POULTRY-YARD.

MANAGEMENT OP FOWLS.

Jn Older to have fine fowls, it is necessary to choose a good breed, and have proper care taken of them. People differ in their opinions of which is best. The black are very juicy; but do not answer so well for boiling, as their legs partake of their colour. They should be fed as nearly as possible at the same hour and place. Potatoes boiled, unskinned, in a little water, and then cut, and either wet with skimmed milk or not, form one of the best foods. Turkeys and fowls thrive amazingly on them. The milk must not be sour.

The best age for setting a hen is from two to five years; and you should remark which hens make the best brooders, and keep those to laying which are giddy and careless of their young. In justice to the animal creation, however, it must be observed, there are but few instances of bad parents for the time their nursing is necessary.

Hens sit twenty days. Convenient places should be provided for their laying, as those will be proper for sitting likewise. If the hen-house is not secured from vermin, the eggs will be sucked.

Those hens are usually preferred which have tufts of feathers on their heads; those that crow are not looked upon as profitable. Some fine young fowls should be reared every year, to keep up a stock of good breeders; and by this attention, and removing bad layers and careless nurses, you will have a chance of a good stock.

Let the hens lay some time before you set them, which should be done from the end of February to the beginning of May. While hens are laying, feed them well, and sometimes with oats.

Broods of chickens are hatched all through the summer, but those that come out very late, require much time till they have gained some strength.

If eggs of any other sort are put under a hen with some of her own, observe to add her own as many days after the others as there is a difference in the length of their sitting. A turkey and duck sit thirty days. Choose large clear eggs to put her upon, and such a number as she can properly cover. If very large eggs, there are sometimes two yolks, and of course neither will be productive. Ten or twelve are quite enough.

A hen-house should be large and high, and should be frequently cleaned put, or the vermin of fowls will increase greatly. But hens must not be disturbed while sitting; for if frightened, they sometimes forsake their nest. Wormwood and rue should be planted plentifully about their houses; boil some of the former, and sprinkle it about the floor; which should be of smooth earth, not paved. The windows of the house should be open to the rising sun, and a hole must be left at the door, to let the smaller fowls go in; the larger may be let in and out by opening the door. There should be a small sliding board to shut down when the fowls are gone to roost; which would prevent the small beasts of prey from committing ravages, and a good strong door and lock may possibly, in some measure, prevent the depredations of human enemies.

When some of the chickens are hatched long before the others, it may be necessary to keep them in a basket of wool till the otheis come forth. The day after they are hatched, give them some crumbs of wheat bread, aud small, or rather cracked, grits soaked in milk. As soon as they have gained a little strength, feed them with curd, cheese-parings cut small, or any soft food, but nothing sour; and give them clean water twice a day. Keep the hen under a pen till the young have strength to follow her about, which will be in two or three weeks; and be sure to feed her well.

The food of fowls first goes into their crop, which softens it; and then passes into the gizzard, which by constant friction macerates it; and this is facilitated by small stones, which are generally found there, and which help to digest the food.

If a sitting hen is troubled with vermin, let her be well washed with a decoction of white lupins. The pip in fowls is occasioned by drinking dirty water, or taking filthy food. A white thin scale on the tongue is the symptom. Pull the scale off with your nail, and rub the tongue with some salt; and the complaint will be removed.

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It answers well to pay some boy employed in the farm or Stable, so much a score for the eggs he brings in. It will be his interest then to save them from being purloined, which nobody but one in his situation can prevent.

will serve one day.

out; you may add

To fallen I'meh or Chickenf in /our or five Days. Set rice over the fire with skimmed milk, only as much as Let it boil till the rice is quite swelled a tea-spoonful or two of sugar, but it will do well without. Feed them three times a day, in common pans, giving them only as much as will quite fill them at once. When you put fresh, let the pans be set in water, that no sourness may be conveyed to the fowls, as that prevents them from fattening. Give them clean water, or the milk of the rice, to drink; but the less wet the latter is when perfectly soaked, the better. By this method the flesh will have a clear whiteness which no other food gives; and when it is considered how far a pound of rice will go, and how much time is saved by this mode, it will be found to be as cheap as barley-meal, or more so. The pan should be daily cleaned, and no food given for sixteen hours before poultry be killed.

