—Te ee. of! wi 4 mn itayre ; ’ ’ cy ' 4 haem Pe i % ‘ j ’ 5 » , - wie. PEO LS PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK: A WORK ON THE Td + BREEDS, BREEDING REARING, AND GENERAL — @ MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY. — BY WM. M. LEWIS. ILLUSTRATED WITH OVER ONE HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS. ee See, 2 bf NEW YORK: : THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY, 39 AND 41 CHAMBERS STREET. big 22). Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18 DED oT. MOORE, KO In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at wae At oat ay tranere, ites Te) " : ae t Office Lik, ; y Aprp 12 14, TP ind . ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE. PAU TECH EVEN. 6.5°5)5 s\c'siu e's oa'e sive’ e's ces 166 — Mother, Graves’....... Se a as 167 SVS Nd DD) CCS A 80 Bantam Cock, Fertile Hen - feathered MEINE ta cr sao Oh olealaee wid austere 169 — Hen, Barren Full-feathered Sebright 168 Bantams, Black-breasted Red Game.... 57 — Duck-wing Game................ ov SP CHOLMeMNSCDMENG. ..092 22s el sccie es 68 = belimvor Cochin 2.254. ... 8.8 ses 67 SME SUIVETSCOLIOME. so. 2s sce scenes o's 67 BrahimasWock, Dark: . 02225 60.0006. 8. 30 =) > ID eee eee ee Senna 33 SU OM MDAL Ki. one ass cede see ose aes 31 Capon Operating Table... 6.00.40. 22. 146 Caponizing Fowls—Implements used.. 145 — Position of Fowl on Operating MAIL CR ei sisteie els cierease serene 146, 148 Chicken Coop and Wire Run.......... 138 — House, Exterior of Van Winkle’s.. 127 — — Interior of Van Winkle’s....... 128 CochimiCock, Butts s. 5 ook ko se 35 == [Een NIB TOT Re ae An ecg aE 36 Cochins, Pair of Partridge............ 37 MOAN CLOSE Os ae ee ic Setaiete 130 SMES UEC) Sarat ea Se cheiaicss ee cia.ctaie wcciels 130 eT vena res sa it'a sicio\ale ef aie. oS . 129 = eeTUGIOL WuCATIAtO. cecs./s's snisie ss oie oes 129 EmmLLAt TOOL is osaveye <.ctiaicjnier ed ale oss 129 Seem tea pe ee RENN 129 Creve-Ceurs, Pair of...... ale miaiei Sere) tes 62 Wominique Cock... ......2.¢ sooopadne 66 PAGE. Dorking Cock, White...........00..5. 48 Dorkings, Pair of Gray..............- 44 WralcewAsmlesbui yj e stress a cleyvelecverers 80 Sri MOULD tasters av ene AUREL 2, SO eaeuetiay esate 81 Wiel Blaels Cay woah eee siete 85 =e @restedeneeiiia tie cers ceria cts WK 83 = “House Rusties orci i ye sae e 187 =. Tent-house:i i.e ee be. eee Lae — Wood or Summer................ 85 Ducks} Heed Box forse see ack « cseesies 136 — Trio of Musk or Brazilian......... 83 Hgg Carrier, Suspension.............. 178 — Case, Canvas-covered........ PAs 178 — Transportation Case.............. 178 Neos: iMertilitiy Ol voce ae eee ae 20 Farmer Fogv’s Fowls............ se stereo dU iHeedebox forDucksuamecce se ete 136 Feeding Hopper, A Cheap............ 132 ——) b= DOUDIOS sae seneleiia craciteutervave aos 183 — — Funnel and Cone of........... 132 mow tm POTHCC LS. bie etanea Melo k re lotaicee 131 Se SO OMCHI NU Mie alaltonta siarclaie) clues 131 — — Standard Self................. 132 Seah eh SLO Oletaiara ots aienareterciaie a reie metals ay overs 1382 — Troughs (4 Ilustrations).......... 134 Mountain Barrel ssiate serials ciieletscleiel 135 — Bottle........ PR Shia trates a ey ara 1385 OLGA, 2 afeievscaisy ore] e oie teisesteteraiesace 135 MowA Boats Orasicreaciersarcver seis i weversie eve 10 ==.) Viltture-hock sic) cicctc aes se «nies 15 Frizzled Fowls, Pair of............:.. 41 Games, Black-Red........csseesceeees O8 iv THE PEOPLE'S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. PAGE. PAGE. Games, Duck-Wing...........+ pire en 595 | Poultry Fountain, Ordinary........... 135 ear Derby: viacaieiartere siseate alow ete 52 |— House and plan for 100 fowls...... 119 Geese, Canada or American........... 89|}— — — — Virginia............. 114, 115 — Embden or Bremen........... --. 91]/— — — yards, Van Winkle’s........ 110 ms WANES ae GS cictaraie a e!sie 0 las, wla'a’s oka 94}— — Browne’s.......:.....2sesennenne Goose!) Waite Chinese: ....35...00. «0 95 |— — Cheap........ 2. .acseeeeeee 115, 120 Guelders esi OF 5)... . cis wofae be Wek .. 64|— — Elevation, plan and yard....... 122 Hamburgs, Pair of Golden-Spangled... 46|— — Fancy....... we da'as ocean 125 -— — — Silver-Spangled............ 46|— — Interior of Van Winkle’s........ 111 Hen-house, Mount’s........... sade shevate 118.) — —-Octagon,.... 0)... .\cecs eee 117 Hennery for 200 to 250 fowls....... --. 121|— — Octagonal (8 Illustrations)..... 128 Elan Of DOUDIE, ..di.eeiaernye ctneree aes 113'] —. — Poor Man’s........ 52:25 106 oudans Pair -ol ce vsiccsre um eine er cterete eke 61|— — Rhode Island................. 114 Incubation—Process illustrated.......18,19|— — Rustic........................ 106 Incubator, Americans... 20: . oes ». 159 |— Mode of Packing...... Jags seee 27 A MSPMACL CYS, 1s :ciecle se end tee mere 156 | Rouen Drake.......... .\Ggpes eee 81 sared EREMEUITI Sis tales phave' nt ye wceua ete aie ae 154 | Shanghaes, Pair of White............. 39 aes EAVES, renee ae ie ele ovals neat sly Noes 160, 161 | Silky: Fowls,:Pait of. ..2 -o22 eee 69 Sees TS CNL OU El Sinise elt eeten eee ee eee 157 | Spanish Fowls, White and Black...... 59 ot VOR GLE Sie Srere cl s/o cle: mele eiuaheeanen 158 | Trap, Barrel: )\).. 3.223; e eee 171 havleche, Pairof. oe yaa aera, oe 63.}=-- Skunk.... 3.2.2: 5... eee 173 Beshoris, Pair ob) 52). Sujcsemeslasane 51} —. Common Box... ...¢sQuaneeeeeee 171 Dialers: WP artid. ple: cere putes giants 40 |— for Mink .......,.:¢229 ee 172 UNG ste MD eyelet jarccslole araietayapstere ofauetatel sor 139 |— Geyelin’s Vermin .......is2.csue. 173 een WN COL BN OMe sin sect ioue wiblais dare late ates 6 140 |— Miles’ Vermin......\...23eeeeee 174 iW WMO O CEI ES OX tase Scare paeyetsloalarepeouyore 140.) Turkey, Bronze. ..).; 0. see eee 4. ScTeUNIee Poland Cock, Silver-Spangled......... AT |}— Crested... 0.0/0» .s =e 77 — Hen, Silver-Spangled............. 48|— Domestic. ......3.....ceneeeeeeee 73 Polands, Pair of Golden-Spangled..... 49 | — House and nest.jy... See 139 — White Crested Black............. 50!— Wild........ «ea =a eal 75 [FOR GENERAL INDEX SEE PAGE 219} PREFATORY AND INTRODUCTORY. _ In presenting this volume, on the subject of the Breeding, Treatment and Management of Fowls to the public, we do so more for the purpose of supply- ing a need greatly felt by the American breeder and fancier, the amateur and beginner, and placing within the reach of all desiring a knowledge of poultry —the breeds best for market purposes and as egg-producers —a — cheap and reliable guide. Not only shall we be able to present our own views and the results of our experience in poultry-rearing, diseases, their treatment, etc., in these pages, but the experiences of the most careful, scientific and reliable breeders and fanciers in this country, (as given from time to time, for the past twenty-one years, through the columns of the Agricultural Journals and other periodicals,) and place the same in juxta- position with each other, so that they will prove of the utmost value to the amateur breeder, as well as to the new beginner. We have often wondered why our rural population do not rear fowls more universally than they do. It has been demonstrated, beyond a perad- venture, that they can be reared with little expense by nearly every house- keeper, and can be made to pay an hundred fold on the investment. Not only can this be done by our rural population, but also by those living in cities and villages. Having had several years’ experience in rearing fowls in a city, we can speak understandingly on the subject. Fowls can be bred in cities and villages equally as well as on the farm—not on so large a scale, but with as much, if not more profit to the breeder. It requires but a small space to keep a dozen or twenty fowls in either of the localities mentioned; and then the pleasure it gives a person to know that with a little judicious management he will be able to supply his table with birds of his own rearing, and his larder with fresh eggs the year round, can well be imagined. - Nothing, in our opinion, looks more comfortable, home-like and rural, than to see strutting about the premises of a city or village resident, a few select and well-kept fowls. Thus we have city and country, as it were, com- bined. Undoubtedly some city people, or the male portion of them, will object to this theory, on the plea that it would take too much of their valuable time to look after the fowls. This objection is easily overcome by vi THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. leaving the care of them in the hands of the good housewife, who would esteem it a great pleasure to care for the chicks and teach the children how to rear them. What is there that the farmer produces of quicker sale than eggs and poultry? The prices which he receives therefor are in the main remunera- tive, the labor incurred is light and agreeable, and can be performed by the junior members of the family. The poultry yard produces food which is highly palatable and nutritious at all seasons, and in this respect is hardly equaled by any other department of the farm. Is it not worth while, then, to bestow more care and skill in managing poultry? Left to themselves, half their products are often wasted, and half the year they are non-layers. In winter they need simply warmth, light and sunshine, clean, roomy quarters, and plenty of food. Every day they will pay for this. In the summer they want range, fresh earth, shade, water, seclusion, and protection from vermin. An abundance of eggs and broods of plump chickens, either for market or the farmer’s table, will result from this care. If it is not feasible to carry on the poultry business on a large scale, it should be done on a medium scale; for every farmer should make a couple of hundred dollars’ worth of their products yearly, independent of fertilizing properties the farm receives in the manure saved from the hennery. It is our object, however, to especially impress upon the minds of village and city residents the importance and advantages of rearing and keeping fowls. We take it for granted that large and small farmers know their own interests in this matter. In villages there can be no excuse whatever for not breeding fowls, suc- cessfully and profitably. In nearly all the small villages in Europe fowls are bred by tenants; their children make pets of them. Wherever there is a cottager’s family living on potatoes, or better fare, may be seen a little pent- house, with nests of straw or hay for the fowls to lay in, and a speculation in eggs and chickens sought. It is said Americans are shrewd; then why do they not demonstrate their shrewdness in this matter. We know, from past experience, that there is no money lost in keeping and rearing a few fowls, and a great ‘deal of pleasure and profit derived from it. Viewing the matter in this light, with the hope of inducing our city, village and rural population to enter more fully into the breeding and rearing of fowls, we present this volume, and submit it, without further introduction, to the inspection, and we trust, favorable consideration of the public: Woe Ee BROOKLYN, N. Y., 1871. FOWLS—THEIR GENERAL MANAGEMENT, THERE Is a great diversity of opinion in regard to the management of fowls, the particular and desirable breeds for all purposes, &c. First of all, their PROPER CARE AND KEEPING . is essential to success, for a person may have the best known breeds, and if they are not properly cared for they will, in nine cases out of ten, prove a failure. Therefore we wish to impress upon the mind of the breeder, in the ~ outset, that this needs attention more than purity of breed or superiority of kind. As a friend of ours said, “there exists gross neglect of the poor birds generally.” This neglect is not confined to persons who have no fancy for fine poultry, but extends even to many who have the reputation of being fowl fanciers. Still, as before stated, for poultry to be remunerative there must be good management. In STARTING OUT IN THE BUSINESS, plans should be well matured and digested before hand. A good, convenient poultry house should be properly constructed, sufficiently large to contain the number of birds one desires, warm and dry in the winter, well ven- tilated, and it should be kept scrupulously clean. The house should rot be over-crowded, but just large enough. Nothing is made by over-crowding the hennery; on the contrary, it will prove detrimental. The fowls must be fed regularly and at stated periods. They must have plenty of pure water at hand at all times — this is of as much importance to the health of the brood as proper food. If possible, they should also be given, in addition, a plat of grass fora run. Place within the hennery a dust heap; this may consist of wood or coal ashes, sand, or dust from the streets. It should be kept under cover, so that it will not become drenched with rain or snow, and to it the fowls should have access at all times, to dust, and thereby rid them- selves, in a great degree, of the numerous parasites which infest them. The habit of GIVING TOO MUCH FOOD, to poultry, in a short space of time, is a very bad one. If one notices their habits he will perceive that the process of picking up their food under ordi- 8 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. nary, or what we may call the natural condition, is a very slow one. Grain by grain is the meal taken, and with the aggregate no small amount of sand, pebbles, and thie like, all of which, passing into the crop, assist digestion greatly. But in the “ hen-wife’s” mode of feeding poultry, a great heap is thrown down, and the birds are allowed to “peg away” at such a rate that their crop is filled too rapidly, and the process of assimilation is slow, painful and incomplete. No wonder that so many cases of choked craw are met with under this treatment. Many other diseases which affect chickens might be prevented by breeders, were a little precaution taken in the simple matter of feeding. TO PRODUCE EGGS. More eggs can perhaps be obtained from hens by mixing breeds than by any other mode; and it is generally conceded that crossing also promotes — the health of fowls far more than the vile practice, as some are pleased to term it, of in-and-in breeding. Little trouble need be apprehended from roup, gapes, cholera, and other diseases in poultry, if that care is observed in breeding and crossing that is so essential to all well regulated poultry yards. POSITION OF THE HENNERY AND RUNWAYS. As we said before, the hennery should be placed in a warm, dry location — (not in a damp, out-of-the-way place) — with runways ample to allow of plenty of exercise. Above all, care should be taken that vermin do not get a foot- hold in the hennery; for if they once make their appearance, it is difficult to exterminate them, and before the breeder is aware of it, his flock is over-run with them. Let the hennery be thoroughly cleansed with lime, (whitewash put on hot,) as often as once a month. If any of the fowls show symptoms of disease — which is frequently the case when in confinement —see that they are removed at once from the flock. Give good, wholesome food, with plenty of clean water; have the laying boxes cleaned and renewed frequently with straw, hay or shavings, and, with the help of the good housewife and children, there need be no fear of failure to profitably raise poultry. If one does not succeed in the first undertaking, he should not become disheartened, but persist in his endeavors to find out the cause of failure, and obviate it in the future. MR. LELAND’S EXPERIENCE. In this connection we give the reply of Mr. Warren Leann, Rye, N. Y., an experienced and extensive breeder of fowls, to inquiries from a gentle- man who desired to engage in the poultry business in his old age. Mr. Lz- LAND says:—“‘ I have found that for every hundred fowls you must give up at least an acre. But rough land is as good as any. Hens naturally love the bush, and I lop young trees, but leave a shred by which they live a year or more. These form hiding places and retreats for them. In such places they prefer to lay. Ihave great success, and it depends on three or four rules, by observing which I believe a good living can be made by hens and turkeys. I THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 9 give my fowls great range. Eighteen acres belong to them exclusively. Then the broods have the range of another big lot, and the turkeys go half a mile or more from the house. The eighteen acres of poultry-yard is rough land, of little use for tillage. It has a pond in it, and many rocks, and bushes, and weeds, and sandy places, and ash heaps, and lime, and bones, and grass, and a place which I plow up to give them worms. ‘“¢ When a hen has set, I take her box, throw out the straw and earth, let it be out in the sun and rain a few days, and give it a good coat of whitewash on both sides. In winter, when it is very cold, I have an old stove in their house, and keep the warmth above freezing. There is also an open fire-place where I build a fire in cool, wet days. They dry themselves, and when the fire goes out there is a bed of ashes for them to wallow in. Summer and winter my hens have all the lime, ashes and sand they want. Another reason why I have such luck is because my poultry yards receive all the scraps from the Metropolitan Hotel. Egg making is no easy work, and hens will not do much of it without high feed. They need just what a man who works re- quires — wheat bread and meat. Even when wheat costs two dollars I believe in feeding it to hens. As to breeds, I prefer the Brahmas, light and dark. I change roosters every spring, and a man on the farm has no other duty than to take care of my Only I frequently turn off three thousand spring chickens in a single season.’ BREEDING AND MATING. Too many fanciers and farmers, otherwise earnest in their business, are very careless concerning their fowls. Interbreeding certainly degenerates — particularly when so promiscuously permitted in a flock of fowls as is com- mon. ‘There are the same good reasons for MAKING CHOICE OF THE BEST BREEDS OF FOWLS as for making the same choice in other stocks. For while a prime breed is as easily reared, fed and housed as a poorer one, there is a decided difference in the returns in favor of the former. If properly cared for, we do not hesitate to say that fowls of superior order do yield the farmer, even, the largest interest for the outlay he makes of any other stock he keeps. 10 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. In giving our own, and the opinions of others on the general principles of breeding and mating fowls, it will not be out of place to give here an illus- tration and description of THE DIFFERENT POINTS OF A FOWL, so that the reader may be able to name them, and judge therefrom, in his selection of stock for breeding purposes :—A, Neck-hackle; B, Saddle-hackle; C, Tail; D, Breast; E, Upper Wing Coy- erts; F, Lower Wing Coverts ; G, Primary Quills; H, Thighs; I, Legs; K, Comb ; L, Wattles; M, Ear Lobe. SELECTION OF COCKS AND HENS FOR BREEDING PURPOSES. A desirable thing in breeding is the selection of the cock. This, as all should understand, is a very important matter to be looked after ; another is the proper pro- portion of hens to be given to the cock. To breed a good fowl of any kind requires thought, skill, observation and study. The cock in all cases should be of good size, perfectly healthy and vigorous ; carry his head high, and have a quick, animated look, a strong and shrill voice; the bill thick and short, the comb of a fire red, bright color ; a membraneous wattle of a large size, and in color resembling the comb. He should be broad-breasted, with strong wings; the plumage dark, the thighs muscular, and spry and trim on his legs; free in his motions ; crow often, and scratch the earth with constancy in search of worms, not so much for himself as his mates; when he is brisk, spirited, ardent and clever in caressing them, quick in defending them, attentive in soliciting them to eat, in keeping them together in the day, and assembling them at night, he will prove as a general thing, just the bird to breed from. The good qualities of hens, whether intended for laying or breeding, ‘are of no less importance than those of the cock. The hen is deservedly the acknowledged pattern of maternal love. When her passion of philoprogenitiveness is disappointed by the failure or separation of her own brood, she will either go on sitting, till her natural powers fail, or she will violently kidnap the young of another fowl, and insist upon adopting them. But all hens are not alike. They have their little whims and fancies, likes and dislikes, as capricious and unaccountable as those of other females. Some are gentle in their manners and disposition, others are sanguinary ; some are lazy, others energetic almost to insanity. To succeed in the matter WISE THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 1] of the selection of hens for mating and breeding purposes ene care, study and a considerable degree of- patience. THE NUMBER OF HENS TO A COCK, ETC. We have no hesitancy in recommending to breeders the following ratio ° of hens to a cock of the breed named :—Houdans, twenty hens 40 two cocks R Creve-Ceurs, eight hens to one cock; Buff Cochins, twenty-four hens to two cocks; Gray Dorkings, ten hens to one cock; White Leghorns, four- teen hens to one cock; Spanish, twelve hens to one cock; Brahmas, twelve hens to one cock; Hamburgs, fourteen hens to one cock; Polands, twelve hens to one cock; Game, ten hens to one cock. With this proportion of hens to a cock the vitality of the eggs will prove good, and at least eleven out of twelve eggs set will produce “ chicks.” For breeding purposes, we inclose in a yard ten or fifteen hens of each variety we desire to propagate, and with them one cock; if we have two or more cocks whose qualities are equal, we think it preferable to. change every two days, leaving only one cock with the hens at a time. Two weeks are necessary to procure full bloods, and we prefer the eggs the third rather than the second week. ; We are told by a breeder of some considerable experience with fowls that to determine the exact proportion of cocks and hens to be allowed to run together for breeding purposes is not an easy problem. He says: “ While with some varieties, as the Cochins, three or four, or even two, are ample, (though we have seen cocks of that variety that would serve ten or a dozen;) in others, twelve to fifteen are not too many. It is impossible to give any definite number for a rule. We have had pairs that did well, the egos hatched well, and the hen did not suffer from the over-attention of the cock ; and again, we have been obliged to put in one, two, three, four and even more additional hens of common stock, with a trio of pure-bred fowls, to keep the blooded hens from being injured. LEspecially is this the case with the Houdans and Creve-Ceurs; the cocks of both these breeds seem to be very vigorous, and require not less than four or six hens to run with them. The Dark Brahmas also need not less than four hens with the cock when he is young and vigorous. It was a favorite theory of ours, some years since, that poultry should be bred in pairs or trios. Because in the wild state, they ran in pairs, so also, should they do in the domesticated state. It is needless to say that our theory would not work when carried into practice. Perhaps, were a pair of fowls given a range of ten, twenty or more acres, and left to forage for themselves, one or two hens would be all the cock could attend; but confined to an acre or less, and fed on stimulating food, the bird’s nature becomes, as it were, changed, and he feels himself qualified for greater deeds. We have seen a hen’s back and sides all cut open by the cock’s spurs, and the owner was complaining that the hen did not lay. If he had given her three or four companions his cause of complaint would have ceased. The only mode of deciding the question is by watching the fowls. We have 12 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. known instances, though rare, of a cock serving twenty to twenty-five hens, and the eggs being very fertile. Again, a cock was cooped up with four hens, and it was found that when penned with two the eggs hatched twenty- five per cent. better than with the four. We think the latter case is of rare occurrence; a safe average is four to six hens toa cock. A few days’ ob- servation will enable one to tell whether more or less hens are needed. A young cock that has had a dozen or twenty hens to run with the first year is rarely fit for more than three or four the second. But if well cared for the first, and allowed not more than six hens, he is usually good for three or four years’ service. We know many are prejudiced against using old cocks, and usually their prejudice is founded on experience like the above. A young cock with old hens is our preference for-breeding stock, though many reverse it and put an old cock with young pullets. We know the hen lays a larger ege than the pullet, and a large egg must certainly bring out a larger chick than a small one; and, as a rule, (to which there are many exceptions,) a young cock is more vigorous than an old one. Therefore we think this selec- tion preferable. Some, we are aware, contend that the cock has more in- fluence on the progeny than the hen, and that an old cock, being more mature and developed, will throw better chicks. Such has not been our experience, however, after a close observation of several years’ duration.” PREMIUM BIRDS DO NOT PRODUCE THE BEST CHICKENS. For the purpose of more fully carrying out our idea of breeding fowls to perfection and pointing out their imperfections, we have selected the Brahma as an example, (the principle will apply to any other breed,) and in this connection give, from Moore’s Rural New-Yorker, the experience and advice of a gentleman who makes the breeding of fowls a science. He says:—“ Premium birds do not always produce the best chickens. Good results may often be obtained from moderate stock, provided that they be so selected that the defects of the cock may be counteracted by those of the hens. Size in the Brahma is not of so mueh importance as most people give to it. Fine, large chickens may be reared from small parents by proper care and attention, and good, regular and judicious feeding. INFLUENCE UPON THE FANCY POINTS. “The cock has the most influence upon the fancy points, while the hen has most upon the form and size. If more attention were paid to the shape and straightness of the comb of the cock, we should see less of those grave defects which so frequently mar whole pens. I have seen magnificent birds