warm, or boiled 
rice, with scraps of meat, suet, or fat, bullock’s liver, or 
sheep’s pluck; at night, 1} oz. of wheat, Indian corn, or 
heavy oats. Such feeding will keep them in such a condi- 
tion as will enable them to continue to lay regularly until 
thespring, when 2 or 2} 0z. of grain per day may be resorted 
to, without the assistance of meat or cooked food. 
Fowls in winter, owing to the absence of worms, grubs, 
flies, &c., require more hand-feeding than in summer, but 
where they have the advantage of an extended run, ld. per 
week will be found an ample allowance, and allow for lib- 
eral feeding, of the best food, averaging winter against the 
summer. 
A wise selection of stock, and such as may be suited to 
your soil, is of paramount importance. The Houdan, Creve, * 
Dorking, and Brahma aré all excellent for the table, and 
come early to maturity, being easily fattened. The Ham- 
burghs, Houdans, Polands, Spanish, and Brahma excel as 
egg-layers, all except the two latter being non-sitters. 
Two or three hatches of cockerel chicks may with adyan- 
tage be made throughout the summer, as they only require 
fourteen weeks before they are fit to be disposed of. 
Those who desire to act upon the best and most economical 
principles will avoid the expense involved by allowing a hen 
to rear her own chickens, which will amount in eight weeks, 
by loss of eggs and keep, to 4s. 8d. A capon may be easily 
trained to undertake the brooding and rearing of chickens 
as well as the best hen. A large, full-feathered capon can 
brood and care twenty-five to thirty chickens at a time, and 
will continue the careful charge of brood after brood through- 
out the year, irrespective of age, size, or color.—Mascal, 
Réaumer, Parmentier. 
Chickens may also be reared by what is termed an ‘‘arti- 
ficial”? mother, which is a simply-constructed shallow box, 
the perforated lid being lined with lamb’s-skin, or goose- 
down ; and by the application of heat to the lid, either by 
hot water or hot air, chickens in any number can be reared, 
with far greater ease and certainty than by the natural 
mother. The author will be glad to furnish particulars as 
to the training of capons, or show a plan of rearing-box or 
‘artificial’? mother.—Réaumer, Bonnemain, Parmentier. 
So precocious are the Creve Cur fowls in their growth 
and disposition to fatten, that they are fit to be put up to 
fatten at the age of two and a half to three months, and be 
ready for table fifteen days after.— Pringle, Murray. 
A succession may, therefore, always be kept up ready for 
the coo}., and thus a large number may be disposed of in the 
year, without having any quantity on hand at one time; 
and in this way one’s limited capital may be continually 
turned over, each time realizing 150 per cent., or 600 per 
cent. if followed by three successions through the summer. 
No doubt it will be considered a bold assertion to say that 
fowls are capable of making a return of 600 per cent. in 
twelve months, at a time when the popular belief is that 
“poultry don’t pay.”’ It is true that fowls don’t pay as 
often managed, but, at the same time, I affirm, without fear 
of contradiction, that they can be made to pay, and to pay 
as no other stock possibly can. 
(To be continued.) 