Geese.

Geese require little expense, as they chiefly support themselves on commons or in lanes, where they can get water. The largest are esteemed best, as also are the white and grey. The pied and dark coloured are not so good. Thirty days are generally the time the goose sits, but in warm weather she will sometimes hatch sooner. Give them plenty of food, such as scalded bran and light oats; and as soon as the goslins are hatched, keep them housed for eight or ten days, and feed them with barley meal, bran, curds, &c. For green geese, begin to fatten them at six or seven weeks old, and feed them as above. Stubblegeese require no fattening if they have the run of good fields.

Ducks.

Ducks generally begin to lay in the month of February. Their eggs should be daily taken away from them, till they seem inclined to sit; then leave them and see that there are

enough. They require no attention while sitting, except to give them food at the time they come out to seek it; and there should be water placed at a moderate distance from them, that their eggs may not be spoiled by their long absence in seeking it. Twelve or thirteen eggs are enough; in an early season it is best to set them under a hen; and then they can be kept from water till they have a little strength to bear it, which in very cold weather they cannot do so well. They should be put under cover, especially in a wet season; for though water is the natural element of ducks, yet they are apt to be killed by the cramp before they are covered with feathers to defend them.

Ducks should be accustomed to feed and rest at one place, which would prevent their straggling too far to lay. Places near the water to lay in are advantageous; and those might be small wooden houses, with a partition in the middle, and a door at each end. They eat any thing; and when to be fattened, must have plenty, however coarse, and in three weeks they will be fat.

Turkeys.

As soon as hatched Great care is neces

Turkeys are Very tender when young. put three peppercorns down their throat. sary to their well-being, because the hen is so careless that she will walk about with one chick, and leave the remainder, or even tread upon and kill them. Turkeys are violent eaters, and must therefore be left to take charge of themselves in general, except one good feed a day; The hen sits twenty-five or thirty days; and the young ones must be kept warm, as the least cold or damp kills them. They must be fed often; and at a distance from the hen, which will eat every thing from them. They should have curds, green cheese parings cut small, and bread and milk with chopped wormwood in it; and their drink milk and watir, but not left to be sour. All young fowls are a prey for vermin, therefore they should be kept in a safe place where none can come; weasels, stoats, ferrets, &c. creep in at very small crevices.

Let the hen be under a coop, in a warm place exposed to the sun, for the first three or four weeks; and the young should not be suffered to go out in the dew at morning or evening.

Twelve eggs are enough to put under a turkey; and when she is about to lay, lock her up till she has laid every morning. They usually begin to lay in March, and sit in April. Feed them near the hen-house; and give them a little meat in the evening, to accustom them to roosting there. Fatten them with sodden oats or barley for the first fortnight, and the last fortnight give them as above, and rice swelled with warm milk over the fire twice a day. The flesh will be beautifully white and fine flavoured. The common way is to cram them, but they are so ravenous that it seems unnecessary, if they are not suffered to go far from home, which makes them poor.

Pea Fowl.

Feed them as you do turkeys. They are so shy that they are seldom found for some days after hatching: and it is very wrong to pursue them, as many ignorant people do, in the idea of bringing them home; for it only causes the hen to carry the young ones through dangerous places, and, by hurrying, she treads upon them. The cock kills all the young chickens he can get at, by one blow on the centre of the head with his bill; and he does the same by his own brood before the feathers of the crown come out. Nature therefore impels the hen to keep them out of his way till the feathers rise.

Guinea Hens.

Guinea hens lay a great number of eggs; and if you can discover the nest it is best to put them under common hens, which are better nurses. They require great warmth, quiet, and careful feeding, with rice swelled with milk, or bread soaked in it. Put two peppercorns down their throat when first hatched.

Pigeons.

They bring two young ones at a time; and breed every month, if well looked after, and plentifully fed. They should be kept very clean, and the bottom of the dove-cot be strewed with sand once a month at least. Tares and white peas are their proper food. They should have plenty of fresh water in their house. Starlings and other birds are apt to come among them, and suck the eggs. Vermin likewise are their