with such crooked and fungus-like combs as would almost disqualify them in my opinion. Judges have been too liberal with these defects. It is quite time such liberality was stopped. Crooked combs should be bred out and not tolerated. The comb is one of the most prominent characteristics of the bird, and almost the first object. which meets the eye. It touches our sense of the beautiful immediately to see a small head and straight comb, THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 13 and docile look. And the head of a Brahma fowl should possess these quali- _ fications; too much importance should not be given to breeding for weight or largeness of carcass, over other qualifications. I admire in the Brahma fowl a large frame, of symmetrical proportions and corresponding weight; but a fattened fowl is only fit for the table. I should rather breed from a small cock with a perfect comb than a large one with a crooked comb. A lively cock, mated with large hens, is preferable to a sluggish cock and small hens. Length of legs in a cock is of less importance than in ahen; and in order to get size and proportion you must have due length of legs; and even in a hen, it may be counteracted by judicious mating. A narrow cock and a very wide hen are more likely to breed well than the reverse. It is to the male bird the breeder must look for perfection or defects in the comb, the beautiful yellow color of the legs, and all the fine points of the Brahma. “As to the penciling, I am convinced, by considerable experience, that the two sexes bear a proportionate influence to each other, although I should not hesitate to say that there is more probability of breeding good chickens from a perfectly and darkly penciled pullet or hen and an inferior cock than from a badly colored or marked hen and a cock of superior blood. A hen with a bad comb, mated with a cock whose comb is small and fine, will throw some very fine chickens. A cock with a drooping back and saddle should be mated with a hen very high towards the tail; and if his hackle be short or scanty, that of the hen should be unusually sweeping and full. Hf any white stain should appear in the ear lobes, it is very apt to perpetuate itself, and particular care should be taken that the other sex has no sign of it, through several degrees. In shape, style and carriage, the Dark and Light varieties of the Brahma fowl should be precisely similar. In the Light, I think the breeders of this country have surpassed the English. The Light “now stands almost on equality with the Dark in size, shape, and in general popularity. The comb of this fowl especially must be more closely looked after. A defective comb tells wofully against the bird. You must breed them even, low and straight. You cannot, I know, get this point to perfection in the cock until a strain has been bred for years. No pure strain ought to breed a comb in which the peculiar triple character is not perfectly distinct. SHAPE OF THE COMB AND HEAD. 7 There i is a diversity of opinion as to the shape of the comb. It should not exceed half an inch in hight, and instead of rising from the front towards the back and ending in a peak, I should prefer to see it, after arising for half or two-thirds of its length, decrease again towards the back, forming a kind of arch. This kind of comb not only looks well and symmetrical, but according to experience, is likely to breed far more true than any other. The head of the Brahma cannot be too small in proportion to the body. There is no point in this fowl that so truly indicates the high breeding or the blood of the strain as the smallness of the head, and you will find that a small head is accompanied by fineness of flesh, a point never to be lost sight of in this 14 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. class. I placed a dark hen of this variety in a coop by itself on exhibition at our poultry show merely to give those interested in the matter those points in perfection which I claim we must reach before we can say we have finished — our labors in this respect. THE GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. “In all the original Brahmas the deaf-ears fell below the wattles; and this point was mentioned by Dr. Benner as a characteristic of the breed; and the perpetuation of this should be carefully looked after. The neck- hackle should start well out just below the head, making a full sweep, and marking the point of juncture between the head and neck very distinetly by an apparent hollow or depression. The hackles can hardly be too full, and should descend low enough to flow over the back and shoulders. The more perfect you can get this, the nobler the carriage and appearance of the bird. A short or scanty hackle is a very great blemish. The hocks should be well covered with soft curling feathers. A cock with hocks a little owt should not be deprecated, and as sometimes is, by the inexperienced, discarded. This class of hock, when properly mated with fine built hens, scantily feathered on the legs and toes, throw very fine full-booted birds. .While I should con- demn all vulture-hocked fowls to the gridiron, there are exceptions where I have bred from a very large, finely-formed hen, with handsomely and dis- tinctly marked pencilings, with great success, by mating them with a clean shanked cock with the proper marking ; and have thrown four good birds to one hocked. No bird of this species should, when full grown, be considered fit for exhibition, unless the cock weighs twelve pounds, and hens from eight to nine pounds; andif a cockerel does not weigh eight pounds at six or eight months, he will rarely prove a show bird. BREEDING AND MATING FOR SIZE, ETC. ‘“‘In breeding for size, select a short, compact, deep-bodied cockerel, which need not be large, and mate him with long backed hens, even if their legs are longer than usual. Although length of back is a decided fault, such a cross will generally breed well; the hen supplying the form, while the cock fills out to the proper proportion. Long, dangy, large-boned cocks may be mated with compact, short-legged hens, with the same result; but the first mentioned cross will produce better results. Fine chickens may be reared from the eggs of pullets; but the best chickens, asa rule, are got by mating either a two-year-old cock or a cockerel, with hens in their second season ; their chickens fledge more quickly, and attain maturity sooner. Hens mated with cockerels turn out more male birds, while cocks mated with pullets, will produce a goodly proportion of pullets. I should not hesitate mating cock- erels with pullets, if they be fine, strong-boned birds, hatched in March or the early part of April. A great many birds are spoiled by breeding from a cock of one strain and hens of different strains, and different styles of pem cilings. If my presumption may be excused, I should advise the different THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 15 breeders of this country te make up their minds respectively, as to the style and markings of the birds they deem most desirable to breed, and breed them uniformly and closely te the standard they have adopted. The popular taste will soon settle the question. You can always have fresh blood, if you keep two or three pens, and you can go on for years without crossing your breeds, and running the risk of bad blood or a motley brood, with no uniformity of shape or markings. BREEDING IN-AND-IN. “Do not feel too much anxiety about breeding tn-and-in. Parent and offspring, and even brother and sister, may be bred from with safety and suc- cess for several years with this class of fowls. No breed has such stamina as the Brahma, and if any mishap does occur, it will not be so aggravated as it would be by the concentration of bad blood; therefore, it stands you in. hand to be very careful what strain you purchase, and to know if the party has bred from distinct strains or indiscriminately. It is a work of time to breed fine strains, and considerable patience is requisite. It is in this respect that parties make a great mistake in going about from yard to yard, selecting here and there a bird from one, and cock, &c., from another, to gratify their vanity, with the hope of winning a few prizes, to the great detriment. of the stock and disappointment of purchasers of the same, if they should breed from them. In the Light Brahma it is very necessary to secure a sufficient amount of color in the cock. The tendency of all poultry is to get lighter if indiscriminately bred ; therefore, you should select cocks of the proper dark- ness for breeding stock. The saddle should only be lightly striped, for if it contains too much black or the neck-hackle too dark, you will produce spotted backs. I will set down two rules, either of which can be applied to suit the wants of the breeder:—1. Very heavy penciled cocks must be used to get heavy penciled (chicks) cocks. 2. Very dark hackled hens and light pen- ciled hackled cocks will get nice hackled pullets.” VULTURE HOCKED FOWLS. Vulture hocked birds are a disqualification to any brood of fowls, with few exceptions, and should be eschewed in all breeding stock. The vulture hock is the projec- tion of feathers behind the knee, and inclining towards the ground, as shown in the accompany- ing illustration. The feathers of a fowl’s leg usually should be close round the knee, and the leg clean below it. The breeds in which the vulture hock is necessary are Scrai-ta-ooks, Booted Bantams, and Ptarmigan fowls. Where the vulture hock makes its appearance, unwished for, and where its presence is considered a grave fault, is among Cochins and Brahmas. The fault will sometimes appear in the progeny, but in fowls, as 16 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. in everything else, the perfect birds form the exception, and as Dr. BENNETT says, ‘to have many of them it is only necessary to breed well and kill well. By this process you will get rid of the vulture hock.” CROSSING THE BREED. As we have said elsewhere, to insure successful and beneficial crossing of distinct breeds, in order to produce a new and what may be considered a valuable variety, the breeder should be well versed in the laws of procreation, and the varied influences of parents upon their offspring. It is avered that all fowls bred in this country are crosses or made breeds, either by design or accident. Therefore crossing does not necessarily produce a breed; but on the other hand, it always produces a variety, and that variety becomes a dis- tinctive breed only where there is a sufliciency of stamina to make a dis- tinctive race, and continue a progeny with the uniform or leading character- istics of its progenitors. In crossing one breed with another we should say put a light cock with dark hens or vice versa, as in this case there is more liability of producing not only a new variety, but also some fine birds in the brood. Care is required in this matter, as in all others, (in mating for cross- breeding,) and patience is indispensable to success. All disqualified birds should be taken from the pen at the earliest moment, and sent to the table. leaving the best selections to breed from. We have made a fine cross by placing a dark Brahma hen with a white Dorking cock, and, on another occa- sion, made a good cross by placing a White-faced Black Spanish cock with a white Dorking pullet. There is no question but that good and valuable breeds of fowls, of beautiful plumage, may be thrown by these crosses. ee a ee ee SETTING HENS AND INCUBATION. THE NUMBER OF EGGS TO PUT UNDER A HEN. One of the most important points to be observed in setting eggs for hatching, is to correctly proportion the number, taking into consideration their size, and the size of the hen about to sit upon them. The state of the weather should also be a guide; for a hen capable of setting upon and hatch- ing thirteen eggs in June ought not to have more than ten in January. The great error of settmg a hen upon more eggs than she can cover is a cause of very general disappointment. We have frequently seen cross-bred game and other small hens set upon thirteen eggs, when it was perfectly clear to us that it would be impossible for them all to receive a proper and equal share of heat from her body. It is absolutely certain, also, that a hen cannot hatch out chickens from those eggs which she cannot draw close up to her body and give to them the natural warmth they require in the process of in- cubation. This has been very clearly demonstrated to us; for upon one occasion we placed fifteen eggs under a hen, when we ought not at any sea- son to have given more than twelve, or, at the most, thirteen, and while out. at feeding time, we examined the ncst and found only thirteen eggs left. We at first thought the hen might have eaten them; but, after one or two exami nations, we found sometimes thirteen and at others fourteen eggs present. - We determined upon catching the hen one morning while off to feed, after finding there were only thirteen eggs in the nest. We cautiously laid hold of her, when she unfortunately dropped one egg and broke it; upon a further examination we found the other missing egg under her wing. We replaced the egg in the nest and found that she regularly removed one or two of them ; thus it was apparent that she had more eggs under her than the surface of her body could possibly cover by contact. This marvelous fact proved the existence, first, of the beautiful principle we term instinct, and the ardent natural desire for carrying out to the fullest extent the remarkable operation we understand as incubation. THE PROPER HENS TO SET. A half-breed game or other small hen should be chosen for a natural in- cubator — (they have always, with us, proved the best breed) — and nine of her own eggs should be the extent ; if a Dorking or a large size mongrel hen be selected, eleven are sufficient; a Cochin hen of some of the strains we 2 18 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. have seen, will even cover fifteen of her own or eggs of similar size; but even in this instance, it is best to err on the safe side, and give her but thir- teen eggs. Cochins and Brahmas have a large width of breast and a large amount of fluff and feather, both features being highly conducive to success- ful hatching, by assisting to retain the heat of the body of the birds and of the eggs also. CLOSE-SETTING HENS. There are some hens over-anxious about the chicks within the shells, whose cry for deliverance they can distinctly hear ; and they do not rise from off the eggs during the process of chipping. This is an operation we have continually observed with hens that are very successful in hatching, while those which sit too closely at the last stages are those whose excess of kind- ness has produced the non, or limited, success in hatching out good broods. The only good arising from any sprinkling of the eggs with water results from their having received an increased and life-saving supply of air during such process, without which, in many instances, the chicks would either have been suffocated or glued to the shell. THE PROCESS OF INCUBATION of the chicken is a subject not only curious but very interesting to the student of nature. It generally takes twenty-one days to hatch a brood of chickens, although a close-setting hen will sometimes hatch in eighteen days, if the weather is favorable. The A\\ expiration of the time should be carefully watched for; Z\ not that the chicken requires any assistance, but, on the contrary, interference is much more likely to prove an } injury than a benefit. A healthy chick will perform all that is required to free it from the shell. It is wonder- ful the power they possess while rolled up in so apparently MI exertion to free itself, is placed so as to leave room for reaction, cmd to turn round, and thus to peck a circle, (as shown in the ac- companying engraving,) and breaks around the large end of the shell, ad- mitting the air by degrees, until it becomes gradually prepared to extricate itself. A rash attempt to help them by breaking the shell, more particularly in a downward direction, toward the smaller end, is frequently followed by a loss of blood, which can ill be spared, and death ensues. We place the nest in a warm, sheltered place, and have fresh food and water near at hand so that the hen can help herself whenever sho is so in- clined. Should the nest become dirty, change it, or even wash the eggs in tepid water. As fast as the chickens break the shell, place them in a basket of cotton-wool by the fire, to avoid the danger of the mother’s crushing them while they are helpless. When all have hatched, they may be returned to the hen. The yolk of a hard boiled egg should constitute their food dur- helpless a mass; the head, however, that makes the most — \ et Se THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 19 ing the first week; after which coarser food may be given. When fully fledged, give them their liberty in the heat of the day, and house them be- fore sunset. Never permit them to wander in the grass when the dew is on, as more healthy fowls perish from this than any other cause. The chicks can be fed to good advantage with cracked corn or a mush of potatoes and Indian meal cooked. Feed should be given in small quantities, and fre- quently, during the day. CHANGES WHICH AN EGG UNDERGOES IN HATCHING. In this connection we trust it will not be deemed out of place to give what we find in an old volume of the Genesee Harmer and Gardeners’ Journal of July, 1833, relative to the wonderful changes which an egg undergoes in hatching, from the first day till its final exclusion, accompanied with three illustrations, showing the first, middle and last stages of the chick. The same article appears in the American Poulterer’s Companion, erron- eously credited to an English journal. This process of incubation is thus minutely described : Zz 2 ZS = SS ES 3 — “ip = Z Aq FIRST, MIDDLE, AND LAST STAGES OF THE CHICK. “The hen has scarcely sat on her eggs twelve hours, before some linea- ments of the head and body of the chicken appear. The heart may be seen to beat at the end of the second day; it has at that time somewhat the form of a horseshoe, but no blood yet appears. At the end of two days, two vesicles of blood are to be distinguished, the pulsation of .which is very visible; one of these is the left ventricle, and the other the root of the great artery. At the fiftieth hour, one auricle of the heart appears, resembling a: noose folded down upon itself. The beating of the heart is first observed in the auricle, and afterward in the ventricle. At the end of seventy hours, the wings are distinguishable; and on the head two bubbles are seen for the brain, one for the bill, and two for the fore and hind part of the head. To- ward the end of the fourth day, the two auricles already visible draw nearer to the heart than before. The liver appears toward the fifth day. At the end of a hundred and thirty-one hours, the first voluntary motion is observed. At the end of seven hours more, the lungs and the stomach become visible ; 20 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. and four hours afterward, the intestines, and loins, and the upper jaw. At the hundred and forty-fourth hour, two ventricles are visible, and two drops of blood instead of the single one which was seen before. The seventh day, the brain begins to have some consistency. At the hundred and nineteenth hour of incubation, the bill opens, and the flesh appears in the breast. In four hours more, the breast-bone is seen. In six hours after this, the ribs appear, forming from the back, and the bill is very visible, as well as the gall. bladder. The bill becomes green at the end of two hundred and thirty-six hours; and if the chicken be taken out of its covering, it evidently moves itself. The feathers begin to shoot out toward the two hundred and fortieth hour, and the skull becomes gristly. At the two hundred and sixty-fourth hour, the eyes appear. At the two hundred and eighty-eighth, the ribs are perfect. At the three hundred and thirty-first, the spleen draws near the stomach, and the lungs to the chest. At the end of three hundred and fifty- five hours, the bill frequently opens and shuts; and at the end of the eighteenth day, the first cry of the chicken is heard. It afterward gets more strength and grows continually, till at length it is enabled to set itself free trom its confinement. “In the whole of this process we must remark that every part appears at its proper time; if, for example, the liver is formed on the fifth day, it is founded on the preceding situation of the chicken, and on the changes that were to follow. No part of the body could possibly appear either sooner or later without the whole embryo suffering; and each of the limbs becomes visible at the first moment. This ordination, so wise and so invariable, is manifestly the work of a Supreme Be- ing; but we must still more sensibly acknowledge His creative powers, when we consider the manner in which the which compose the egg. How aston- . ishing it must appear to an observing mind, that ~in this substance there should at all be the vital principle of an animated being; that all the parts of an animal’s body should be con- cealed in it, and require nothing but heat to unfold and quicken them ; that the whole formation of the chicken should be so constant and regular that, exactly at the same time, the same changes will take place in the gener- ality of eggs; that the chicken, the moment it is hatched, is heavier than the egg was before! But even these are not all the wonders in the for- mation of the bird from the egg—for this instance will serve to illustrate chicken is formed out of the parts — Se eee THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 2 the whole of the feathered tribe — there are others altogether hidden from our observation, and of which, from our very limited faculties, we must ever remain ignorant.” THE FERTILITY OF EGGS. There is no difficulty whatever in testing the fertility of eggs. The way to ascertain unfertile eggs at as early a period as possible is to take them into a room moderately dark, and hold them between the eye and a candle or lamp, in the manner represented in the engraving on the preceding page. The eggs under a setting hen should be examined at least as early as the eighth day after she commences incubation. If the egg be fertile, it will appear opaque, or dark all over, except, perhaps, a small portion towards the top ; but if it be unimpregnated, it will be still translucent, the light passing through it almost as if new laid. After some experience the eggs can be dis- tinguished at an earlier period, and a practiced hand can tell the unfertile eggs even at the fourth day. Should the number withdrawn be considerable, four batches set the same day may be given to three hens, or even two, and the remainder given fresh eggs; and if not, the fertile eggs will get more heat, and the brood come out all the stronger. ' THE PROPER FOOD AND FEEDING. NEVER stint poultry in the variety or quality of their food. Good food is positive economy. ‘The best and heaviest corn is the cheapest. The best food is that which gives the most of what nature demands for the formation of muscle, bone and fat. Fine bran, or middlings, is richer in two of these important ingredients than any other one kind of food; but being deficient ‘In gluten, is not warmth-giving, and is better when combined with whole grain, which, when mashed, forms a most wholesome and nutritious diet. Barley is much used in Europe, but should never be the only food in the poultry yard. Fowls do not fatten on it, though for a time they will thrive. Oats are good as a change, but inferior in nutriment; if they are browned or roasted and given freely, they prove a good egg-producing food. Buck- wheat, however, is the best food to make fowls lay early. They devour the 7.19) THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. feed greedily, and its heating influence, in winter, is very perceptible. Hemp seed is also productive of eggs, and is very strengthening ; it is one of the best things that can be fed to fowls during the moulting season. THE PROPER FOOD TO GIVE. In preparing birds for exhibition, flax seed may be given occasionally ; it increases the secretion of oil, and gives luster to their plumage. In giving soft feed it should be mixed stiff— not mushy ; fowls do not relish it in the latter state. A good food of this kind is composed of equal parts of fine bran and Indian meal. This should be scalded or mixed with boiling hot water to such a consistency that it will break or crumble when thrown upon the ground. Another good soft feed is made of small potatoes, washed clean, boiled, and mashed with an equal quantity of Indian meal. In giving soft feed never use a feeding dish or trough. If the yards are clean, as they should be, the ground is by far the best place to feed them from. The gravel and sand, which adhere to the food, are necessary for digestion; besides, poultry prefer to pick their food from the ground. Do not, on any consideration, neglect to give poultry green food. A little chopped vegetables of some kind, whether cabbage, lettuce, spinach, onions or other greens, is better given every day than a great deal once or twice a week. To secure perfect eggs, lime, in some form, ought to be fur- nished. Broken bones, lime rubbish, oyster or clam shells, burned and pounded fine, are all good. Beef or pork scraps are productive of good re- sults. In the winter, when fowls. cannot supply themselves with insects, worms or grubs, a scrap-cake, laid in the hen yard for them to pick at, or a little chopped off and broken up and fed to them, adds not only to their health but largely to the contents of the egg basket. An occasional dish of raw meat, chopped into small pieces and given them will be devoured with avidity. Another way, and one which we have practiced with good results, is to get a sheep’s pluck and hang it up in the hennery, just high enough to make the fowls fly up and pick it off by piece-meal. If fowls are over-fed with meat it will show itself in the loss of feathers, and prove very detri- mental to the brood. Some breeders feed game fowls largely on fresh meat — claiming that it creates a pugnacious disposition in the cock. What- ever is done in the matter of feeding, regularity, as to time, is essential to success. REARING FOWLS FOR MARKET AND EGGS. ® THE BEST BREED TO REAR FOR MARKET. Tue best breed of fowls to rear for the market, or as egg-producers, de- pends upon locality ; for while, in some places, one variety is deemed the best, in others it would prove the reverse. Our own opinion is, that, for