174
the French fowl, yet less than the natives: They lay hnwevefagreater number of eggs than any of the other kinds, the shapecf which is globular, rather than what may be called the longeval.
‘ Although this kind of stock requires comparatively but lit-tle care, yet they will not thrive in a confined, damp, ill-aired,or in a very cold and exposed situation ; neither will they thrivewell in conjunction with turkeys, geese, guinea fowls, or ducks,nor without access to clean water, and to gravel. They rejoicein the warm shelter of a little grove, or strip of plantation.Their habitation also should be frequently cleaned, and it shouldbe never crowded. *
‘ The young brood should be kept by themselves when underthe care of the mother, and for some time after she leaves them,A bolus of butter and oatmeal, about the bulk of a pigeon’segg, given daily, will, in four or five days, cure the disorders towhich they are in general subjected.
‘ In summer, with a little boiled potatoe, cabbage, or turnip,they will thrive on the grass, with the assistance of the worms,seeds, and insects which their own industry procures. In winterthey require a little corn (oats or barley). To make a hen layan egg daily, in that season, she must have a mess or two ofwarm oatmeal pottage, or of something warm and equally nu-tritive, besides the common feeding. A comfortable degree ofwarmth is also in such a degree essential, that some- gentlemen,it is said, have placed a stove under their roost, gaining therebythe advantage of the experience of the poor widow, with hertwo hens anti her cock, living almost over the fire of her littlecottage.
‘ Fowls are not particular in the choice of their fare; it is pro-bable that with their kindred the pheasants, they could make anoccasional meal on carrion. The poultry of the fishing villagesfeed so much on the garbage to be found there, as to communi-cate a fishy flavour, nauseously disagreeable both to their eggsand to their flesh. Any kind of food, very much salted, is saidto poison them, f
* Tile vivifying speck, without which the egg is unproductive, may be easilyperceived in the sun beam, or between a candle and the eye ; its situation onthe top of the egg determines the chick to be a male; when on the side , it willcertainly be a female : It is therefore easy to propagate either sex at pleasure,which, unless by the management of the bees among themselves, is not yetknown to be the case, in any other class of the animal creation.
f j\X. De Reaumur, of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris , in theMemoirs for hatching poultry in ovens and by the heat of dung, has ascertain-ed that giving one hen, in the yard, as much barley as she chooses to eat, shecannot consume more than two Winchester bushels in the year; that four mea-sures of barley boiled till the husk split and burst, swelled so as to measure ten.and that three measures boiled in this manner, was, in the efficiency of feeding,