82 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Jury, 1899. 
sluggishness in the yards, and more fertility in the eggs. There are still people 
in this enlightened age who stuff their chickens, both old and young. Now 
corn is useful in the poultry business, as lard or bacon is in the kitchen, but 
not as a regular diet. If you want to fatten poultry or warm them in cold 
snapping weather in winter, or when a hen is poor-and on that account not 
laying, and needs a little help, &c., corn is just the thing, and the yellower the 
better; but as a general diet it is about as bad a thing as you can give, 
especially when fowls are confined.—Vermont Farm Journal. : 
FLAVOUR IN EGGS. 
How does it happen that often a cook finds that more eggs are required 
this week for certain dishes than were required last week? ‘The cause of this 
is, or should be, well known to poultry breeders. It all lies in the feeding, on 
which much of the flavour of the egg depends. In some backyards of the city 
and suburbs there are poultry which rarely taste any grain. They are fed 
mainly on the waste scraps of meat and vegetables and bread. Now, examine 
the yolk of an egg, the layer of which has been fed exclusively on meat, and 
compare it with that of a hen which has plenty of milk fed to it. The yolk of 
the first is dark in colour, and the flavour is too strong for people with a delicate 
palate. The milk-produced yolk is very pale in colour, the white looks milky, 
and the texture soft, whilst the flavour is insipid, and the eggs are of far less 
value for culinary purposes than those laid by fowls fed on a mixed diet of 
corn and greenstuff. Hens require a considerable amount of food to enable 
them to bear the strain of laying an egg every day. Still they should not be 
neither stuffed to repletion nor half-starved. Many young amateurs feed too 
much to the detriment of the egg-basket. The best way is to give plenty of 
greenstuff such as thistles, lettuce, cabbage, &c., and then let them have all 
the grain they are willing to scratch for. Hens should always be made to work 
for their living. If grain is scattered ina dry manure heap, in the farmyard, 
searching for it will give them profitable and healthy employment. 
POULTRY NOTES. 
TO TELL AN OLD FOWL FROM A YOUNG HEN. 
Ty lifting up the wing, and pushing aside the feathers of the sides, you will 
find in the case of a young hen a long down, light and close, arranged regularity 
between the other feathers which cover these parts of the body. Through the 
skin, which is of a delicate and rosy tissue, the very small blue veins will be 
apparent. Ina hen more than a year old, the down and the veins will have 
disappeared, the skin is of dull white, and dry, less smooth, and somewhat 
farinaceous looking. ‘The smooth leg, with bright scales, is also one of the best 
indications. 
Give lime for growth of bone and for egg-shell material. 
A little cayenne pepper in the food often stimulates laying. 
A laying hen should have her food and drink at regular intervals. 
If the hens show an inclination to pull feathers, give them salt pork. 
It is essential that confined fowls be supplied with plenty of gravel. 
Intelligent management and feeding are as necessary with chickens as with 
- other stock. 
PRINCIPLES OF CHICKEN RAISING. 
The fundamental principles of raising chickens are judicious feeding, good 
housing, with plenty of fresh air and exercise to induce deyelopment. Under 
no circumstances will they stand coddling, nor must they be considered delicate 
because they are young and small. If from healthy stock, they will when 
hatched be strong and active; it remains with the breeder to keep them so.— 
Country Gentleman (Albany, New York). f 