a market fowl, the Brahmas and Cochins will, under almost all circumstances, prove the most desirable, they being less liable to disease, feathering up quickly, and can be bred to weigh, at from four to six months of age, eight to ten pounds. Another good table fowl is the Dorking (cock) crossed with the Brahma (hen). The flesh of this cross is sweet and nutritious, and acquires at early age the plumpness of the Dorking at maturity. There are other breeds, however, which are said to be desirable to rear for the table. Many claim that the French breeds of fowls are of this number; but this we very much doubt, as their flesh lacks the buttery, golden color that attracts the eye of the epicure. They may prove valuable as egg-producers, but they lack many good qualities as a table bird. Dorkings are undoubtedly at the head of the list as table birds, but of late years have become so subject to disease that we question the feasibility of rearing them profitably for mar- ket in our changeable northern climate. — THE BEST AS EGG-PRODUCERS.. As egg-producers the Hamburgs are claimed to stand at the head of the - jist. This claim we are prepared to dispute; for, as winter layers, we find that the Brahma, Cochin, Leghorn, Poland, and Houdan stand rela- tively in the position here named. That the Hamburgs are good egg-pro- ducers we admit ; but that they are any better than a number of non-setting fowls, so called, we deny. The richness and meatiness of their eggs are not to be compared with those of the Poland, Leghorn, Houdan or Brahma; and their eggs lack the size of those named. All things considered, we have no hesitancy in saying that for eggs we should name the Polands ; for the table, Dorkings, and for early marketable chickens, Brahmas and Cochins. A correspondent of Moore’s Rural New- Yorker, who has had consider- able experience in rearing fowls for profit, says:—‘*‘The Farmer’s Breed is the breed for profit. It consists of Brahma hens and colored Dorking 94 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. cocks — the chicks from which are hardy, easily reared, grow fast, and in four months, without extra feed, will dress four to five pounds each of fine- grained, well-formed, plump-breasted, well-colored flesh, fit for the table of any amateur or epicure, and always commanding a good price in market. The hens from this cross are even better and more continuous layers than either pure Brahma or the Dorking; but if wanted to breed again, the farmer must keep one coop separate of Brahmas — say a cock and two hens — and so also of the Dorkings, and thus yearly with the cross of pure bred birds, cocks of the Dorkings, and hens of the Brahmas, keep up the ‘ Farmer's Breed for profit.” FATTENING AND PREPARING POULTRY FOR MARKET, THE MANNER OF FATTENING. AutTHoucH the manner of fattening poultry may seem to be extremely plain, there is, nevertheless, a right and a wrong way, a long and a short mode of accomplishing the object desired. Many breeders who rear fowls for the market believe in letting poultry forage and shift for themselves, while others believe the best method is in keeping them constantly in high feed. This is just our idea; for where a steady and regular profit is required from rearing poultry, or a business is made thereof, the very best .method, whether for domestic use or for the market, is constant high keep from the beginning. Thus they will always be in a saleable condition and ready for the table. As the American Poulterer’s Companion justly says, fowls kept in this way need but very little extra attention. Their flesh will be superior in juiciness and richer in flavor than those which are fattened from a low and emaciated state. Fed in the manner above indicated, spring pullets are particularly fine, commanding the highest price on the market, and proving a ' most healthful, nourishing and restorative food. FEEDING HOUSES. Our mode of constructing feeding houses or coops is to have them so they will be,at once warm and airy, with earthen floors, well raised, and capacious _ enough for the accommodation of from twenty to thirty-five fowls; the floor, if desired, may be slightly littered with straw, but the litter should be fre- placed on the table. THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 25 quently changed, and great care taken to secure cleanliness, for fear of ver- min. As we have before said, the coops should be well supplied with feed- ing-troughs which should always be kept full of feed, and which can be got at easily by the fowls. Perches should also be placed but a few feet from the ground, so they can be reached without much effort ; those made in the form of stairs, having the poles one above the other, (slanting,) are the best. Fowls cooped in this way may be fattened in a short time and to the highest pitch, and be preserved in a perfectly healthy state. There is no necessity, in our opinion, to confine fowls in dark coops and practice the art of cram- ming to fatten them properly; this mode is an abomination, and should not be followed by any breeder of common sense. MODE OF FATTENING FOWLS IN COOPS. In fattening fowls confined in coops, old writers recommend feeding them with bread, soaked in ale, wine, or milk; barley mixed with milk, and sea- soned with mustard or anise seed ; while others recommend cramming them three or four times a day ; also keeping them in a dark. place, and not allow- ing them any exercise. Brap1zEy says, “the best way, and the quickest, to fatten them, is to put them into coops as usual, and feed them with barley meal, being particular to put a small quantity of brick dust in their water, which they should never be without. This last will give them an appetite for their meat, and fatten them very soon.” Yet another writer says they should be shut up where they can get no gravel; keep corn by them all the time, and also give them dough enough for one feed a day. For drink, give them skimmed milk; with this feed they will fatten in ten days; if they are kept over ten days, they should have some gravel, or they will fall away. The mode of fattening poultry, extensively practiced in Liverpool, Eng- land, is to feed them with steamed or baked potatoes, warm, three or four times a day; the fowls are taken in good condition from the yard, confined in dry, well-ventilated coops, and covered in, so as to prevent the entrance of too much light. It is said this method is attended with the greatest success. . NO POULTRY SHOULD BE PERMITTED TO RUN AT LARGE for at least ten days before killing, for they are apt to range in the barn- yards, and pick up filthy food, which permeates all through the bird, and frequently they become so tainted that they are unfit to eat, after being PROPER FOOD FOR FATTENING. -In all cases in fattening fowls, whether old or young, we should recom- mend that the food be cooked and fed warm. Barley meal, or mixed with equal quantities of Indian meal, made into a thick paste or porridge and fed warm, is about as good a feed as we know of, and seems to make flesh faster and more solid, and give it a golden color and plump appearance after being dressed. 26 , THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. KILLING AND DRESSING. As much if not more depends on the manner of killing poultry as in the dressing to have it look fit for market. 'Too much caution cannot be used in this branch of the business. One mode of killing fowls, (instead of wringing the necks, which we deprecate,) is to cut their heads off with a single blow of a sharp ax, hang them up by the legs, and allow them to bleed freely, and pluck their feathers immediately — while warm. The French mode, which is highly commended, we think far the best, as it causes instant death without pain or disfigurement, ‘and is simply done by opening the beak of the fowl, and with a sharp-pointed and narrow-bladed knife, make an incision at the back of the roof, which will divide the vertebra and cause immediate death, after which hang the fowl up by the legs till the bleeding ceases, and pick it while warm, if you desire the feathers to be removed. With a little care the skin of the fowl does not become as torn and ragged as it does in the old-fashioned way of scalding. Another thing, the ‘flesh presents a better and more natural appearance when not scalded. GEYELIN says :—‘Some breeders cram their poultry before killing, to make them appear heavy ; this is a most injudicious plan, as the undigested food soon enters into fermentation, and putrefaction takes place, as is evi- denced by the quantity of greenish, putrid-looking fowls that are seen in the markets.” Fowls should always be allowed to remain in their coops at least twenty-four hours previous to being killed, without food; by so doing, the breeder will be the gainer in the end, as his poultry will keep. longer and present a better appearance in the market; and, above all, he will show the purchaser that he is honest, and has not crammed his poultry for the purpose of benefiting himself and swindling others. THE FRENCH MODE OF KILLING is preferable, when the head of the bird is to be left on; but that is not necessary, neither is it desirable; but when the head is taken off, the skin should always be pulled over the stump and tied. The mode of picking while the bird is warm is called “ dry picking,” and is the favorite method of dressing poultry for the Philadelphia market. There is one objection to this system, that it does not improve the appearance, although it does the flavor ; and while cooking it will “plump up” and come out of the oven looking much finer than when it went in. In addition, it wili keep much longer than when dressed by the other mode. Another ptan is, after the bird is picked, as above described, plunge it in a kettle of very hot water, holding it there only long enough to cause the bird te “ plump,” then hang it up, turkeys and chickens by the foot, and geese and ducks by the head, until thoroughly cooled. This scalding makes the fat look bright and clear, and the fowl to appear much fatter than it would if picked dry. This is the usual mode of dressing for the New York markets. THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 2% BOXING POULTRY FOR MARKET. On the subject of boxing poultry for market Dr. Benner says :—“It should be carefully packed in baskets or boxes, and above all, it should be kept from the frost. A friend of mine, who was very nice-in these matters, used to bring his turkeys to market in the finest order possible, and always obtained a ready sale and the highest market price. His method was to pick them dry, while warm, and dress them in the neatest manner; then take a long, deep, narrow, tight box, with a stick running from end to end of the box, and hang the turkeys by the legs over the stick, which prevents bruising or-disfiguring them in the least.” ‘The way poultry is frequently forwarded to city markets is enough to disgust almost any one, and throws odium on breeders as a class. THE MODE OF PACKING. All poultry should be thoroughly cooled before packing. Then provide boxes, for they are preferable to barrels; place a layer of rye straw that has been thoroughly cleaned from dust, on the bottom. Commence packing aS << Ie yp rf yA == ae FI@. I. FIeé. I. by bending the head of the fowl under it (see figure 1.) Then lay it in the left hand corner, with the head against the end of the box, with the back up; continue to fill that row in the same manner until completed; then begin the second row the same way, letting the head of the bird pass up between the rump of the two adjoining ones, which will make it complete and solid, (see figure 2.) In packing the last row, reverse the order, placing the head against the end of the box, letting the feet pass under each other; should there be a space left between these two rows wide enough to lay in a few sideways, do so, passing the feet under the same way, but should it not be wide enough, then fill tight with straw, so the poultry cannot move. This gives a uniformity of appearance, and a firmness in packing that will prevent moving during transportation. Over this layer, place straw enough to pre. vent one layer from coming in contact with the other; then add other layers, packed in the same manner, until the box is filled. Care should be taken to have the box filled full, in order to prevent any disarrangement of the contents; for should they become misplaced, the skin - may become so badly disfigured as to cause a depreciation of the value to the owner. Great care should be taken in packing not to skin the bird, 28 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. for during transportation, the skinned places turn black and make it look badly. To those having extra fine poultry to send to market, we would recommend to put paper over each layer before placing the straw on it; this prevents the dust settling on it, and adds much to its appearance. A little practice will soon make a person quite expert in packing, and for a person buying to ship an expert packer is valuable ; his skill will pay the owner ten times his cost, for very frequently the first sight of a box of poultry sells it. MARKING THE BOXES, ETC. The box should have the initials of the consignor, the number and variety of the contents, as well as the name of the consignee, marked on it. The necessity for marking the number and variety of contents is, that in case the box is broken open and any portion of the contents missing before delivery to the consignee, they will be enabled to make a correct bill for the missing poultry. Another advantage is, that the consignee knows by a glance at the box whether it contains the desired variety he wishes; if not, he need not open it, and the contents will not receive a needless handling ; for some par- ties prefer a mixed box, while others do not, and all dealers prefer selling the entire contents of the box to one person, as it avoids error in weighing and keeping the accounts. To those wishing to market capons we would say, they should be dry picked, with the feathers on around the head and the tip of the wings; also the tail feathers left in; the small or pin feathers should all be removed. SEND GEESE FOR CHRISTMAS, as they are in demand at that time, and bring more money than any other poultry. All Irishmen and many Germans think it is not Christmas with- out a goose for dinner. Send all large turkeys before New Year’s, as they are wanted to adorn the New Year’s table; and they depreciate in price immediately after that day. Small turkeys are then in better demand, while chickens and ducks can be sent any time after they are fattened, and never until then. Persons living at a distance from the city and desiring to send their poultry to market for any particular occasion, should allow at least two days longer for its transportation than usual, so that it will not miss the market for that occasion ; for the dealer had better receive it a day or two sooner than one hour too late. PURCHASING POULTRY FOR THE TABLE. As we have given the modus operandi for fattening fowls for market, &c., we now have a word of caution to offer those purchasing poultry which may not, perhaps, come amiss. Those who are not good judges of poultry, as to their age, may, and often do, have old, tough fowls palmed off upon them by an unscrupulous dealer. Fowls are killed and prepared for market with much adroitness and care SS THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 29 by some dealers, and many devices practiced to catch the eye of the un- sophisticated purchaser — the best side of the poultry being shown to the greatest advantage. Every sort of fowl is killed, plucked and put on the market, and if the purchaser buys an inferior article at an exorbitant price, he has only himself to blame for so doing. HOW TO JUDGE THE AGE OF POULTRY. The age of a plucked fowl can be judged simply by the legs. If the scales on the leg of a hen are rough and the spur hard, it will not be necessary to see the head to determine that she is old ; still the head will corroborate your observation; if that of an old hen, the bill will be stiff and hard, and the comb rough and thick. The scales on the leg of a young hen are smooth, glossy and fresh colored, whatever the color may.be; only the rudiments of spurs are observable; the claws tender and short, the under bill soft, the comb thin and smooth. An old hen turkey has rough scales on the legs, cal- losities on the soles or bottom of the feet, and long, strong claws; while a young turkey has the reverse of these marks. A young goose or duck can be readily told by the tenderness of the skin under the wings, the strength of the joints of the legs, and the coarseness of the skin. If the foregoing directions are strictly followed, in purchasing poultry, we will venture the assertion that the “good housewife” will have no fault to find with the length of time it takes to cook, or the toughness of her Thanksgiving turkey, goose or chicken. This mode of finding out the age of fowls is infallible. PURCHASING UNDRAWN POULTRY. We are one of a score of housekeepers who object, in toto, to the pur- chasing of poultry unless it be drawn. The habit of forcing fowls on the market undrawn, and allowing them to freeze and thaw, (generally with full crops,) by which process they become fetid and turn green cannot prove otherwise than unwholesome food — not fit to be eaten. No fowls should be purchased by housekeepers unless they are properly cleaned and drawn. In many cities there is a fine imposed upon the person for offering undrawn poultry upon the market for sale. TO PRESERVE POULTRY IN WINTER. This is a matter not fully understood, and for the information of the gen- eral reader we cannot do better than to give the mode practiced by the ven- erable Judge BuEL, in preserving poultry in winter. He says :—‘“I pur- chased a quantity of poultry for winter use early in November. The insides were carefully drawn, their place partially filled with charcoal, and the poul- try hung in an airy loft. It was used through the winter, till about the first of February, and although some were kept seventy days none of it was the least affected with must or taint, the charcoal having kept it perfectly sweet.” VARIETIES OF FOWLS. HISTORY, CHARACTERISTICS, Erc., OF THE BREEDS. THE BRAHMAS. We have seen Brahmas which we considered the ne plus ultra of the feathered tribe. English breeders claim everything that is good for these DARK BRAHMA COCK. birds, and lose sight of their faults. We have bred the Brahmas, both Light and Dark, and thought highly of them; still they did not prove good layers with us. Since we have discarded them we have found out the reason of our THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. ol ill-suecess — it was over-feeding. This may seem strange, but nevertheless it is a fact. We fed them all they could eat ‘“‘and more too.” The conse- quence was we did not get from them the number of eggs we otherwise DARK BRAHMA HEN. should. Feeding fowls enough to keep them in good heart and over-feeding them are two different things. In the first instance you are “just and gen- erous ” with them, in feeding just enough — in the other case you are “ kill- mg them with kindness” by over-feeding, which makes them dumpish and lazy, and inclined to be perpetual sitters. We believe that Brahmas well kept will make a very profitable fowl to breed. They are good layers, good sitters, and make the best of mothers, if the breeder knows how to handle them. They are objected to by many poultry fanciers, from their clumsi- ness — many aver that they are liable to break their eggs, when sitting, by 32 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. getting off and on their nests. If the nests were put in the proper place, this fault would be obviated. Always make the nests low — on the ground or floor of the hennery is best; nail cleats around them of two-inch boards, not higher than two and one-half inches, to keep the eggs from roll- ing out, and you need have no fears of any being broken. It is said the Brahmas are an Asiatic breed of fowls, and that they were first brought to this country by a sailor, who said he got them from the banks of the Brahmapootra— a river that waters the territory of Assam. How true this is we cannot say, but it is claimed that the Brahmas in this country sprung from this source, and that English breeders are indebted to America for the beautiful fowls of this breed they possess. These birds are highly prized in England —a pair of them having lately been sold for $350. Dark Braumas.—The Dark Brahmas are claimed by many breeders to be the best of the Brahma variety, but we opine there are just as many who stand ready to claim that the Light are equally as good, if not a better breed. Still some breeders claim that the flesh of the Dark is richer and more palatable than that of the Light. Our opinion is that the difference between the two colors is all fancy, one proving just as good as the other, under similar management. Javing bred both colors, we have yet to learn the distinctive difference between them. The plumage of the Dark does not show the same mussiness of feather as the Light; still, if kept in a clean, dry hennery, as fowls always should be, the difference is imaginary. The head of the cock should be surmounted with what is termed a “ pea- comb,” which resembles three small combs running parallel the length of the head, the center one the highest; beak strong, well curved; wattles full; ear-lobes red, well rounded and falling below the wattles. The neck should be short, well curved; hackle full, silvery white striped with black, flowing well over the back and sides of the breast; feathers at the head should be white. Back very short, wide and flat, rising into a nice, soft, small tail, carried upright ; back almost white; the saddle feathers white, striped with black, and the longer the better. The soft rise from the saddle to the tail, and the side feathers of the tail to be pure lustrous green black, (except a few next the saddle,) slightly ticked with white, the tail feathers pure black. The breast should be full and broad, and carried well forward; feathers black, tipped with white. Wings small, and well tucked up under the sad- dle-feathers and thigh fluff. A good black bar across the wing is important. The fluff on the hinder parts and thighs should be black or dark gray ; lower part of the thighs covered with soft feathers, nearly black. The markings of the hen are nearly similar to those of the cock. Both sexes should have rather short yellow legs, (those of the hen the shorter,) and profusely feathered on the outside. The carriage of the hen is full, but not so upright as that of the cock. The markings of the hen, except the neck and tail, are the same all over, each feather having a dingy white ground, closely penciled with dark steel gray, nearly up to the throat on the breast. 33 4 jo) ©) ea] by os a = 5 (2) Pa 4 4 3) ke ica 3) 4 04 4 in >| 4 Ay (e) is m4 | jan] HH ———— LIGHT BRAHMA COC 34 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. Licut Braumas.—Pure Light Brahma fowls are chiefly white in color of plumage, but if the feathers are parted, the bottom of the plumage will ap- pear of a bluish-gray, showing an important distinction between them and White Cochins, in which the feathers are always white down to the skin. The neck-hackles should be distinctly striped with black down the center of each feather. The plume of the cock is often lighter than that of the hen ; the back should be quite white in both sexes. The wings should appear white when folded, but the flight feathers are black ; the tail black in both cock and hen ; in the cock, however, it is well developed, and the coverts show splen- did green reflections in the light ; it should stand tolerably upright, and open well out laterally, like a fan; the legs should be yellow and well covered with white feathers, which may or may not be very slightly mottled with black ; ear-lobes must be pure red, and every bird should have a perfect pea- comb, though fine birds with a single comb have occasionally been shown with good success ; but, as a general thing, the pea-comb fowl shows off to the best advantage, and attracts universal commendation by both the amateur and breeder. ; THE CHITTAGONGS. Years ago this breed of fowls was looked upon as possessing a great deal of merit, but in these latter days of Brahma and Cochin fever they have been lost sight of, and we scarcely hear the name of Chittagong mentioned ; though we firmly believe the Buff and White Cochins owe their parentage to a cross with the Chittagong and Shanghae breed. Kzerrr’s “Ornamental Poultry Breeder” says the plumage of the Chittagong is very showy and of various colors; the birds being exceedingly hardy. In some, gray predomi- nates, interspersed with lightish yellow and white feathers in the pullets; the legs being of a reddish flesh-color, and more or less feathered; the comb large and single; wattles very full, wings good size; the model is graceful, carriage proud and easy, and action prompt and determined. ‘The flesh of this breed is delicately white. The cocks, at eight or nine months of age, weigh from nine to ten pounds, and the hens from eight to nine pounds. They do not lay as many eggs during the year as smaller hens, but they lay as many pounds as the best breeds. The Red variety of Chittagongs are smaller than the gray; legs being yellow and blue; the wings and tail short; comb single and rose-colored. An ordinary pair will weigh from sixteen to eighteen pounds. In the dark-red variéty the cock is black on the breast and thighs; the hens yellow or brown, with single serrated comb; legs yellow and heavily beoted with black feathers. The Chittagongs as a breed is quite leggy, in many instances, the cock standing twenty-six inches high, and the hens twenty-two. THE COCHIN CHINAS. Birds of this breed are becoming more and more favorites with the gen- eral breeder, not only in England, but also in this country. They are de- servedly high in the standard of merit in this country on account of their Le —S THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 35 hardiness and good laying and breeding qualities. A friend of ours who has had considerable experience with the Asiatic breeds of fowls, considers the Butt Cochins better adapted to our severe and changeable climate than either the Brahma, Chittagong or Shanghae. He avers that they (the Cochins) S SSN BUFF COCHIN COCK. require less care, and pay for their feed in extra amount of flesh, and rich- ness, and quality of eggs. His hens have weighed ten pounds each, and the cock fifteen pounds, and stands over two feet in hight. He allows his hens to have but one good setting a year, and breaks up this propensity in about two or three days by removing them to a coop with a bottom made of rollers Bis) THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. two inches in diameter, and gives them little or no feed and fresh water. He thinks a hard bed a good cure for indolent habits. Although called Cochin Chinas, the Buff Cochins are the real Shanghaes. They were unknown to the Southern Chinese, and they never claimed them as their native fowl, and were as much astonished at their size as we were when they first came to this country. The Shanghae breed had feathered and unfeathered legs, but were more frequently unfeathered. Fashion, however, calls for booted-legs. There are three varieties of color — Buff, Lemon and Cinnamon. The Buff \ NN" alin Wy AN! i" BUFF COCHIN HEN. seem to be the most desired. There are also Silver Buffs and Silver Cinna- mons. The latter, if well marked, are very beautiful and rare. "The carriage of the cock should be upright and majestic; breast very broad, forming a straight line from the crop to the thighs; back short and wide ; tail very slightly raised, and the wings very short and held tightly to the sides; the legs, thighs and saddles unusually large in proportion to the vest of the body ; head small and carried weil up; a stout, curved and yel- low beak, with plenty of substance at the base, and the shorter the better. The carriage of the hen must be similar in general character to the cock, ex- p él THE PEOPLN’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 37 eepting that the head is carried much lower; and a gentle, pleasing expres- sion of face is a mark of high bred specimens. The hackle of the cock should be very full and of a light bay color, spreading over the base of the wings and free from any markings. The hen’s hackle should be a distinct, clear buff, free from any markings; a slight penciling is preferable to a clouded one. The saddles of the cock and hen should also be free from any markings. Cockerels of the year, though imperfect, will, if of pure blood, in the second year moult out perfectly clear. A black tail in the cock is ad- missible; but the principal feathers, if bronze in color, add very much to the \ SS = we Ss SE PAIR OF PARTRIDGE COCHINS. appearance of the bird; if of buff color, will throw dark pullets. The breast of the cock and hen should be clear buff, the feathers running somewhat lighter in color towards the tip, showing a waving appearance in sunlight. Both primary and secondary quills should be clear buff, without admixture of colors. The legs should be very heavily feathered, short, and wide apart. The comb in cock and hen should be very flat, evenly serrated and perfectly straight, without any inclination to either side. The wattles of the cock thin and fine, perfectly florid in color, ear-lobes well developed, long, thin and fine; any white is a decided blemish. The eye of the cock should be yed- 38 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. low-ochre colored; in the hen a little darker than those of the cock; and, strange to say, these characteristics denote a sound constitution. A clear, dark-winged cock throws the best chickens. Vulture hocks in Cochins are clearly inadmissible, and should never be tolerated at any exhibition; they show mixed blood, and, if bred out, will revert back again. Hocked birds are frequently awarded the highest premium at shows in this country — in_ England they are disqualified. THE SHANGHAES. The Shanghae fowl was highly estimated on its first introduction in this country in 1847, and for a long time thereafter considered the best of the Asiatic breed, but of late years we hear very little mention made of them. They are entirely ignored even from our poultry shows. As we have said elsewhere, the Cochins have superseded the Shanghae breed entirely. A well- bred cock, when full-grown, stands twenty-eight inches high; the hen from twenty to twenty-three inches. The hen has a slightly curved beak, the forehead well arched ; comb low, single, erect, slightly and evenly toothed ; wattles small and curved inward, the eyes are bright and prominent, the neck about eight inches long and gently arched when held upright; the body long znd greatly arched; the girth of the body of a good specimen, when meas- ured over the wings, is about twenty inches; the legs are rather long, of a pale yellow color, with a tinge of flesh-color, and generally thickly covered _ with feathers from the outside down to the toe. The plumage is remarkably soft and silky, and, beneath the tail, densely fluffy and rounded. The comb of the cock is high, deeply indented, and his wattles double and large. ‘Though the comb and wattles are not to be regarded as the chief character- istics i this breed of fowls, nor are its reddish-yellow feathered legs; but the abundant, soft and downy covering of the thighs, hips, and region of the vent, together with the remarkably short tail, are characteristics not found in any other bird. The wings are small and short in proportion to the size of the fowl, being carried very high up the body, thus exposing the whole of the thighs, and a large portion of the side. The arrangement of the feathers gives the bird a greater depth of quarter, in proportion to the brisket, than any fowl with which we are conversant. There are Shanghae fowls of Black, Gray, Buff, Cinnamon and Partridge-color. These are termed sub-varieties. White is said to have been the color of the original imported birds, the other colors having been bred in this country. Mr. Bowman, an eminent English breeder of the Shanghae, says of the fecundity of this breed, that he had ‘a pullet that laid one hundred and twenty eggs in a hundred and twenty- five days, then stopped six days, then laid sixteen eggs more, stopped four days, and again continued her laying.” The eggs are not so rich and nutri- tious as those of the Dorking; neither are they remarkably large compared to the size of the fowl; they are of a pale yellow or nankeen color, and gen- erally blunt at the ends. The flesh of the Shanghae is quite inferior to that of the smaller breeds, being coarse-grained, neither tender nor juicy, and THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 39 | have more offal and less breast-meat than either Cochins or Brahmas. They are not inclined to ramble, and, on this account, bear confinement much bet- ~ ter than many other breeds. Tae Waitt SHancHar.—tThis variety is entirely white, with the legs usually feathered, and differs in no material respect from the red, yellow, and Partridge, except in color. The legs are yellowish, or reddish-yellow, and sometimes of flesh-color. Many prefer them to all others. It is claimed by the friends of this variety that they are larger and more quiet than other varieties, that their flesh is much superior, their eggs larger, and the hens more profitable. Being more quiet in their habits, and less inclined to ram- ble, the hens are invaluable as incubators and nurses; and the mildness of i | E> = ——— Zo ‘abel if HE A ere = ——— ——=—= AS Mi Yi CTE PATR OF WHITH SHANGHAES. their disposition makes them excellent foster-mothers, as they never injure the chickens belonging to other hens. These fowls will rank among the largest coming from China, and are very thrifty in our climate. A cock of this variety attained a weight of eight pounds, at about the age of eight’ months, and the pullets of the same breed were proportionably large. They are broad on the back and breast, with a body well rounded up; the plumage white, with a downy softness — in the latter respect much like the feathering of the Bremen goose; the tail-feathers short and full; the head small, sur- mounted by a small, single, serrated comb; wattles long and wide, overlay- 40 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. ing the cheek-piece, which is also large, and extends back on the neck; and the legs of a yellow hue,'approaching a flesh-color, and feathered to the ends of the toes. THE MALAYS. - This breed of fowls is very large and clumsy, and possesses no particular merits that we are aware of, unless it be in size. They are decidedly Shang- haeish in appearance and action. The usual hight of the cock is from twenty-six to twenty-eight inches, and weighs on an average from ten to_ twelve pounds. We reared the fowls in 1857 on a small scale, and found them in attitude uncouth, their gait being heavy and destitute of alertness. Wricut says of this breed, that “in form and make they are as different - from Cochins as can well be. They are exceedingly long in the neck and Dm Cy PAIR OF MALAYS. legs, and the carriage is so upright that the back forms a steep incline. The wings are carried high, and project very much at the shoulders. Towards the tail, on the contrary, the body becomes narrow — the conformation being thus exactly opposite to that of the Shanghae. The tail is small, and that of the cock droops. The plumage is very close, firm, and glossy, more so than that of any other breed, giving to the bird a peculiar luster when viewed in the light. The colors vary very much. We consider pure white the most beautiful of all; but the most usual is that well known under the title of brown-breasted red game. The legs are yellow, but quite naked. The head THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. | 4] and beak are long, the latter being rather hooked. Comb low and flat, cov- ered with small prominences like warts. Wattles and deaf-ears very small. Eye usually yellow. The whole face and a great part of the throat are red and naked, and the whole expression ‘snaky’ and cruel. This is not belied by the real character of the breed, which is most ferocious, even more so than Game fowls, though inferior to the latter in real courage.” THE FRIZZLED. We can find no difference between the “ crisp-feathered ” and French frizzled fowl. LAyarp says these fowls were first found in Batavia, but Trm- MINCK avers they are natives of Southern Asia, and are largely bred and TRIO OF FRIZZLED FOWLS. domesticated in Java, Sumatra, and on all the Philippine Islands. They are known by Brisson as Gallus crispus (frizzled fowl,) and as Gallus pennis revolutis (fowl with rolled-back feathers) by Linnarus. The prevailing color of these birds is white, but there are many specimens variously colored with black and brown. We were highly impressed with their novel appear- ance, and, as ALDROVANDUS says in his description of them, two peculiarities of the cock attracted our particular attention and admiration. First, that the feathers of the wings had a contrary situation to those of other birds; the side which in others is undermost or inmost, in this was turned outward, 42 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. so that the whole wing appears inverted; the other, that the feathers of the neck were reflected towards the head, like a crest or ruff, the whole tail feathers turning in the same manner. As near as we can learn, this variety of fowl does not possess any peculiar advantages over the common barn-yard breed, and is more interesting as a curiosity than valued for any practical purposes. They would undoubtedly thrive in our warm southern far better than in our cold northern climate. The hens make good mothers; they breed freely with all other domestic fowls, and the offspring is prolific without end, the chicks being perfectly hardy, and make a good table fowl, though rather small. THE DORKINGS. In years gone by the Dorkings were the favorite fowls in this country, and the only reason we can assign for their degeneracy is the improper care they have received and the continual in-and-in breeding. To rear Dorkings profitably it is essential that a good, long runway should be provided on a clay or gravelly soil for the chicks. They never should be allowed to run on wooden or brick floors. If this is carefully attended to the chickens will thrive and grow well, and make hardy fowls. There are two species of these fowls— the white and the colored Dork- ings. The former is the favorite bird of old fanciers, and a writer in the Poultry (English) Chronicle makes the following remarks on this breed of fowls :—“* The old Dorking, the pure Dorking, the only Dorking, is the White Surrey Dorking. It is of good size, compact and plump form, with short neck, short white legs, five toes, a full comb, a large breast, and a plumage of spotless white. They are hardy, lay well, and are excellent mothers.” Wuite Dorxinec.—We have reared the White Surrey Dorkings for a number of years, and fully coincide with the writer in the Chronicle. To our mind, no fowl is more essential to the farm-yard than the pure White Surrey Dorking. The first pen of Dorkings we ever experimented with were purchased of Judge 8.8. Bowne, in 1852. His stock was procured from imported fowls of Dr. Ensen Wicur of Boston, who was at that time the largest breeder of fancy fowls in this country. Our experiments with the Dorking prove them to be fowls not to be despised. They are not early layers, but make up this deficiency in the number and quality of eggs they produce. They are easily fattened, and their flesh is of the very best quality. In speaking of the weight of the Dorking, the Practical Poultry Keeper says :—“‘ It is difficult to give a standard ; but we consider that a cock which weighs Jess than ten pounds, or a hen under eight and a half pounds, would stand a poor chance at a first-class show.” We have never, in our ex- perience, seen one brought to this weight, not even by high feeding. Our yearling fowls have often been brought to weigh from six to eight pounds. The practice of crossing Dorking pullets with a game cock is much in THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 43 vogue, with the object of improving a worn out stock. This, however, would be better accomplished by procuring a fresh bird of the same kind, but not related. This cross shows itself in single combs, loss of a claw, or an occa- sional red feather, and, what is still more objectionable, in pale yellow legs, wiih -— WHITE DORKING COCK. and a yellow circle about the beak. These are faults in the Dorking to be avoided by breeders generally. SILVER Gray Dorxine.—Among the breeds of colored Dorkings which are now attracting attention in this country with fanciers, is the Silver Gray variety. Nearly all authorities aver that this breed is a chance offshoot from the White Dorking, the breed having been perpetuated by careful breeding. Still, colored birds frequently throw silver-gray chicks, but disappointments 44 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. are as often sure to follow in breeding for this cross, unless, when obtained, the strain is kept pure for years, as in the case of the Derby Red Game fowls. The only way to accomplish this is to remove all chicks from the pens that do not show the perfect markings of the parent stock. Mr. Hewirr of Sussex, says the colored Dorkings are decidedly the most useful of all fowls for general table purposes, and a very important point in the consideration of the Gray Dorkings is that they grow rapidly and are in good condition at almost any age, if at all freely supplied with food. The distinguishing colors of the Silver Gray Dorking cock are perfectly black breast, tail, and larger tail coverts; the head, neck, hackle, back, saddle and wingbow a clear, pure, silvery white. Across the wings there should be a PAIR OF GRAY DORKINGS. well-marked black bar, contrasting in a very striking, beautiful manner with the white outer web of the quill-feathers and the silvery white hackle and saddle. The breast of the hen should be of a salmon-red color, passing into gray towards the thighs. The neck a silvery white, striped with black; the back silver gray, with the white of the shafts of the feathers distinctly marked; the wings a silvery or slaty gray, and free from any tendency to redness ; the tail a dark gray, the inside nearly black. Dorkings, like other breeds of fowls, are apt to degenerate very fast from inter-breeding, therefore care should be taken to introduce fresh blood fre- quently, or disappointments are sure to follow. THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 45 Mr. Dovetas, an eminent English breeder, says he has found the dark- colored Dorkings the most hardy and heaviest in flesh. He once had a cock weighing fourteen and a half pounds at two years, and several hens at eleven pounds each. He claims that early Dorking pullets will lay all the winter, although not so freely as some other breeds. They lay from thirty-five to fifty eggs before wanting to sit. As mothers, they are perfectly docile, and allow themselves to be handled at will; chickens from other hens may be placed with them, which they will take to at once. These fowls are not classed among the roamers, but are rather of the stay-at-homeativeness birds, therefore are of little trouble to the housewife, and can be easily reared. Fawn-cotorEeD Dorxine.—A writer in one of the agricultural journals of New England gives the followimg description of the Fawn-colored and Black breed of Dorkings. He says the fawn-colored bird is made up of a cross between the White Dorking and the fawn-colored Turkish fowl. They are of lofty carriage, handsome and remarkably healthy. The cocks weigh from eight to nine pounds, and the hens from six to seven; they come to maturity quite early for so large a fowl. Their tails are shorter and legs darker than those of other Dorkings; their flesh is fine and their eggs are very rich. It is conceded to be one of the best varieties of fowl known, as the size is readily increased without diminishing the fineness of the flesh. Buack Dorxine.—The Black Dorkings are said to be of large size, and of a jet black color. The neck feathers of some of the cocks are tinged with a bright gold color, and some of the hens bear a silvery complexion. Their combs are usually double, and very short, though sometimes cupped, rose or single, with quite small wattles, and are usually very red about the head. Their tail feathers shorter and broader than the White variety, and the chicks feather much slower. The legs of the Black are short and black, with the usual five toes on each foot, the bottom of which is frequently yellow. The two back toes are quite distinct, starting from the foot separately ; frequently showing an extra toe between the two. This breed commences laying when very young, and lay well during the winter season— the eggs being of a large size. The breed is perfectly hardy, and are good setters and attentive mothers to their young. THE HAMBURGS. This breed of fowls is considered a very useful and important denizen of our poultry-yard. We have bred them for years successfully and with - little trouble. The hens are inveterate layers, and seldom desire to sit ; their propensity for laying beg almost continuous from one molting season to another. This is undoubtedly owing to their confined condition in this country ; for it is said that. when the birds have a free range, they frequently set themselves to the task of incubation with as much diligence as other fowls. PenciteED Hampure.—The penciled Hamburg, which is of two colors, golden and silver, is very minutely and beautifully marked. The cocks do 46 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. PAIR OF SILVER-SPANGLED HAMBURGS. not exhibit the pencilings, but are white or brown in the golden or silver birds respectively. They should have bright double combs, which are firmly fixed upon the head, ending in a poiut which turns upward; well defined PAIR OF GOLDEN-SPANGLED HAMBURGS. - golden, or orange-yellow, THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 47 deaf ears; taper blue legs, and ample tails. The carriage of the cock is gay and majestic; his shape is symmetrical, and appearance indicative of cheer- fulness. The hens, of both varieties, should have the body clearly penciled across with several bars of black, and the hackle in both sexes should be per- fectly free from dark marks. These birds are imported in large numbers from Holland to England, from whence we derived the breed; but those now bred in this country are far superior to the imported bird both in size and beauty of plumage. SpancLep Hampure.—Of the Speckled or Spangled variety, which is —= PAUL) ! i = N aS BA SSS a/ | = —_ RS Ii, oo =e WU SILVER- SPANGLED POLAND COCK. becoming a great favorite with many breeders in this 5 ‘ . . ret kinds — the Golden and Sily country, there are two er-Speckled. The general color of the former is o each feather having a glossy dark brown or black tip, particularly remarkable on the hackles of the cock and the wing-coverts, and also on the darker feathers of the breast. 'The plumage of the hen is yellow or orange-brown, and in like manner being marginal with glossy black. The Silver-Spangled breed is distinguished by the ground color of the feathers being of a silver white, with perhaps a tinge of straw yellow, every feather should, however, be margined with glossy black. Both of these 48 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. varieties are extremely beautiful, commanding as they do, high prices. The hens in all cases proving prolific layers and non-setters. Brack Hamsure.—This is one of the finest varieties of our black fowls —the plumage being of a beautiful black color with metallic luster. They possess the two-fold advantage of being noble-looking birds and ex- ceedingly good layers. On the whole, the Hamburg is a capital fowl, and WS \ will dull “, Dor Bl SILVER-SPANGLED POLAND HEN. Oe ey aa ee ee ess asebe one which is deservedly highly valued. It has a good, robust constitution, and proves perfectly hardy in almost any climate. Though the eggs preduced by this breed are not as large as those of some other breeds, still what they lack in size is made up in the number they produce during the year. THE POLANDS. There are several varieties of these fowls in this country, but those pos- THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 49 sessing the most prominence among breeders are the Silver, Golden Spangled, White, Black, and Black with White top-knot. SILVER-SPANGLED Potanp.—We have bred this variety for several years, and find it one of the most desirable breeds for the poultry yard, proving with us perfectly hardy and “ everlasting layers.” The ground color of the. plumage of the Silver-Spangled Poland should be a silver white, with well defined horseshoe-shaped black spangles. In the cock, the hackle feathers are white, edged and tipped with black ; in the hen, each hackle feather has a spangle on the end; tail feathers clear white, with spangle on the end; the spangles on the wing coverts are large and regular in both sexes, so as to form two well-defined bars across each wing. The proper spangle on the breast is all-important. The crest should be full and regular; feathers black bal PAIR OF GOLDEN-SPANGLED POLANDS. at the base and tip, with white between. A few white feathers frequently appear after the second molt, in the very best hens. Ear-lobes small and white ; wattles, none, being usually replaced by a black or spangled beard. The weight of the cock is from six to seven and a half-pounds, while that of the hen is from four to five and a half pounds. Besides the moon-shaped spangles, many of the birds are shown with laced feathers —7. ¢., with an edging of black on the outline of the feathers, but thicker at the end. This marking, when perfect, is of exquisite beauty. Dr. Benner says they cer- _ tainly rank among the very choicest and most beautiful of fowls, whether considered for their beauty or rarity. ‘The newly hatched chickens are very pretty, creamy white, interspersed with slaty dun on the back, head and neck, 4 : 50 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. marked with longitudinal stripes down the back, with black eyes, light lead. colored legs, and a swelling of the down on the crown of the head, indicative of the future top-knot, which is exactly the color of a powdered wig. At a very early age, they acquire their peculiar distinctive features, and are then the most elegant little miniature fowls it is possible to imagine. The distine- tion of sex is not very manifest till they are nearly full grown, the first ob- servable indication being in the tail — that of the pullet is carried upright, as it should be, while the cockerel’s remains depressed. PAIR OF WHITEHE-CRESTED BLASK POLANDS. GoLDEN-SPANGLED Potanp.— This variety varies in the color of its plumage from a light to a dark golden yellow, laced and. spangled with a greenish luster black, and not unfrequently showing some part whitish feath- ers in their wings, tail and crest. Legs and feet usually blueish, sometimes verging on a greenish color; ear-lobes blueish white. Brack Portanp.—The Black Polands are no strangers in this country, they having been bred as long ago as we can remember. In plumage they should be uniformly black (except crest,) although not unfrequently glossed with metallic green, which, in contrast with the deep red wattles and hand- some crest of white feathers, gives them a very unique appearance. Their legs ' THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. a are usually dark colored, although through too close breeding, flesh-colored and even yellowish legs will show themselves; but those with darkish legs are to be preferred. Often times the cock will have some whitish feathers in the tail, which by some is thought to be a sure sign of pure breeding. Wairr-Crestep Brack Potanp.—The White-crested Black is of a _ glossy black color ; body short, round and plump; legs shortish and of black _ or leaden color ; full wattles of a bright red; ear-lobes pure white; hackle, saddle and tail have bright reflections; crest is of pure white, regular and full. These birds weigh from five to six pounds. Waire-Crestep Waitt Potanp.—The pure White-crested White Po- lands are very hardy; have no wattles, but have a well-developed beard in lieu thereof. They, like all Polish breeds, are “ everlasting layers,” and non- setters. There may be seen occa- - sionally Blue, Gray and Cuckoo Polands, but they are off-shoots, or the result of crossing, and have no qualifications worthy of par- ticular notice. Y tt M\ fl f ‘THE LEGHORNS. It is said that this breed of fowls was imported from Leghorn, Italy, only a few years since, but has been bred to such perfection in this country that there has been a distinctive breed made, and be- come, as it were, Americanized. They are scarcely known in Eng- — land, but are highly prized by _ American breeders for their many good qualities. They are bred of - nearly all colors save black — the - White, however, receiving the ‘preference. The imported birds are not inferior to the American _ standard of excellence. The white | variety being similar to the Spanish in size and appearance, except in the plumage, which is white, with hackle or neck and saddle feathers slightly tinged with gold. They have proved thus far very hardy birds, suffering from the sudden changes and severe weather of our northern and western climate much less than the Spanish, with which breed many deem them closely allied. They are extremely _ good layers, and seldom desire to set. The young are easy to rear; they feather up soon, and at the age of six or eight weeks are miniature PAIR OF WHITE LEGHORNS. 52 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. chickens — that is, perfectly feathered, and as sprightly as many chicks are at four months of age. The hens are considered excellent winter layers, and will lay as large a number of eggs in a year as any fowls known, not excepting the Polands or Hamburgs. They are hardy, medium sized fowls, of a quiet and docile disposition ; persistent layers of a rich, meaty egg ; pure white color, though in some flocks occasional colored feathers will appear; these should at once be discarded from the pen, if it is desirable to breed the pure white bird. Their legs and skin should be of a yellow color. They lay asmaller egg than the Spanish, but mature earlier, and PAIR OF EARL DERBY GAMES. are much superior for the table. The cocks have large single combs, which should stand perfectly erect; full wattles and large, cream-colored — or white ear-lobes, extending sometimes upon their face. The carriage of both cock and hen is proud and dignified. The hens have usually large combs, which frequently lop over like the Spanish. From what we have read and seen of this breed of fowls we consider them a great and valuable acquisition to the poultry-yard. . THE GAMES. The varieties of so-called game fowls are almost innumerable. Many are unworthy of the name or the prefix. A well-bred game cock should be a neat, trim fowl, feathers close and glossy, head small, neck well set on his —_— ee THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 53 ’ shoulders, toes lengthy, body erect and straight, strong on thigh, quick in motion, and willing to die for his flock rather than yield to an opponent. Game hens possess the same general qualifications. They should be excellent layers and sitters, and for rearing chicks they are considered superior; they are hardy, strong, and transmit these peculiar traits, as a general thing, to their offspring. The flesh of the Game fowl is fine and sweet, and is esteemed of a de- cidedly rich flavor. In this breed almost all shades of feathers are allowable, black-reds perhaps being most common, although jet blacks, pure whites, grays, ginger-reds, spangles, or pied, and various blendings of colors called piles, have their respective admirers, as the fancy of the breeder dictates. The breeds also are numerous; those of English, Irish, Mexican, Spanish, Cuban, Malay and other nationalities claiming equal attention with fanciers in their respective localities. PAIR OF BLACK-RED GAMES. Eart Dery Game.—This is an old breed, one which has been given the preference for years, and from which the black-breasted reds undoubtedly originated. The best information that we can gather relative to this breed is that they were originally imported from Knowlsley, Eng., where they have been bred with great care for upwards of one hundred years, in all their purity. The cock is of good round shape, well put together; the head being long, with daw-eyes, long and strong neck; hackle well feathered, touching 54 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. the shoulders; wings large and well quilled; back short; belly round and black ; tail long and sickled, being well tufted at the root — thick, short, and stiff; legs rather long, with white feet and nails, the latter being free from all coarseness. The required “ Daw-eye” is that which resembles the gray eye of the jackdaw. Their distinctive features are the white beak, feet, and claws, essential to every bird claiming descent from that illustrious stock. The red Derby Game cock should have a bright red face; breast and thighs coal black; hackle and saddle feathers light orange-red ; back, intense brown-red, a depth of color that painters term dragon’s blood ; lesser wing- coverts maroon colored ; greater wing-coverts marked at the extremity with steel-blue, forming a bar across the wings; primary wing-feathers bay; tail iridescent black. It seems a peculiarity in these fowls that one at least of the pinion feathers is marked with white. The sex of the chickens can readily be distinguished when only a few weeks old. The beak, legs and feet are uniformly white. Martin remarks that “through the whole cata- logue of game fowls the male birds are by far the most conspicuous in plumage ;” and this remark proves true in regard to the Derby breed, for wherever mere color has given the name of a class, the markings of the cock explain the reason. The Black-breasted red hens possess little of their ‘con- sort’s brilliancy of feather, though these are of much lighter colors than the red-breasted hen — a fact in strange opposition to the plumage of the respec- tive male birds. Brrron’s Poultry Book thus describes the perfect mark- ings of the Lord Derby game hen:—“ Head fine and tapering ; face, wattles, and comb bright red; extremities of upper mandible and the greater portion of the lower one white, but dusky at its base and around its nostrils; chest- nut-brown around the eyes, continued beneath the throat; shaft of neck- hackle light buff; web pale brown, edged with black; breast shaded. with roan and fawn-color ;: belly and vent of an ash tint; back and wing-coverts partridge-colored; primary wing-feathers and tail black, the latter carried vertically and widely-expanded; legs, feet and nails perfectly white.” The carriage of both cock and hen of this breed is upright and dignified. The pugnacious disposition of the cock equals that of any other game bird; and its endurance cannot be surpassed; years agone they were numbered among the best breed of birds for the cock-pit; and for the table they are not sur- passed by the sweet and nutritious flesh of the Dorking fowl. Ducx-Wine Gamr.—The pure Duck-wing Game fowls are the Silver Grays — though there are Yellow or Birchen Duck-wings, but the blood of the first mentioned is much purer than the other variety, and it is considered a much finer, hardier, and more pugnacious bird. The cock should be of a silver gray color; hackle striped, with black underneath, but clear above ; back bright silver gray; breast clear, mealy silver gray color; wing crossed with a steel blue bar, the lower part of a creamy white; tail greenish glossy black. The plumage of the hen should be of a silvery blueish gray, thickly frosted with silver; breast pale fawn-color ; neck-hackle silvery white, striped THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 55 with black. The comb and face in both sexes are of a bright red. The legs of the silver gray should be white; eyes red and skin white. Taz Yettow Ducx-Wines.—The Yellow Duck-wing Game fowl is of straw or birchen color, with copper-colored saddle; skin yellow, and willow or yellow legs. The cock’s breast, in this variety, is always black, while that of the hen is fawn-colored. The weight of the cocks of the Duck-wing variety of game birds varies from four to six pounds, while that of the hens exceeds that of the cocks. HES i Hin, i TAINAN PAIR OF DUCK-WING GAMES. Duck-Winc Banrams.—In courage and endurance the Bantams are not behind their larger relatives, and in constitution they are much hardier than any other of the Bantam breeds. The plumage of the Duck-wing Bantams is precisely similar to that of the larger breed, from which they were undoubtedly obtained, by long inter-breeding with the smallest specimens. The carriage and form are also similar; but the drooping wing of the Bantam breed is not to be observed in the game variety. In weight the cock does not exceed one and a half pounds, while that of the hen is about twenty ounces. Game fowls van be as easily kept on a “town lot” as any other breed, and with as little trouble. If they are well fed, and proper care taken of them, they are not pre-disposed to roam, but remain quietly at home. Satmon Pitu Game.—Coloring of hens is a buff or straw color, under- lined with white, and has a rich creamy or salmon-colored look; although some specimens are shaded more or less with red or light wine cast. Cocks at maturity are beautiful, and in hackle and sickle featherings would be ob- served as peculiar to this variety. There are but few fanciers who have 56 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. shown birds of this variety, to our knowledge, in this country; they claim for them, however, great excellence, as producers of eggs and for - table qualities. DominiquE Games take their names from fowls which are common on the Island of Dominica, and in feathering, especially on cocks, are really very beautiful. They are long and rangy in body, well set up or stationed, high, fine heads, and invariably possess thin single combs, free from tassel or head- feathers, while neck-hackle or shawl is made up of long fringe-like feathers, quite uniformly dotted or penciled—so too. of the tail hackles. The hens are quite uniform in feathering, although they have more subdued colors. They are very hardy fowls and most prolific layers. Flesh is yellow, and as in almost all of the game varieties, of fine grain and excellent flavor. This variety of fowl is said to be quite scarce in this country. Groreian Gamue.—This well known variety of fowls came originally from Europe, brought over by a gentleman who was a native of Geor- gia, and celebrated in his time for the reputation his game fowls made for him in sporting circles South. The breed is now generally recognized by most of the poultry clubs, and ranks high with many leading fanciers. They are claimed to have superior laying and. table qualities, hardiness, courage, (and what no one will question who has ever seen them,) beauty of plumage, shape and carriage. They are well calculated to stand the rigors of our northern climate, and must be admirably adapted to our warm and genial southern clime. Tue Maray Game.—Mr. Darwin, in his new work “ On the variations in Animals,” claims distinctly that the Malay has been bred for years as a game fowl in India; is noted for its courage and endurance; proves suc- cessful in the cock-pits of India and adjacent islands. He says they are a small breed of fowls, and are designated in Europe as the “ Indian Games ;” but in reality are of the original Malay species of game fowls. Mr. Hewrrr says he is “not aware of any variety of fowl so cruel, oppressive, and vin- dictive as Malays; they are literally the tyrants of the poultry-yard.” We _ bred the red Malay years ago, and found that the cocks evinced such a pug- nacious disposition that we were glad to get rid of them. In our experience with this breed we found nothing commendable in them for the amateur or fancier; the hens proving only ordinary layers, while neither the plumage or build of the cock is attractive. Spanisu GamE.—This variety of game fowl is claimed by some writers to be of English origin. It is more slender in the body, the neck, the bill and the legs, than any other variety, and the colors, particularly of the cock, are very bright and showy. The flesh is white, tender and delicate, and on this account marketable; the eggs are small, and extremely delicate. The plumage is exceedingly beautiful —a clear dark-red, very bright, extending from the back to the extremities, while the breast shows a splendid black THE PEOPLE'S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 57 color. The upper convex side of the wing is equally red and black, and the whole of the tail-feathers white. The beak and legs are black; the eyes resemble jet beads; very full and brilliant ; and the whole contour of the head gives a most ferocious expression. _ Brown-Reps.—This breed of fowls has been long bred perfect in outline, and is considered one of our most desirable game birds. The breast of the cock should be red-brown, shoulders frequently of orange- red; comb and face dark purple; beak also dark; wing-butts dark-red or brown; legs blackish brown, with dark talons; hackle, with dark stripes; thighs like the breast; tail a dark, greenish black, and the wing should be crossed with a glossy green bar. The plumage of the hen should be, as a general thing, of a very dark brown color, and penciled with light brown; neck- hackle dark, golden, copper-red, thickly striped with dark feathers; comb and face Mmucwmiatker nan) that of the cock, The BLACK BREASTED RED GAME BANTAME. tail-feathers of the hens should show a slight curve; if they are spurred so much the better. Brack-BreastEeD RED is another breed of game that has its hosts of admirers. The plumage of this bird, as its name signifies, should be of a bright red, deeper on the body than in the hackle. Red eyes denote pure blood — any other colored eye in this breed stamps it as a cross. The cock’s hackle is striped underneath, but never above; the comb and wattles bright red; the wings are of the same color in the upper part, and rich red chestnut in the lower, with steel blue bar across; breast bluish-black, with glossy reflections; thighs the same; tail green- ish black, without much down at the roots of the feathers; legs are usually willow in color. The hen should be of a rich par- tridge - brown, with red, fawn-colored breast; red- dish golden hackle with dark stripes. There are several other game fowls DUCK-WING GAME BANTAMS. 58 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. which have their friends and admirers in this country, such as White, Black, Gray, Dark Gray and Piles of all colors, but those considered of most merit by breeders are given in their order. Pitz Gamx.—The plumage of these fowls should have a proportion of white as one of its compound colors. The cocks of all the various strains of Piles are red and white, yellow and white, in one or other of the shades of those colors. The best Piles are bred by crossing red and white game, but may also be bred from a Pile cock and Pile hens. Some of the best and purest may be bred from aSpangled cock and White hen. The object of the breeder, particularly of show birds, should be to get the colors of the cocks as distinct and as brilliant as possible. THE BOLTON GRAYS. This breed of fowls derives its name from having first been successfully raised in and near Bolton, England. They are now found in almost all large poultry-yards in America, as well as in Europe. They are also known in some parts of the United States as the Creole fowl, from the mottled appearance of the hen, whose every feather is delicately marked with alternate bands of black and white, legs and feet a light blue, and very short. The neck-hackle is white. The cock’s plumage is different from the above in many respects, his feathers being nearly white. His tail is black, and legs and feet the color ot those of the hen, but are much longer. In weight he is less than the hen. Those of our own raising weigh about five pounds to the hen, and about three and a half or four pounds to the cock. One singular peculiarity of the hens of this breed is that they are furnished with spws over an inch in length, while those of the cock are much shorter. The Bolton Grays begin laying early in February, and continue throughout the year. If well fed, they will lay all the year round. Their eggs are below the average size; but what they lack in size is made up in number. As a breed, they are exceedingly hardy, and thrive where many breeds would perish. They are not good sit- ters, and their eggs must be set under some other fowl. They are never inclined to wander away from their coops. THE BLACK SPANISH. This is one of our best black breeds of fowls, laying as they do a large sized and meaty egg. The cock should carry himself very stately and up- right, the breast well projecting, and the tail standing well up. The sickle- feathers should be perfect and fully developed, and the whole plumage a dense jet black, with glossy reflections in the light. The hen should be equally dense in color, but is much less glossy. Any white or speckled feathers, which now and then occur, are fatal faults. The legs should be blue, or dark lead-color; any approach to white is decidedly bad. The legs of both sexes are long, but the fowl should nevertheless be plump and heavy. The comb must be large in both sexes, and of a bright vermillion color. That of the hen should fall completely over on one side; but the cock’s comb 59 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. The indentation also must be regular and evén, and the whole comb, though very large, quite free from any appearance of must be perfectly upright. Any sign of a twist in front is a great fault. The most im- coarseness. [ Ms if a y gm" AVG Ny ) ; / WH, < SSS SS WHITHK CHINESE GOOSE. part of them pure white; black bar running across the center; back light- red, growing dark-red toward the tail; the tail a deep black; carriage up- right and stately. THE WHITE CHINESE GOOSE. This variety of aquatic fowl was introduced into England some years since by AtFRED WuitIkar, and brought to this country by Jonn Gizzs of Connecticut. Mr. Wuirrkar gives the following description of it:—‘ The White China Goose is of a spotless, pure white, more swan-like than the brown variety, with a bright orange-colored bill, and a large orange-colored knob at its base. It is a particularly beautiful bird, either in or out of the water, its neck long, slender, and gracefully arched when swimming. It _ breeds three or four times in a season, and its period of incubation extends to five weeks. They are prolific layers, but their eggs are small for the size of the bird, being not more than half the size of those of the common goose. 96 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. The spring goslings are easily reared, and are a fair average quality for the table. The disparity in size between the sexes is considerable, often amount- ing to over one-third of their relative weights. Its color, as its name in- — dicates, is a pure, spotless white, which, contrasted with its yellow or orange- colored bill and legs, gives quite a pleasing effect, and it certainly deserves to rank in the first class of ornamental poultry.” THE BARNACLE GOOSE. The Barnacle breeds in Iceland, Greenland, and the north of Russia and of Asia. It is of handsome form, standing high on its limbs. The flesh is excellent, and they weigh about eight pounds a pair. The bill is small and black, with a reddish streak on each side; the cheeks and throat, with the exception of a black line from the eye to the beak, white; head, neck, and shoulders black: under plumage marbled with blue, gray, black, and white: tail black; wnder parts white; legs dusky. Although the Barnacle is shy and cautious in a wild state, yet when brought under a state of domestication it is as tame as any of the goose tribe. THE BRANT GOOSE. This and the Barnacle goose are the smallest of their tribe yet introduced to our aquatic aviaries; both being less in size than some ducks. The Brant is considered one of our most savory birds. In its transit from its breeding-places near the Arctic sea, it appears in great numbers on the coast of New-York in the first and second week in October, and continues pass- ing on to the south until December. Some few have been observed to re- main all winter. They are again seen with us in April and May, on their way north, when they are in the best condition. ‘Immense numbers of Brant geese,” says Mr. Sr. Joun, “float with every tide into the bays formed by the bar. As the tide recedes, they land on the grass, and feed in close packed flocks. On the land, they are light, active birds, walking quickly, and with a graceful carriage. On any alarm, before rising, they run together as close as they can; thus affording a good chance to the sportsman, who may be concealed near enough, of making his shot tell among their heads and necks.” DISEASES OF POULTRY. SYMPTOMS, CARE, TREATMENT, PREVENTIVES, REMEDIES, ETC. In the climate of this country there is no need of having any diseases among our domestic poultry if proper care and judgment in the treatment of the same were manifested on the part of the breeder. We have given in this ‘connection a series of diseases that are known to infest poultry yards not properly cared for, with preventives and remedies for the same, in the hope, that should occasion require, benefit may be derived therefrom. Apoplexy.—Fowls are attacked with this disease when apparently in the most robust health—suddenly fall down, die, or are found without sensation or the power of locomotion. Bleeding is recommended for the disease ; take a sharp-pointed pen-knife and open one of the largest veins under the wing in a longitudinal direction, by pressing the thumb on the vein at any point between the opening and the body, the blood will flow freely and relieve the fowl at once. Stimulating food should not be given to fowls liable to this disease. Black Rot.—The symptoms of this disease are blackening of the comb, resembling mortification; swelling of the legs and feet, and general wasting of the system. It can only be cured in the earlier stages by frequent doses of castor-oil, to keep up purging; at the same time giving freely strong ale or other stimulants, with warm and nourishing food. Catarrh in Chickens—The symptoms of this disease are not dis- similar to those in the human subject, being a watery or slimy discharge of mucus from the nostrils, swelling of the eyelids, and, in extreme cases, the sides of the face are swollen. The cause of the disease is somewhat similar to that of roup. It is said if this disease is not promptly attended to it frequently terminates in roup. Food, consisting of boiled mashed potatoes, well dusted with black pepper, is good. Pills, made the size of a large pea, of mashed potatoes, with cayenne pepper placed in the center, and given to them every other day, at feeding time, for a few days, will insure a radical cure, and give the fowls a good appetite. Dr. Brenner claims that the following will also prove efficacious—it never having beer known to fail :—Take finely ee burnt charcoal, and new yeast, 98 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. of each three parts; flour, one part; pulverized sulphur, two parts; water, quantity sufficient to mix well, and make into boluses of the size of a hazel- nut, and give one three times a day.” Cleanliness he claims to be essential in all cases, and frequent bathing of the eyes and nostrils of the fowls with warm milk and water. Chicken Cholera,—A correspondent of the Department of Agriculture, writing from Iowa, says:—‘“‘ My chickens have been dying with cholera for the last two years,—even turkeys have died of the same disease. When I notice the fowls begin to droop and look sleepy, I give them three or four tablespoonfuls of strong alum water, and repeat the same the next day. I also mix their feed with strong alum water, feeding twice a day for two or three days—afterwards once a week. Since commencing this practice I have not lost any.” Another good cure is to give as feed cooked Indian meal, red pepper, gunpowder and turpentine, mixed together. Put in a day’s feed, for a dozen fowls, a tablespoonful each of red pepper, gunpowder and turpentine, well mixed through the meal. Give them this food every other day for a week or so, and it will in most cases effect a cure. Another remedy for this disease is to one gallon of water add one ounce ~ of bi-sulphate of soda; set it where the fowls can drink it. As a preventive it is necessary to have the roosting place for the fowls dry and clean; the place where they roost should be cleaned as often as once a week, and sprinkled with lime or wood ashes. Feed with dry feed. Crop Bound Fowls.—If the crop feels hard and stone-like to the touch, it will be necessary to make an incision with a sharp knife through the skin and upper part of the crop and loosen the unpacked mass by some blunt- pointed instrument, and remove it. The incision, if small, may be left, but if large, a stitch or two is advisable. The birds should then be fed warm, soft food for two or three days,—such as mush and potatoes, well mixed with cayenne pepper and gentian; give them plenty of exercise in the open air, and they will rapidly recover from the disease. Curling in of the Toes of Fowls.—Large fowls, such as Brahma or Cochin China, and others, are subject.to corns in the fleshy part of the foot. These should be opened, the corn extracted, and the wound dressed with a — little Venice turpentine, spread on soft cotton or lint, and the foot bound up. Diphtheria—Is a disease which originates mainly from improper care and sudden changes of weather and variations of temperature. It affects fowls of all ages ; is either acute or chronic, sometimes beginning suddenly, at others gradually, and seems a kind of lingering consumptive disease. It is also occasioned by improper and damp coops and roosts. Fowls, to escape the roup, catarrh, Pip, gapes and similar diseases, should be fed on wholesome food and placed in dry, well ventilated coops—cleanliness proving a great assistance to health. It makes its appearance in a way similar to the croup in the human being. It fills up the windpipe at its opening with a { | THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 99 sort of white ulcerous substance, and continues to form and spread over the entire tongue and mouth, occasionally causing the fowl to cough, raise its head, and open its mouth to breathe. The smell from it is very offensive, and unless the bird is relieved it pines away and dies. The best cure for this disease that we have heard of being used with any degree of success is nitrate of silver and powdered borax. Remove the ulcers as much as possible, and apply the nitrate of silver with a feather. Powdered borax can be applied in the same manner by wetting the feather, dipping it in the powder, and swabbing the throat. A little chloride of potassium dissolved in the water which is given the fowls to drink, may possibly avert the disease—say one-quarter ounce to a half gallon of water. Dust Baths.—Fowls in confinement need a dust bath, 7. ¢., a box of mixed ashes and earth to wallow in. An ordinary soap box will do, filled two- thirds full of dry earth and wood or coal ashes. Wood ashes is preferable _ when it can be obtained. There is no better preventive of lice than this; and the fowls enjoy it hugely. Dysentery in Fowls.—Fowls attacked with this disease should be given chalk, mixed with boiled rice and milk; a little alum dissolved in their water, so as to make it a little rough, will be useful. The food should be dry grain ; no food of a laxative tendency should be given them. Eyg-Bound.—To relieve a hen that is egg-bound, take a common tail feather of the hen and strip it until near the tip, and then dip it in sweet oil, and let it remam until it becomes thoroughly saturated, then pass the feather up the egg-passage till it meets the egg, which you will find will relieve the hen at once, and enable her to proceed with her duties; if she experience any further difficulty, repeat the operation, getting the feather well filled with oil whenever you make an application. Do not attempt to help nature, in the way of pressure, for in that case the egg may become broken and prove fatal to the hen. After you have made the application, as directed, let nature take its course, and all will be right. Enlargement of Liver and Gall.—This frequently occurs in over-fed fowls, or in consequence of feeding unnatural or over-stimulating food. For a remedy, feed soft cooked food, so as to make as little call upon the di- gestive organs as possible; give a grain of calomel every other day for a few days, and remove the bird to dry, warm quarters. Fowls Hating their Keathers—To prevent fowls eating their feathers give them animal food, such as fresh meat, two or three times a week, burnt bones, oyster shells, charcoal, together with good clean water and hennery. If this does not produce the desired effect, wring their necks, for nothing else will prove a cure. Frost-Bitten Combs.—Frost-bitten combs can be cured by making a thorough appplication of glycerine three times a day. 100 THR PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. Gapes in Fowls—Is no new disease, but one with which every poultry breeder and fancier should make himself as familiar with as “ household words ;” for all domestic birds are liable to it, more particularly all young — fowls, if not properly guarded against. This disease is most destructive in the excessively warm weather of July and August. It is caused by ill- — ventilated and unclean coops, together with the unwholesome, sour food and putrid or impure water, too often given to young fowls; more particularly is this the case with young turkeys. It should be borne in mind, also, that the “ gapes” is an epidemic disease, and when it once make its appearance in a flock of young fowls, those affected with it should at once be removed from the coop; for it is well understood that “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.” The gapes is said to be caused by a sort of internal worm intesting the wind pipe ; in some instances it has been so observed, but — it is by no means a sure criterion with all the disorders accompanied with the gaping of fowls. The general symptoms of the disease, and those most noticeable, are-the continual gaping, coughing, dullness, inactivity, loss of appetite and sneezing of the fowls attacked. Mr. Mowsray, an eminent English breeder, says the “ disease first shows itself when the chicken or turkey is between three and four months old, and not often after.” On the — contrary, we have seen the disease in its worst form show itself in young turkeys and chicks from four weeks to six months of age; therefore, there is no more certainty of fowls being rid of the disease at four weeks old than they are at six months old. There are several modes for the treatment of turkeys for this disease ; the one which has proved the most successful in — cases which we have treated, is as follows:—Take a small quiil feather, stripping the vane, except half an inch from the extremity, of the feathers ; this should be dipped in spirits of turpentine, and the diseased turkey or — chicken, as the case may be, being held, the feather so prepared, is passed down through the small opening of the wind-pipe, which is readily seen at the base of the tongue, and giving it one or two turns, will generally bring up and destroy the worms. The turpentine at once kills the worms, and its application excites a fit of coughing, during which those that are not drawn out by the feather are expelled by the coughing. After this process being used, the young turkeys should be kept for several days in a dry coop, and not be allowed to wander in damp, swampy places, or wet grass. Their feed — should be either cooked corn meal or cracked wheat, which is better, soaked in turpentine, given every morning, and the remainder of the day they should be fed with boiled whey or sour milk, well sprinkled with black pepper; they should also have plenty of clean, fresh water in the coop. Crushed corn soaked in alum water is also said to be a good remedy for gapes. BremENT, in the American Poulterer’s Companion, recommends shutting up the turkeys or chickens in a box, with some shavings dipped in spirits of turpentine, when the vapor arising from the extended surface, produces, in most cases, a cure. He also recommends creosote, used in the same manner, which will produce a like result.. We know nothing of the efficacy of these THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 101 remedies, never having tried them; but we do know that spirits of tur- pentine will not harm fowls if it does not do them any good. The remedies are certainly simple, and no doubt well worthy of trial. Gout or Swelled Legs.—It is recommended for this disease to rub the leg of the fowl affected with fresh grease of any kind once a day for a week, when a cure will be effected. Another remedy is to give a grain of calomel at night, and three drops of wine of colchicum twice a day, care being taken as to warmth, diet, etc., of the fowl. Leg Weakness.—This disease occurs in highly-fed, fast-growing chickens. Give them animal food once a day, and in warm weather dip the legs for a few minutes daily in cold water; also give them every day three or four grains of ammonio-citrate of iron dissolved in water and mixed with meal- feed. Keep them from the wet grass. Pip.—tThe pip is occasioned by the forming of a dry, horny scale upon the tongue —the beak becomes yellow at the base, the plumage becomes ruffed, the bird mopes and pines, the appetite gradually declines to extine- tion, and at length it dies, completely worn out by fever and starvation. Give the bird, three times a day, for a week or so, two or three grains of black pepper in fresh butter, which will effect a cure. Rheumatism.—This disease is caused by exposure in cold, damp and wet henneries. It may be prevented by placing the fowls in warm and dry loca- tions, free from chilling rains and cold, bleak winds.-Feed cooked Indian meal and potatoes, made into a mash, mixed with ale, blood warm, twice a day. Local applications are useless. Roup.—The symptoms of this disease are’ somewhat anaes to those of catarrh. The bird has a frothy substance in the-imner*cormer of the eye; the lids swell, and in severe cases the eye-ball is entirely concealed, and the fowl, unable to see or feed, suffers from great depression, and sinks rapidly; the feetid smell being unbearable. In aggravated cases the following will be found beneficial:—Powdered sulphate of iron, half a drachm; capsicum powder, one drachm; extract of licorice, half an ounce; make into thirty pills; give one at a time three times a day for three days; then take half an ounce of sulphate of iron, and one ounce of cayenne pepper in fine powder. Mix carefully a teaspoonful of these powders with butter and divide into ten parts; give one part twice a day. Wash the head, eyes, and inside of the mouth and nostrils with vinegar ; it is very cleansing and beneficial. An- other remedy for this disease, one which rarely fails to cure, is to take nitric acid, strip a feather to within half or three-fourths of the end, dip the feather into the acid, and thrust it into the nostril of the sick bird, giving it a twist while in. Repeat this twice or three times a day, removing the burnt scab before applying the acid. It is rarely necessary to make a fourth application, and very frequently one is sufficient. Mrs. ArBuTHNoT’s remedy is confine- ment alone in a warm, dry place; a tablespoonful of castor oil every morning 102 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. for a week ; feed with soft food only, mixed with ale and chopped vegetables. In all cases where the bird is attacked with this disease it should be separated at once from the coop, and placed in a good dry, warm location, and not allowed to mix with other fowls on any consideration. ; Scurvy Legs.—Fowls that show any symptoms of this disease should at once be removed from the pen and placed in warm, dry quarters. Give them wholesome and animal food as often as once a day; wash the legs witha weak solution of sugar of lead in the morning, and anoint them with clean lard, mixed with ointment of creosote in the evening, just before going to roost. Don’t, on any consideration, allow the fowls to be exposed to drench- ing rains or roam in wet or even damp grass; but keep them warm and as quiet as possible until the disease disappears, which, if proper care is taken of them, will result in from eight to ten days. } To Exterminate Lice——There are almost as many remedies for ridding the hennery of lice as there are breeds of fowls. We will in this connection give a remedy which we have tried with success — one answering all purposes desired. We will guarantee, if the directions ‘are followed, it will extermi- nate both the common hen louse and the minute hen spider, (the last named being the worse of the two). Take all the hay from the nest and burn it. Drive all the hens out. Get an iron pot or vessel of any kind, put it in the center of the house ; shut the house as tight as it can be; put in the pot a pound of roll brimstone. Heat a piece of iron as large as a man’s fist red hot and put in the pot with the brimstone. Keep the house shut close two hours, then open and ventilate. Sweep and dust out the house thoroughly. Dissolve one pound of potash in one quart of hot water. With an old paint brush paint or wash every part of the house, inside and out, roosts, nests and every place that can be reached with the solution. Get, now, a quart of ker- osenc oil and go through the same operation, painting the whole inside of the house, saturating the roosts well with it. There will not be a louse left when these directions have been followed. It issome work to do it, but it will pay. Put fresh hay in the nests and let the hens in. When they go on the nests to lay, as soon as the nest is warm, if there are any lice on them the latter will leave. They will be seen crawling around the front of the nest boxes; but their lives are short; they cannot endure this remedy and live. Vertigo.—Fowls affected with this disease, BEMENT says, may be ob- served to run round in a circle, or to flutter about with but partial control over their muscular actions. The affection is one evidently caused by undue determination of blood to the head, and is dependent on a full-blooded state of the system. Holding the head of the fowl under a stream of cold water for a short time immediately arrests the disease; and a dose of any aperient, such as calomel, jalap, or castor oil, removes the tendency to the complaint. White Comb—Makes its appearance in the form of small white spots on one or both sides of the comb, which are so thickly clustered together as to THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 103 be mistaken for a sprinkling of meal or other white powder. It seems to be of a scorbutic or leprous nature. The disease spreads itself down the neck of the fowl, both in front and back, and takes off all the feathers as far as it goes, leaving only the stumps. TEGETMEIER recommends stimulating, whole- some food, say oatmeal and water, with a supply of green vegetables, and the administration of some alterative medicine, as flour of sulphur, ten grains, and calomel, one grain, given every other night; and anoint the comb with fresh lard. It can be successfully cured by using cocoa-nut oil, powdered turmeric and sulphur, made into an ointment, and anointing the part affected three or four times a day, and an occasional dose of six grains of jalap. The proportions are about a quarter of an ounce turmeric powder to one ounce of cocoa-nut oil, and a third of an ounce sulphur. Tonic for Poultry.—Mr. Mitts, an apothecary of considerable note in Bourges, France, in the Journal d’ Agriculture Pratique, recommends the following prescription — one which he avers he has used successfully —as an invaluable tonic for debilitated birds, especially in the mortality which is apt to prevail when “shooting the red.” He says:—‘ Take cassia bark in fine powder, three parts; ginger, ten parts; gentian, one part; anise seed, one part ; carbonate of iron, five parts. Mix thoroughly by sifting. A teaspoon- ful of the powder should be mingled with the dough for twenty young tur- keys each morning and evening. It is of the greatest importance to begin - the treatment a fortnight before the appearance of the red, and to continue it two or three weeks after.” Molting Fowls should have a few nails placed in the water furnished for their use. The rust occasioned by nails renders fowls less liable to disease. Tansy is almost a certain preventive of lice upon setting hens. Gather it green, and line the nest, at the time of setting the hens. FRACTURES OF THE BONES. In regard to this matter TEGETMEIER says, that “fractures of the bones of the body are less likely to occur in birds than in other animals, inasmuch as the framework is more completely united together, and is protected from injury by the feathers. In cases where fracture of the ribs or other bones may be suspected, there would be great difficulty in determining the nature of the injury, and I do not think anything more could be done than keeping the bird quiet until recovery. In cases of broken wings, the quill feathers would prevent any recourse being had to the ordinary method of bandaging. The plan I have pursued is, to tie, carefully, the ends of some of the quills together in their natural position, with the wing closed; this prevents motion of the broken ends of the bones; and by keeping the bird in an empty place, where there are no perches for it to attempt to fly upon, every chance of recovery is afforded. Fracture of the fleshy part of the leg would be less manageable, and I can hardly recommend any bandaging that would be 104 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. readily applied. The most common fracture in fowls is that of the tarsus, or scaly part of the leg. This is usually treated by wrapping a slip of rag round the injured limb, and tying it with thread — a very imperfect plan, as motion — of the broken bones is not prevented, and which is therefore frequently un- successful in its results. I always employ a modificatiou of what is known to surgeons asa gum splint. The white of an egg is well beaten up with a fork, and spread upon a strip of thick, soft brown paper, as wide as can be smoothly wrapped around the broken limb. The fowl is held by an assistant, the leg slightly stretched, so as to bring the ends of the bones in a straight line, the moistened paper wrapped smoothly round several times, and secured by two or three turns of thread; and, lastly, to prevent the parts being moved before the paper has become dry and stiff, a thin splint of wood, such asis used for lighting pipes, bound with thread on each side; the wood may be removed the following day, as it then adds to the weight. The stiff paper forms a bandage which prevents all motion, and so places the limb in the — best possible condition for union to take place.” SULPHUR FOR FOWLS. We have been advised by a lady friend, who is no novice in rearing poultry, that no one who has not had the experience, can imagine the beneficial effect a little sulphur mixed with the food of fowls and given two or three times a month, will have upon them. Sulphur is good to be given in all cases, and seems to permeate through the system of the fowl, promoting health and preventing disease. Mix, with the feed intended for a dozen fowls, about half an ounce of pulverized sulphur. ; POULTRY HOUSES, YARDS AND RUNS. A PLAN OF A POULTRY HOUSE THAT WILL ACCOMMODATE FROM TWENTY TO THIRTY FOWLS. To those wishing a small hennery or duck house, for the accommodation of from twenty to thirty fowls, we commend the following directions as worthy of consideration:—In the first place, the house should be in a situation that is dry and airy, but not exposed to tempests; the aspect warm,—an eastern or southeastern loeation is the best,—sheltered, if it may be, by a screen of trees or shrubbery, so that the birds may have the shelter thereof from the summer midday sun, and raw, inclement winds of winter. The house should also be constructed so as to give as much warmth as pos- sible, with a perfect command of ventilation. The floor should be elevated over the general surface, so as to be perfectly dry; the walls close and sub- stantial; the roof air and water-tight; windows should be placed opposite each other to admit of thorough ventilation; but one should be closed at night, even in summer, to prevent through draft during sleeping hours. The windows should be latticed to prevent the fowls passing out or in. The roosting perches. should commence at about a foot from the ground, and ladder-ways, placed twelve inches or so apart, and rising twelve inches, one above the other, for cocks and hens. Turkeys require eighteen inches rise, and at least two feet apart. The perches to be one and a-half to two inches in diameter, with the angles taken off, but not made smoothly round; nests to be constructed in the end walls. The house for twenty fowls should be between five and six feet long, ten feet deep, from front to rear, seven feet high at the front, and nine or ten feet high at the back. That for turkeys must be seven or eight feet long, and the same depth, hight, etc., of the other houses. That for ducks may be of the same dimensions as the hen house, but requires no perches. A feeding coop may be made in the bottom com- partment, two feet wide and two feet high, to suit the large birds; the upper one eighteen inches wide and eighteen inches high, for the smaller ones; the sides and ends to be closely boarded; the front to be done with rounded railing, in which the doors are to be made, also railed, through which to take out and put in the fowls; or the backs may have the doors in 106 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. ‘ them. Along the front the feeding troughs are to be placed. These coops may be placed in a compartment in the same range with the other houses, ; or one resting against the back of the poultry houses. ie ee ke ee A RUSTIC POULTRY HOUSE. We can scarcely fancy anything more beautifying in a poultry yard than a nice and ccnvenient rustic poultry house, combining convenience with simplicity. In this line we find nothing more suitable than the following, which we take from Brment’s Poulterer’s Companion: — For the rustic work, join four pieces of saplings in an oblong shape for sills; confine them to the ground; erect at the middle of each of the two ends a forked post, of suitable hight, in order to make the sides quite steep ; join these with a ridge pole; put on any rough or old boards from the apex down to the ground ; then cover it with bark, cut in rough pieces, from half to a foot square, laid on and confined in the same manner as ordinary shingles; fix the back end in the same way; and the front can be latticed with little poles with the HHH Kes Sr, | ileal Se: i) A RUSTIC POULTRY HOUSE. THE POOR MAN’S POULTRY HOUSE. bark on, arranged diamond fashion, as shown inthe engraving. The door can be made in any style of rustic form. The roosts, laying and sitting boxes can be placed inside of the house, in almost any position; either lengthwise or inthe rear. From the directions here given, a person can easily build a fancy rustic house of any desired size, and in almost any location in the poultry yard desired. To make the rusticity of the house show off to the best advantage, it should be placed amid shrubbery. THE POOR MAN’S POULTRY HOUSE. i The plan is a cheap and economical one—such as can be built with very little trouble or expense, combining at the same time a good and con- —_ venient poultry yard and house by simply thatching it with straw and brush- wood instead of using lumber. The Rural Farmer's Library says it is made by forming a circle eighteen or twenty-four feet in diameter, in accordance with the size you wish to build; on the outside of the circle cut a trench, ee ee A THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 107 three or four inches wide and deep, and plant poles twelve or eighteen inches into the ground every two feet. These poles should be as thick as a PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF BROWNE'S POULTRY HOUSE. man’s arm, eight or ten feet high; a space on the south side, between two poles, should be chosen for a doorway. Then take brushwood, six feet long, with the twigs and leaves on, place it against the poles and commence lacing some of the stout and straight twigs round the poles in the trench, alter- nately twining in and out, similar to basket-work, going the whole round, TCO (CEC CeCe Rae | PERE EL | GROUND PLAN. except the doorway. When eight or ten inches high, stamp it well down, making it tight and firm. Keep on in the same manner until you have got five feet high, then pass the brush over doorway and all, which will make it firmer and stronger, continuing up to eight or ten feet in hight; braid o 108 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. sometimes on one, and then on the other side of the uprights. The house ‘ should be placed in the center of this circle. A few stakes, a little more — brush, and an armful of straw for thatch or roof, will make this answer; the j brush must be woven round the poles in the same manner for the house — that it was for the yard. A straw thatch for roof, it is said, will last ‘ twenty years, if properly made. It should be formed of good, clean, long — straw, and as little broken as possible. Wheat or rye straw is preferable ; put it on ten or twelve inches thick; some roofs are made eighteen inches thick. Tie it close and securely with strips of white oak or hickory bark well twisted; but this every one knows how to perform. The roof should have a good pitch, or, in other words, be very steep, so that rain or snow — may be quickly thrown off. Doors for this house may be made of boards, — and hinges from the sole of an old shoe. The inside of the house may be ~ arranged as desired as regards laying boxes, roosts, ete. The inside of the house might be thatched with straw, as well as with brushwood, which — will make it warmer in° winter. With the directions here given, and the illustration before him, almost any handy lad upon the farm can build a com- fortable hennery and yard. Os oe wer BROWNE’S POULTRY HOUSE. From the American Poultry Yard, by D. J. Brownz, we take the following description of a very pretty and convenient poultry-house, of which we give a perspective view:—“‘A fowl- AN house,” says Mr. Browne, “should be dry, well- roofed, and fronting the east or south ; and if prac- ticable, in a cold climate, it should be provided with a stove, or some other means for heating, — R warmth being very conducive to health and laying, though extreme heat has the contrary effect. The dormitory, or roost, should be well ventilated by means of two latticed windows, at opposite ends of the building; and it would be desirable to have one or more apertures through the roof for the escape of foul air. The sitting apartment, also, — should be ventilated by means of a large window, _ TRANSVERSE OR CROSS SECTION. jin the side of the house, and holes through the @ ceiling or roof. Ifkept moderately dark, it will contribute to the quietude of the hens, and thus favor the process of incubation. The sitting room should be provided with boxes or troughs, well supplied with fresh water and proper food for the hens during the hatching period, from which they can partake at all times at will. The laying-room, in winter, should have similar boxes or troughs containing old mortar, broken oyster-shells, soot, brick-dust, gravel and ashes, as well as a liberal supply of proper food and — drink. The perches, or roosting poles, should be so arranged that one row | TOCVELISITAL TTT MOLD NER ge TER "PHM ' f THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 109 of the fowls should not rest directly over another. They should be so con- structed as to enable the fowls to ascend and descend by means of ladders or steps, without making much use of their wings; for heavy fowls fly up to their roosts with difficulty, and often injure themselves by descending, as they alight heavily upon the ground. The illustration given represents a hen-house in perspective, twenty feet long, twelve feet wide, and seven feet high to the eaves, with a roof of a seven foot pitch, a chimney-top, a ventilator on the peak, twelve feet in length and one foot or more in hight, and openings in the gable ends for the admission of fresh air. In the easterly end there are two doors, one leading into the laying apart- ment and loft, and the other into the hatching-room. In the same end there is also a wooden shutter or blind, which may be opened whenever necessary to let air or light into the roost. In the back, or northerly side, there is a large lattice window, three feet above the floor or ground, four by twelve feet, for the purpose of affording fresh air to the sitting hens. In front, or southerly side, there is a large glazed window, four by twelve feet, and another on the southerly side of the roof, of a corre- sponding size, designed to admit light and heat of the sun in cold weather, to stimulate the laying hens. In the southerly side there are also two small apertures three feet above the ground or floor, for the ingress and egress of the fowls. These openings may be provided with sliding shut- ters, as well as ‘lighting boards,’ inside and out,/nd may be guarded by sheets of tin, nailed on below them, to prevent the intrusion of rats, weasels, or skunks, The building may be constructed of wood or other materials, and in such style or order of architecture as may suit one’s taste, only pre- serving the internal arrangements and proportions in reference to breadth and hight. As a general rule, as regards the length of a building, each hen, irrespective of the cocks, may be allowed a foot. In the ground plan, L denotes the laying apartment; H the hatching-room, six by twenty feet ; n, 2, ete., nest-boxes for laying, fourteen by fourteen inches, and ten inches deep ; 0, 0. etc. nest-boxes for sitting hens, of the same size; J, a ladder or steps leading into the loft; and S, a stove for warming the apartment, if desirable, when the weather is cold. The transverse or cross section shows the building from the bottom to the top, with the internal arrangements ; ZL, denotes the laying apartment, and H the hatching-room, divided in the middle by a partition; m, the nest-boxes resting on tables, three or four feet above the floor or ground; 6, 6, boxes or troughs containing water, grain, brick-dust, sand, ground oyster shells, or the materials for the con- venience of the fowls; d, an aperture or door three feet above the ground or floor, for the ingress and egress of the fowls; a, a lattice window, three feet above the the floor or ground, for the admission of fresh air to the sitting hens; &, the roosting place, or loft, shut off from the laying and sitting apartments by the ceilings, c, ¢; h, a hole or opening in the ceiling for the escape of the air below into the loft; v, the ventilator at the 110 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. peak of the roof; P, the roosting-pole, or perch; ¢, a trough, or bed, for retaining the droppings or dung.” A MODEL HENNERY. Among the multiplicity of poultry houses and yards, we were particu- larly impressed with those of Isaac Van WINKLE, Esq., of Greenville, N.J. Mr. W.seems to have an eye to the practical utility, as well as to the beauty, of his henneries and surroundings. We present two engravings, one of which gives an interior view of the house as it is, with the exception that it is divided into sections for different classes of fowls by woven wire partitions; the other gives the south elevation of the house, and shows the interior of one of the yards. The partitions in the house correspond with the size of the yards. The building is nearly seventy-five feet long, sEEEREL: AEE CEPT POULTRY HOUSE AND YARDS — SOUTH ELEVATION, thirteen feet high and twelve feet wide. It is built of wood, roof shingled. — To the highest pitch of the roof it is thirteen feet. The elevation or hight from the ground or foundation in front is four feet, which cuts a twelve-foot board into three pieces; the length or pitch of the roof, in front, is twelve feet—just the length of one board, saving a few inches of a ragged end; the pitch of the rear roof is six feet, and the hight of the building from the ground to the base of the roof is just six ae which cuts a twelve- foot board into two pieces. The ground plan and frame work are planned on the same principles of economy of timber. By this plan no timber is wasted, as it all cuts out clean; there is also a great saving of labor. The foundation of the building rests on cedar posts set four feet into the THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 111 - ground, to prevent action of the frost in the winter and spring. These are regarded very much better than brick or stone piers. This house contains eight pens, each of which will accommodate from twenty-five to thirty fowls; each pen is nine feet long and eight feet wide. All the pens are divided off by wire partitions of one inch mesh. Each pen has a glass window on the southern front of the house, extending from the gutter to within one foot of the apex of the roof, fixed in permanently with French glass lapping over each other, after the fashion of hot-bed sashes; they are about eleven by three feet. Each pen is entered by a wire door six feet high; from the hallway, which is three feet wide; and these doors are carefully fastened with brass padlocks. INTERIOR OF POULTRY HOUSE. The house is put together with match boards, and the grooves of the boards are filled in with white lead and then driven together, so as to make the joimts impervious to cold or wet. On the rear side of the house there _are four scuttles or ventilators, two by two feet, placed equidistant from each other, and to these are attached iron rods which fit into a slide with a screw, so that they can be raised to any hight. These are raised, according © to the weather, every morning, to let off the foul air. Each pen has a venti- lator besides the trap-door at the bottom, same size, which communicates _ with the pens and runs. These lower ventilators are only used in very hot weather, to allow a free circulation through the building, and in summer JE THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. each pen is shaded from the extreme rays of the sun by thick shades fastened — upon the inside, so that the inside of the house is cooler than the outside. The dropping boards extend the whole width of the pen, and are about two feet wide and sixteen inches from the floor; the roosts are about seven inches above and over this board. They are three inches wide and crescent- shaped on top, so that the fowls can rest a considerable part of their bodies on the perches. Under these dropping boards are the nest-boxes, where the fowls lay, and are shaded and secluded. The feeding and drinking troughs are made of galvanized iron, and hung with hooks on eyes, so that they can be easily removed when they require cleaning. One can stand at one end of this long house and see all the chickens on their roosts. By seeing each other in this way the fowls are made companionable, and are saved many a ferocious fight ; at the same time each kind is kept separated from the other. Each pen has a run thirty-three by twelve and fifteen feet; these runs are separated by wire fences twelve feet high, with meshes of two inches. Out- side of these small runs is a large run of half an acre, and on the rear are other runs of about an acre, all of grass, so that four or five kinds can be out at large at a time in these large runs, and into which they are all let out by turns. The house is surrounded with a drain which carries off all the water and moisture, and prevents dampness. Inside, the house is cemented all through; and these cemented floors are covered with gravel about two inches deep. The house is heated in the cold weather just enongh to keep water from freezing, as Mr. Van WINKLE is opposed to much artificial heat, and to forcing fowls to lay. At the north end is‘a small house or shed to protect the hens from the north winds, and the entrance is by the south, through the shed which is used to keep his feed close at hand. The plan of this hennery is remarkable for its simplicity and hygienic arrangement. The cost of the labor and material was under five hundred dollars. The house is cleaned out every day. We were there in the hottest of last summer weather, and it smelled just as sweet as outside; we could not discover the slightest taint to the air inside. Mr. Van WunxzzE has other houses. One about fifty feet long, in which he has, on the second floor, a sitting department. This house has five pens, with an office for his poulterer. He planned all his own houses, and seems to have a quick eye to any improvement. He has succeeded most admirably in all his aims, if we judge by results. PLAN OF POULTRY HOUSE FOR ONE HUNDRED FOWLS. This plan requires the ceiling and sides to be lathed and plastered. The partitions are made of smooth lath or boards, and set up endways and fastened securely at both ends with a space between them of from one and a half to two inches. The nests are twelve inches wide, fifteen inches high, and fifteen inches long, and so constructed that they may be slid out — at pleasure from the laying-room into the sitting-room, reserving room for a THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. gsi door in either case to keep the fowls separate. The doors and windows are placed so that a good draft is secured in warm weather, and plenty of light in cold weather. The perches are made portable, so that they can be moved or taken out at pleasure, to make it convenient to clean out the hennery. The length of the building is sixteen by thirty feet, which is divided into six rooms or compartments, two are laying and roosting rooms, one sitting room, and three for runways or rooms for roamage. PLAN OF A SMALL DOUBLE HENNERY. Those desiring to keep two distinct breeds of fowls on a village lot, and having but little room to do so, we think a small double hennery can be made to answer all purposes, in a yard one hundred and forty by thirty-five feet— one of which we have seen. It can be made very cheaply, takes up but little room, and is considered a model hennery. ‘This lot is surrounded in the rear and one side with an ordinary tight board fence; the coops are at C, and runways R, as shown in the plan. The runways are five feet wide—that to the rear of the lot being twenty-five feet long, the ccops being each five feet square; the front of each runway is lathed up like any ordinary hennery. The coops are made tight, in which are situated a row of nests at N; the roosts are at P; windows are placed at the ends, which admit the light; 8, denotes the slots in the coops for the fowls to pass in and out of the runways. The runways on the side of the lot may be made the full length of the same, if desired, but twenty-five feet is sufficient runway room for seven fowls. The door to each coop is situated in the corner, D. This arrangement we think very economical, and answers every purpose for keeping two distinct breeds of fowls, in a small space. If deemed advisable, the fowls could be let out on the large plat of ground on alternate days, to allow them to get grass, and pick up such refuse as comes from the kitchen and table. It is a good plan to sift coal ashes in the hen-yards for them to wallow in; also to spade up a portion of it, so that they can, in sunning themselves, wallow in the fresh dug earth, which has a tendency to keep them clear of vermin. 2 ee eee es Cee e Eee Ss es eer mecercces. PLAN OF A SMALL DOUBLE HENNERY. RHODE ISLAND POULTRY HOUSE. ‘The following plan of a poultry house is taken from the Albany Culti- vator, and differs very considerably from those already given. The writer who furnishes the plan remarks:—‘“‘Some farmers are of an opinion that a few boards tacked together, or set against the side of a wall, answer very well for the purpose of a hen roost; but I have come to the conclusion that to render our fowls profitable, as much care must be taken of them as of our 114 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. horses and cattle. This house may be built of pine boards, or it may be clapboarded and plastered with lime; in either case it should have a good = 2 Fie. 1. Fig. 2. EXPLANATION, plank floor. It is twelve feet long, eight feet wide, and seven feet high, from the bottom of the sill to the top of the plate.” Fig. 1. View of the east end; A, a door, two feet wide and five feet high ; E, a small window for ventilation. Fig. 2. View of the west end; N N, two holes one foot square for the Fig. 3. ' Fie. 4. entrance of the fowls; F, a door to throw out the manure; it turns up “and hooks at E; C C, windows with small wire grates. 2h Fig. 3. Interior view; U, a door; OOOO, boxes for nests, twelve inches square, to be plied in three tiers, one above the other; U, an inside door of the same dimensions as the outer one; B B, are poles, or roosts ; FRONT VIEW OF A VIRGINIA POULTRY HOUSE. these may be either of sassafras or wild cherry tree. They are fitted to swing up and hook at the upper floor. Fig. 4. Side view; MM, nests or boxes for brood hens ; shade should have a long door to swing down and hook at the bottom. THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 115 VIRGINIA POULTRY HOUSE. A writer in the fifth volume of the Cultivator says, “I have used the poultry house, of which drawings on preceding and this page, are represen- sentations, for about eight years, and can testify that it is preferable to any known in this section of country, and many of my neighbors have FRONT VIEW. GROUND PLAN. inrown aside their old houses and built after my plan. The roosts for the fowls should be often renewed, and always of sassafras, as the smell of that wood is deleterious to the vermin on poultry. The floor in the sitting room should always be kept perfectly clean, and continually covered with CHEAP POULTRY HOUSE. ashes and lime, and the litter from under the roosts taken away weekly. A, the door ; B, the entrance for the fowls; C C C, the openings underneath the mitred floor, where the fowls roost; D D D, six inch openings to admit air; F', the ground floor, made of earth, elevated above the surface one foot, with boxes for the poultry to lay and sit in; F, a ladder for poultry to go to EEE ST ESTA MER ee. ORNATE sal Feeding ' Rooms SFE 6% It GLE HA ag GROUND PLAN. TRANSVERSE SECTION. their roosting room; G G G G, boxes for nests; H, lattice floor for the litter from the poultry to roost in; I, a round hole, one foot in diameter, for fowls to roost; J J J, lattice windows of blinds three feet wide, and three i feet six inches deep.” 116 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. CHEAP POULTRY HOUSE. In third volume of the Country Gentleman we find the plan, on page 115, with the annexed elevation, of a cheap poultry house, furnished by a corre- spondent. He says:—“I have thought it would not be out of place to send you a drawing and plan of one we consider the best, as it can be made to accommodate from one dozen to five hundred fowls. The plan I send is sixteen feet long by eight feet wide at the bottom, and costs, using one- inch matched boards, about one dollar per foot. The present one will cost from sixteen to twenty dollars, including sash, doors, and other fixtures. The engraving exhibits the plan so clearly that any explanation is altogether unnecessary.” VAN NUXEN’S POULTRY HOUSE. “Having made some experiments in the raising of chickens, a business that forms a part of every farmer’s occupation, I send you a description of my present plan of operation, which appears to answer admirably. Under an outhouse, sixteen by eighteen feet, raised three feet above the ground, I have made a cellar three feet below the ground, making the hight six feet altogether. Eight feet in width of this cellar is partitioned off for turnips, the remaining ten by sixteen feet being sufficiently large to accommodate one hundred chickens, or more. This cellar is inclosed with boards at present, but it is intended to substitute brick walls ina year or two. The roost is made sloping from the roof to within eighteen inches from the ground or floor, twelve feet long by six feet wide. The roost is formed in this way: Two pieces of two-inch plank, six inches wide, and twelve feet long, are fastened parallel, six feet apart, by a spike or pin, to the joist above, the lower end resting on a post eighteen inches above the ground. Notches are made along the upper edge of the plank, one foot apart, to receive sticks or poles from the woods, the bark being left on. When it is desirable to clean out the roosts, the poles, being loose, are removed ; the supports, working on a pivot, are raised and fastened up, when all is clear for the cleaning out. I next provide the fowls with corn, oats and buckwheat in three separate apartments, holding about half a bushel each, which are kept always supplied. A row of nests is constructed after a plan of my own, and does well. It is a box, ten feet long and eighteen inches wide ; the bottom level, the top sloping at an angle of forty-five degrees, to prevent the fowls roosting on it; the top opens on hinges. The nests, eight in number, are one foot square; the remaining six inches of the width is a passage way next to the wall, open at each end of the box; the advantage is to give the hens the apparent secrecy they are so fond of.” OCTAGON POULTRY HOUSE. Those desirous of keeping from twenty to thirty fowls will find the octagon style of a house just the thing for them. It is more ornamental than the oblong house and economizes room, where that essential is required. ee ee ee Ve ee ee a a awe Fm ANT as Sar tal THE PEOPLE'S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 117 The object of placing it on piles is to prevent the encroachment of rats and other animals that prove so destructive to eggs and fowls, when not properly protected. The structure is not a costly one; any person used to handling tools can construct it, at a merely nominal expense, adding ornamentation to the structure, as he desires. This building is ten feet in diameter and six and a half feet high. The sills are four- by-four and the plates three-by-four joists, halved and nailed at the joints. It is sided with inch-and - a-quarter spruce plank, tongued and grooved. No upright timbers are used. The floor and roofing are of the same kind of plank. To guard against leakage by shrinkage, the joints may be bat- tened with laths or other strips of thin board. An eight-square frame sup- ports the top of the rafters, leaving an opening of ten inches in diameter, on which is placed an octagon chimney for a ventilator, which makes a very pretty finish, The piers should be either cedar, chestnut, or locust, two OCTAGON POULTRY HOUSE. feet high, and set on flat stones. The letter D, designates the door; W, W, windows; L, latticed win- dow to admit air, with a shutter to exclude it when necessary ; H, entrance for the fowls to alight on when going in; R, R, are roosts placed spirally, one end attached to a post near the center of the room, and the other end to the wall; the first or lowermost one two feet from the floor, and the others eighteen inches apart, and rising gradually to the top, six feet from the floor. These roosts will accommodate forty ordinary sized fowls. F, F,is a board floor, on an angle of about forty-five degrees, to catch and carry down the droppings of the fowls. This arrangement ren- ders it much more convenient in cleaning out the manure, which should be frequently done. The space beneath this floor is appropriated to nests, twelve in number, fifteen inches wide, eighteen inches deep, and eighteen inches high. In order to give an appearance of secretiveness, which it is well known the hen is partial to, the front is latticed with strips of lath. By this arrangement a free circulation of air is admitted, which adds much to the comfort of the hens while sitting. In the foregoing bill of lumber for building purposes, spruce is given, but any other lumber convenient and at GROUND PLAN. 118 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. hand will of course do full as well for the structure. If the lumber used be unplaned, paint the building inside and out with either hot lime made to the consistency of whitewash, or common paint of the color which most suits the fancy. The paint or whitewash not only beautifies the building, but preserves it. PLAN OF CHARLES MOUNT’S HEN HOUSE. This house can be cheaply constructed, and has the advantage of being easily kept clean, as the droppings fall on the inside roof, or slide, under the roosts, and can be scraped down into the passage ways, (A) and swept out at the doors, (B,) in which are the smaller doors, (C,) hung from the bottom, and swinging outward and downward at an angle, to allow the fowls to enter, at the same time keeping out rats and other vermin—the outer end PLAN OF CHARLES MOUNT’S HEN HOUSE. being about six inches from the ground. This door can be closed at night and in cold weather. The nests are ranged in tiers on each side of the feeding room, the hens having access to the nests (D) by ladders running vertically across the face of the platforms, which also give access to the roosts. This arrangement of the nests (D) gives the fowls privacy and darkness, and allows them to follow their inclination to steal away and hide their nests. The nests are easily got at to remove the eggs or clean them out, by opening the boards, (E,) which run the whole length of the tier of nests, and are hinged at the bottom side and held, when closed, by a button at the top. There is a door, (E,) at each side, at the end of the tier of nests, opening from the feeding room to the passage on each side, which also has an opening in the bottom for the passage of the fowls, fitted with a THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 119 small door to shut them out when necessary. The roosts (F, F,) are round _ poles, which rest in notches cut in pieces which are fastened to each end of the building, which allows of their being taken out to clean. The gable end _ should face to the sun, and have double sash covering the whole size of the _ feeding room down to within one foot six inches of the ground, to let in the _ light and heat of the sun in winter. The roof at the peak is left open for ventilation, and surmounted by a double row of pigeon boxes, the under POULTRY HOUSE — ELEVATION. side of which have boards hung to close in extreme cold weather. The whole is surmounted by a vane to give it finish. The house is eighteen by _ thirteen feet, and eight feet post; is clapboarded outside and ceiled inside with worked boards, and filled in with tan bark. It can be floored with _ plank or cemented. PLAN OF POULTRY HOUSE THAT WILL ACCOMMODATE ONE HUNDRED FOWLS. A yard fifty by one hundred feet is sufficiently large to answer the purpose desired by a medium breeder, and upon which one hundred fowls S SSA SASSY WU “SN N N NS N N NS N N N N N S ‘ N N N NW N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N S N N N N GUM = SE Z 3 GROUND FLOOR. SECOND FLOOR. can be conveniently kept. But the more room allowed them the better it will prove for the health of the brood. This lot should be allowed the fowls outside of the dimensions of the hennery. We have seen a flock of one hundred fowls well kept upon the space mentioned. A poultry house, con- taining two floors, constructed on the following plan, which we take from 120 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. the Scottish Farmer, will accommodate, very comfortably, one hundred fowls during winter and summer, provided they are allowed the liberty of roaming in a small yard during pleasant weather. The cost of the building, of course, will vary according to style of construction and price of materials. The house is considered, in England, a desirable one, and answers the pur- pose so well that it is being extensively used by poultry fanciers of limited means. The plan presents some features of novelty as well as of utility. The posts of the frame, if built of wood, may be not over nine feet high, by resting the sills on concrete walls of three feet, where it is convenient to build on a slight inclination. Seven and a-half feet in hight will do for feeding room and the manure pit, which may be formed by running a wall three feet high, as shown by the dotted line. The manure may be thrown in through the door, which opens near. Three windows on the south side will give light and warmth. The second floor may be lathed up the roof, to give sufficient hight in the center, which will be four and a-half feet under the eaves of the roof. The nests are set in the partition, one foot from the floor, one foot high, and one and a-half feet long, open at both ends with a slide door, which is reversed when a hen is sitting, so that she is placed in the opposite or sitting room, and thus the others never disturb her. A door e——_—— CHEAP POULTRY HOUSE. to communicate between the rooms and windows in the end and south side will give sufficient light and warmth. The whole may be lathed and plastered, or ceiled up, either of which will make it a warm and durable building. The lower floor is much the best for roosting and feeding, while the hens can quite readily ascend to lay and sit on the upper floor with equally good success. ‘This plan will give eighty feet of outside wall and eight hundred feet of floor.” CHEAP POULTRY HOUSE. Here is another house, designed to meet the wants of a person who cannot afford to put up a poultry house, and who has buta small yard for fowls to run in. The figure illustrates the design of the house. On the right is the house, with door. The house is four feet long, three and a half feet wide, twenty inches high at the sides, and thirty inches at the peak. Inside are a roost and a couple of nests. In the rear of the yard a coop is attached to the house, as shown in the drawing, in lattice work. It is five feet long, and the same width, hight, and shape as the house. The house opens into the yard by a hole a few inches from the ground; it is ventilated by a few auger holes bored in each end in the peak. A pane or two of glass may be put in, if desirable. This coop cat be moved daily, so that the fowls will be THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 121 on fresh ground. It will accommodate a cock and six hens. For breeding purposes, where it is desirous to coop up a particular trio or more, it is invaluable. A HENNERY THAT WILL ACCOMMODATE FROM TWO HUNDRED TO TWO HUN- DRED AND FIFTY FOWLS. na Mr. G. O. Brown of Maryland, gives the following as a plan of », cheap and convenient hennery, for those wishing to keep a large number of fowls. _ He says:—‘The drawing of the building shows the north and west sides. __ The building is sixteen by twenty feet, sixteen feet high to roof peak. Fig. _ 2represents the inside of the building as follows :—C, roosting and general room; B, egg room, feed room, etce.; A, A, A, are nests. In the recess there are three rows of nests, one above the other; 5, door opening from outside building ; 6, door opening from feed room to recess, nest boxes and roosting room.. Fig. 3, nest boxes, thirteen by twenty inches. These boxes are all movable, so that I arrange iin il them to suit circumstances: By raising “ssyay a board, hinged, one can readily ex- ; amine the nests from the feed or egg room. Should a: hen wish to sit, take out one of the nest boxes, turn it end for end, thereby placing the end that is closed up in the roosting room, which prevents the other hens from bothering or annoying her. I have it so arranged that the sitting hen can go out in a little yard, scratch and dust without any inconvenience or anuoy-— - ance from the others. The egg or feed room has shelves in it, and a loft, (which is reached by a ladder made fast up the side,) where the feed is kept. Fig. 4 represents the roosts, two feet apart, of sassafras. Fig. 5 represents a flooring of boards, with the same slant as the roosts, but placed two feet away from the roost. The droppings falling on these boards, roll down into a trough at the lower end, as shown. In the east side of the house I have one large sliding window, and in the south side two, with wire fenders or screens, over all three. A building of this size and kind can accommodate two hundred to two hundred and fifty chickens with ample room. + ASE A HENNERY THAT WILL ACCOMMODATE 250 FOWLS. PLAN OF POULTRY HOUSE THAT WILL ACCOMMODATE THREE DISTINCT BREEDS. The building is enclosed with worked spruce or pine boards, put on vertically, and the hight so arranged that each board will cut to avoid 122 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. waste. Elevation —Length, twenty-four feet; width, eleven feet; hight in front, nine and a half feet; hight in rear, six and a half feet. All the — He THEE TT POULTRY HOUSE — ELEVATION. pieces are cut off of the full lengths in front, making just half a rear length. The rafters, of thirteen feet joist, with either battened or shingle roof as preferred. PLAN AND YARD. The building is supposed to face the south. The entrance door, E, open- ing into the passage, P, three and a half feet wide, which runs the length of the building; smaller doors, D, each two feet wide, opening into the roosting rooms, R. The nests are raised about — afoot from the floor, and also open ~ into the rooms R, with a hinged board in the passage so that the eggs can be removed without entering the roosting i rooms. The perches, A, are movable, i perfectly level, and raised two feet } from the floor. The partition walls are tight, two boards high, above which AR ACR ee :.. is lath; the passage wall above the PLAN AND YARD. nests, and the doors, D, D, D, being of lath also. The roosting rooms are seven and a half by eight feet, large enough for twenty-five fowls each. Windows are six feet square, raised one foot from the floor. We prefer the glass to be six by eight or seven by nine inches — as these small sizes need no protection strips to prevent the fowls from breaking them. The holes, H, for egress and ingress of the fowls, are closed by a drop door worked by a cord and pulley from the passage way. Another door can be placed in the other end of the passage way if desirable. - This arrangement of the yards, Y, of course would not suit every one; some would prefer smaller yards, making each yard the width of the room and adding to its length. We can only say “cut your garment according to your cloth”? — cut your yard according to your ground. The house above is designed for only three varieties ; but by simply adding to the length, any number of breeds may be accommodated. The simplest and most economi- cal foundation is to set locust or oak posts about four feet deep, every eight feet, and spike the sills on them. There is then no heaving from frost; and all the underpinning necessary is a board nailed to the sill and extending ; THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 123 into the ground a couple of inches. A sitting room can be added by making the building four feet longer. The room should be in the end next the door, so as to be always within notice. MR. HAWLEY’S POULTRY HOUSE. Mr. Hawtery gave in the Rural New- Yorker, a few years since, a plan and description of a poultry house which he said proved a success with him during severe cold. weather—the thermometer indicating only three degrees below freezing, when it was fifteen degrees below zero outside. The house is twenty feet long, eight feet wide on the bottom, six feet high in the rear, six and one-quarter feet in roof. It is built of matched and dressed lumber N —— — OCTAGONAL POULTRY HOUSE. for the outside, battened with strips and well painted. The frame is three by four inch joist—lathed and filled in with sawdust on all sides and roof, CLEA LTT Ut be GROUND PLAN. ’ END SECTION. then plastered. Gravel bottom. There are three windows, twelve lights, nine by thirteen, both sashes movable, and a light frame, one-half the size of the windows, prevents the fowls from escaping when the sashes are raised or dropped., The building is divided into three comfortable coops. There is ample room for two lengths of roosts, under which there is a plat- form to catch the droppings, thereby insuring cleanliness, so essential to the 124 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. health of the occupants. The nests are “secret,” built on the grou window in the door regulates the temperature of the house. OCTAGONAL POULTRY HOUSE. The Canada Farmer gives the following plan for an octagonal poultry house, and says “ that form is chosen as offering a greater internal space for the same extent of wall than the square form. The door occupies one of the sides, the windows two of the others. The roof is supported by a cen- tral pillar, F, and, if desired, may have a lantern light at the top, with louvre boards, or other openings, for ventilation. The center pillar is by far the best plan of supporting the roof, for if horizontal tie-beams are used, the fowls will unquestionably perch on them. Around seven sides of the in- terior runs a broad, stout shelf C, C, over which the two lines of perches D, D, are supported on inclined rests. Underneath C, C, is a narrower shelf for the nest boxes E, E. If desired, movable baskets or boxes can be placed on this shelf. “The advantages of this arrangement are obvious. The fowls, following © the natural instinct which leads them to select the highest perches, roost over the shelf, and the nest boxes are undefiled. The manure on the shelf is in a position in which it can be easily scraped away with a flat hoe or scraper, and the shelf sanded daily. The floor is kept free from filth, and the house consequently always preserved clean and wholesome. ‘The space under — the nest-boxes will serve for the cooping of the hens with chickens, if no better situation offers. If extreme cheapness of construction be an object, — the house may be built by driving light poles into the ground at equal — distances, and closing in the spaces between them with weather boarding. — The form admits of easy ornamentation, and may be adapted to harmonize with almost any style of buildings.” A FANCY POULTRY HOUSE. In closing our remarks on poultry houses, we cannot do so without pre-_ senting to those who can afford it, and who wish to display more taste in~ this branch of economy, an illustration of a Gothic or Chinese style of poul- try house, which we take, together with the description, from the American Poulterer’s Companion. It is a very neat and pretty looking structure, and is designed for a poultry house and yard for breeding fowls, ducks and pigeons. It is intended to stand in the center of a piece of grass land or park, and if on a slight knoll or mound so much the better. If the soil is” inclined to clay, it should be excavated all around the building at least two feet deep, and first a layer of stones about one and a half feet deep, then — covered with coarse gravel and sand. This is desirable— for we consider it almost essential to success — stagnant moisture or wet in the soil being more conducive to disease than any other circumstance. A southern aspect is the best, and if sheltered from the north and northwest, by plantations of ever- greens, it will not only be a protection from the cold winds of winter, but THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 125 shelter from the rays of the sun in summer. The houses and yards must be constructed to suit the views and purposes of the proprietor. The yards should be fenced with pickets at least six and a half feet high—wire would be more ornamental but rather expensive. Not less than one-fourth of an acre should be allowed for fifty fowls. The walls of the poultry house should _be of brick, nine inches thick, and hollow ; they should be at least twelve feet high, so that the roof can project some four feet, forming a shed for protecting the fowls from the storm. The front of the shed may be formed —s Sr FANCY POULTRY HOUSE. of lath or any other kind of wood, in a rustic manner, forming a trellis on which vines might be trained, which would add much to its appearance; or it may be inclosed with glass, and grapes grown on the rafters ; or nests may be placed in these sheds for sitting hens. We may observe here, that whichever plan is adopted, the cheapest and warmest materials of which to construct the house are a wood frame and a _ weather-boarding, either of clapboards, or ceiled up and duwn with narrow battens. It should be ceiled within with hemlock boards, tongued and grooved, and laid crosswise, and filled in between the timbers with spent tan, or any other dry substance, well rammed or packed in. Or the spaces _ between the posts may be filled in with brick and a thin coat of plaster. In either case, whether of brick or wood, it should be whitewashed with lime. The roof should also be ceiled with boards and filled in with tan, which would render it cooler in summer and warmer in winter. The interior may 126 THE PEGPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. be finished to accommodate the kind of stock intended to be kept. If for the large Asiatic fowls, the perches should be low, or the floor of their roost- ing room may be covered with straw ; in which case it should be cleansed, or the straw changed daily. The cupola is intended for a pigeon house. The holes by which they enter should not be too large or numerous, and should have a shelf at the entrance. The upper tier should have a roof or weather- boarding over them to keep out the wet. An objection to a wooden pigeon house is, that they are too cold in winter and too hot in summer; but this may be in a great measure prevented by making the wood double, with a space of two or three inches between, which will form a non-conductor of heat. POULTRY APPLIANCES. CHICKEN-COOPS OR PENS, FEEDING-HOPPERS AND TROUGHS, WATER-FOUN- TAINS, ETC. As the rearing, management and care of all kinds of poultry is much facilitated, as well as rendered more certainly remunerative by the aid of suitable appliances, we give herewith engravings and descriptions of those we have been enabled to cull from the sources at command, and which are deemed every way suited to the ends desired. CHICKEN HOUSE — EXTERIOR VIEW. The march of improvement in the building of chicken houses seems to be as manifest as in most other things, and anything new in this line is sought after with interest by the amateur or breeder of fancy fowls. .We give an illustration (two views) of one of these houses, which struck us as being the ne plus ultra of chicken coops. It is sketched from coops we saw on the 128 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. grounds of Isaac Van Winxe, Esq., of New-Jersey. One illustration shows the house with the end open, giving an interior view, while the other shows the exterior. These houses are movable; made of matched boards nailed to posts, two by two inches, on each end, and side or section, and hooks and staples placed at the top and bottom of the posts, on each inside, so that instead of being nailed together as a whole, it is hooked up in sec- tions, as shown in the engraving, with front section down. By this means the coop can be taken down and moved to any place desired. At the rear of the runway is placed.a tight coop, as shown, into which the hen and chickens can retire to roost; the slide being closed, makes it perfectly rat or vermin proof. In the end of the tight coop are three or four one-inch holes A \) ne | \\ CHICKEN HOUSE — INTERIOR VIEW. made for ventilation. The top of the runway is covered with a movable glass sash —hot-bed fashion — under which chickens can be reared in the coldest weather. For ventilation, the sash can be slid off, as seen by refer- ence to the cut, or, if desired, the sash being placed in a groove, can be re- moved entirely from the top of the coop. It strikes us that this house, when it becomes more known, will somewhat revolutionize the rearing of early spring chicks. It is so constructed that any person at all conversant with the use of tools can put one up in short order and with comparatively little expense. . It is frequently recommended to breeders to build their chicken-coops with floors in them. We cannot see any particular benefit derived from — having coops with wooden floors; on the contrary, we are of the opinion it inclines the chicks to weakness. Our mode is to let the chickens have free ee Ee Oe eee eee THE PEOPLE'S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 129 access to the ground, or, what is better, let the coop be placed over a flooring of ashes, made about two inches thick, so that the mother-hen can dust her- self at pleasure. | THE RAT-PROOF COOP is our beaw-édeal of whata chicken-coop should be. It can be moved at will, and at evening, or in stormy weather, the hen and chickens can be driven in and the coop closed up, making it both rat and water-proof. Then again, there is THE TENT COOP, Ty THE RAT-PROOF COOP. THE TENT COOP. which answers a good purpose for either young turkeys or chickens; is easily constructed, and, having no floor, can be moved to any light or sandy soil, which will answer in lieu of ashes for the chicks and hen to dust themselves in, which keeps off vermin. THE PENT OR LEAN-TO COOP. THE PEN COOP. There is another form of coop which we have, but it has no advantages to our mind over either of the preceding ones, unless it be that in this shape it affords more room. It is made of clapboards and lathed or lattice-worked across the whole front of the coop and about half-way up as shown in the engraving. The back, sides and top are made of clapboards, but any kind of boards might be used. We used the clapboards for the sake of mak- ing the coop light, so that it could be handled easily. The size is four and a half feet long —two and a half feet wide —front three feet high and with a pitch of half a foot to the rear; the front of the coop being clapboarded one foot down, leaving two feet for the length of the laths in front. The clap- board in front has the effect to prevent the storm from beating in upon the hen and chicks which are confined within the coops. | 9 130 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. PEN CHICKEN COOP. The illustration, as shown on page 129, gives a good idea of a pen coop, which may be made large enough to contain a cock and four hens for breed- ing purposes, where they can enjoy the sun and fresh air, yet be protected from stormy weather. The dimensions are as follows:—Pen four feet high in front and three feet in the rear, six feet long and four wide. The yard, ten feet long and six wide, to be enclosed with lath four feet high. If de- sired, the top may be covered also. The pen may be made with common ~ ‘3 SS f SW THE BARREL COOP. THE CLOSE COOP. boards, and battened up as shown in the cut. The holes in the ends are made to admit a free circulation of air. This house may, of course, be reduced to a size sufficient to keep a hen and chickens. If used for that pur- pose the coop may be say twenty inches high in front, fifteen in rear, and twenty inches square on the bottom, making it light and movable. THE BARREL COOP. This is an appliance to keep chicks, that any one can make, with very little trouble, as will be seen by our illustration. All that is necessary is to place a common flour or other old barrel on its side, take out one of the heads, place some straw in the back end of the barrel; put the hen and chicks in; have some lath or strips of board at hand, with one end sharpened and drive them into the ground in front of the coop and your work is accomplished. THE CLOSE CHICKEN COOP. This coop is very handy, and may be made of inch boards (see illustra- tion,) long enough to admit of any number of fowls. A, A, are slats raised for admitting the fowls; B, B, doors to open and shut at night, to prevent the intrusion of any kind of vermin; C, button for fastening the doors. Any common dry goods or other large box will answer the purpose desired. Cleats can be nailed on, as shown in the engraving, which makes it a light, © warm and airy coop insummer. Holes should be bored in one end and in the top for ventilators. FEEDING HOPPERS AND TROUGHS. In giving descriptions of the different varieties of Feeding Hoppers or Troughs being used by poulterers in their endeavor to facilitate the workings © THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 131 of domestic economy in the poultry yard, we cannot do better than to com- mence by presenting for inspection and adoption, if desired, a plan of the Scotch Feeding Hopper, taken from Loudon’s Encyclopedia of Agriculture, the description of which is given below. A SCOTCH FEEDING HOPPER. A PERFECT FEEDING HOPPER. THE SCOTCH FEEDING HOPPER can be made to contain any quantity of corn required, and none wasted. When once filled it requires no more trouble, as the grain falls into the receiver below as the fowls pick it away; and the covers on that, which are opened by the perches, and the cover on the top, protect the grain from rain, so that the fowls always get it quite dry; and as nothing less than the weight of a fowl on the perch can lift the cover on the lower receiver, rats and mice are excluded. In this connection we give an engraving of what ix called A PERFECT FEEDING HOPPER, — in Bement’s Poulterer’s Companion, which we think superior to that of the Scotch plan, and which, from the description here given, can be easily con- structed by any person. “A is an end view, eight inches wide, two feet six inches high, and three feet long; B, the roof projecting over the perch on which the fowls stand while feeding; ©, the lid of the receiving manger raised, exhibiting the grain; E, E, cords attached to the perch and lid of the manger or feeding trough; I, end bar of the perch, with a weight attached to the end to balance the lid, otherwise it would not close when the fowls leave the perch; H, pulley; G, fulcrum. The hinges on the top show that it is to be raised when the hopper is to be replenished. When a fowl desires food, it hops upon the bars of the perch, the weight of which raises the lid of the feed box, exposing the grain to view, and after satisfying its hunger jumps off, and the lid closes.” Of course the dimensions of either of these feeding hoppers may be increased to any size desired. 132 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. e STANDARD SELF-FEEDING HOPPER. This feeding hopper is two feet square, the posts eighteen inches high, three inches square ; the upper section of the box is six inches deep, the ends are mortised into or nailed to the posts. From the bottom of this square the tapering part of the grain box reaches to within one inch of the floor, which should be raised on feet about six inches from the ground; the grain box tapers to one foot square, and to bring the grain within reach of the fowls, a cone, as shown at A, is placed in the cen- ter of the floor, and should be so much smaller than the funnel part of the hop- per as to leave at least one inch space all STANDARD SELF-TEEDING HOPPER. FUNNEL AND CONE. around the cone, which forces the grain to the edge, where, as the fowls pick the grain away, more will fall and keep a constant supply within reach of the fowls, as long as any is left in the hopper. The slats on the sides are in- tended to prevent the fowls from getting into the trough or crowding one another. This hopper will hold about two bushels of grain, and if the roof projected one foot all round it, it would protect it completely from rain. It occupies but little space, and from twelve to sixteen fowls can feed at the same time. A 8TOOL FEEDING HOPPER. A CHEAP FEEDING HOPPER. THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 133 A STOOL FEEDING-HOPPER, which is proof against rats, can be made as follows:—Make a platform two or three feet square, as the case may be; then make a square box, three inches high and sixteen inches square; nail it in the center of the platform ; saw strips one and one-fourth inches square and eighteen inches high for the posts; nail strips of boards, two inches wide, to the posts at top, to secure and steady them; then take common lath, or any thin stuff, one and one-half or two inches wide, and nail them to the top and bottom, up and down, leav- ing a space of two inches between each slat, so that the fowls can get at the feed. The roof may be four-square, as shown in the engraving, and detached so that it can be raised when required to be replenished with grain. Elevate the hopper on a post about three feet from the ground, as shown in the cut, which makes it rat and mice proof. The fowls will soon learn to leap upon the platform, and feed from the grain box between the slats. A CHEAP FEEDING-HOPPER. There is a cheap plan for a Feeding-Hopper, which can be made out of an old candle-box, for the want of a better thing. Take off the lid and one of the sides ; let the ends, bottom and one side remain; cut a small strip off one end of the lid, so that it will slip in between the ends of the box, placing the lower edge one and a half inches from the side and an inch from the bottom; the other edge of the lid is to reach the top and outside corners of the ends, thus forming a deep, angular box, with long aperture at the bottom. As shown in the cut, the lid forms the slanting side B; C, forms the trough, where the corn will descend down to it when put into the angular box; then put hinges on the lid, A; the open part of the hopper has a row (D) of slats. two inches apart; these slats should be brought to the edge of the box, so that the fowls can just reach the bottom of the angle; the corn falls down as fast as the fowls pick it away. DOUBLE FEEDING HOPPER. This hopper was highly commended by the late N.C. Bement. It is nine feet long and nine inches wide; end pieces fourteen inches high, and the bot- tom raised six inches from the ground; the ends nailed to the bottom, and a strip of board four inches wide was firmly nailed on the sides, raised three inches above the bottom board, form- ing a manger or trough to prevent any _B waste of food. Another strip of board = three inches wide was nailed on the top in front to secure the ends. The hop- DOUBLE FEEDING HOFPER. per to contain the grain was formed of two pieces of board, nine: inches wide, set between the ends forming a V, the upper edges lying against the front top strips and the bottom resting on some small blocks, from one 134 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. to two inches high, sufficient to allow the grain to fall down as the fowls pick it away. It may be made to open and shut at the bottom to suit the differ- ent sizes of grain. The top or roof may be made of the same width as the box, or it may extend over the sides sufficiently to protect the fowls from rain when feeding. Narrow strips of lath must be nailed to the top and bottom pieces, leaving space enough between them for the fowls to enter their heads when eating. It is open on both sides, and one of this size is sufficient for seventy-five fowls. FEEDING TROUGHS. It has been frequently suggested that in feeding fowls soft food, instead of throwing it upon the ground, thereby wasting the larger portion of it, a dish or trough of some sort should be placed in the hennery or coop to con- tain the food. In figure 1 we give an engraving of a trough that may be Fig. 1. Fie. 2 procured at little cost, which will meet the wants of most breeders. It can be made of zinc, tin, or earthenware, in an oblong form, to any desired length — width four inches, and two to four inches deep. To prevent the chicks getting into the trough and scratching the food out, a loose curved cover, made of tin, zinc, or wood, in form as seen in figure 2, will answer the purpose. The wires which support the cover should be perpendicular, ten to twelve inches high, and set two and a half inches apart. One end of the - wire may be driven into the ground, if desired, for.a stationary feed box, in- stead of having the top and bottom of the cover soldered to the wire. This trough can be made very cheaply lw1 by any tinsmith, and will economize ANH} TEE, ZA iX food enough during one season to pay ee Ee 7D TLE AT, 7A ay for more than a dozen such troughs. i ARS SA room VAs Osea eael ESAS T. Las Fig. 3. Fie. 4. Figure 3 is a trough divided by the partition P. If desired, one part may contain water and the other food, the whole being coyered with a screen made of lath nailed together in the form shown, and kept in position by the ends of the center laths fitting in and keyed to the ends of the trough. The bottom is square or of triangle form. This is for the use of grown poultry. The lattice work prevents them getting into the food with their feet. A THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 135 cheap and substantial feed or water dish is shown in figure 4. The sides of an old tin pan are connected together by a net-work of wire passing through holes beneath the rim, and crossing above the center at the various angles. DRINKING FOUNTAINS. Figure 1 shows a barrel fountain; it has a small tube extending from the cask to a shallow dish or pan, which should be small, so that the fowls cannot get into it and soil the water. Figure 2 shows a bottle fountain, which may be made by taking atwo or three inch plank and scooping it out one and a half inches, forming a shallow trough; then make a frame similar to the figure shown, and insert the neck of the bottle, the nozzle reaching to within three-quarters of an inch of the bottom of the trough. Either of these de- signs will answer all purposes of a drinking fountain for the poultry yard. THE ORDINARY POULTRY FOUNTAIN is f00 well known to need description, but a rather better form than is usually made is shown in figure 3. The advantages of such a construction are two; | Fie. 1.— BARREL FOUNTAIN. Fie. 2.— Bottite Fountaw. | | ! f Fig. 3. Fig. 4. the top being open, and fitted with a cork, the state of the interior can be examined, and the vessel well sluiced through to remove the green slime 136 THE PEOPLE’S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. which always collects by degrees, and is very prejudicial to health; and the © trough being slightly raised from the ground, instead of upon it, the water — is less easily fouled. But either form, if placed with the trough towards the wall, at afew inches distance from it, will keep the water clean very well. Some experienced breeders prefer shallow pans; but if these be adopted they must be either put behind rails, with a board over, or protected by a cover, in the same way as the feeding troughs already described. WINTER WATER FOUNTAIN. We are indebted to the American Agriculturist for the description and manner of keeping water from freezing in the fountain in winter, also for a duck-feeding contrivance, and for the plan of a beautiful rustic duck coop, herewith given. In describing these appliances it says :—‘‘ There is almost Fic. 3.— FEED Box For Ducks. always some difficulty in keeping fowls supplied with water in cold weather. We have had no trouble since adopting the following expedient.