Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-05-22
THE GREAT FRENCH HENERY.

With care and good management no branch
Of domestic industry is more profitable than
rearing poultry. Many persons have supposed
that what is profitable on small scale might he
made still more so when carried on to a larger
extent, but repeated experiments in this and
other countries have proved this to be a mis-
take. The secret of the matter is, that hens
cannot thrive ard lay without a considerable
quantity of animal food. Where but limited
number of fowls are kept about the farm-yard,
the natural supply of insects is sufficient to meet
this demand, and hence, when attempts have
been made to extend the business beyond this
-vuieN "r ~,sPpl,. thsy have pToslrrcti. II
will be seen from the following Interesting ac-
count, that Mons de Sora, of France. has adop-
ted "a method that has proved completely sue
cessful. by atiording an artificial supply of this
essential portion of food.
The French practical philosophers certainly
know how to make the most ofthingS \ Mons.
de Sora has recently discovered the secret of
making hens lay every day in the year, by feed
ing them on horse-heSh. The fact that hens do
not lay eggs in winter as well as in summer is
well known, and the simple reason appears to
be that they do not get the supply of meat which
they Obtain IN the warm season for worms and
insects.
VI, de Sora was aware Of all these facts, and
living at the time upon an old diapidated es-
tate, few miles from Paris, the acres having
been bequcathed TO him few years previously
he set himself earnestly at the task of con-
structing hcnery, which should be productive
twelve months in the wear. He soon ascertain
ed that certain quantity of raw mince meat.
given regularly with other food, produced the
desired result, and commencing only with some
300 female fowls, he found that they averaged.
the first year, some twenty five dozen eggs, in
the 36j days. The past season he has wintered,
thus far, about 100000 hens, and fair proper
ton OF male birds, with close approximation
to the same results. During the spring, sum-
mer and autumn, they have the range of the es-
tate, but always under surveillance. In the win
ter their apartments are kept at an agreeable
temperature and although they have nice meat
rations the year round yet the quantity is much
increased during cold weather. They have free
access to pure water, gravel and sand, and their
combs are always red To supply this great
consumption of meat, VI. de Sora has availed
himself of the superanuated and damaged hor-
ses which can always be gathered from the sta
bles OF fari, and the suburbs. These useless
animals are taken to an 0bbdttoir owned by VI.
de Sora himself, and there neatly and scientif-
cally slaughtered. The blood is saved clean and
unmixed with ofial. 1t is sold for purposes of
the arts at remunerative price The skin goes
to the tanner,--the head, hoofs, shanks, &c, to
the glue maker and Prussian blue manufactur-
er; the larger bones form cheap substitute for
ivory with the button maker, while the remain
der of the osseous structure is manufactured in
to ivory black, or used in the shape ofbone dust
for agricultural purposes. Even the marrow is
preserved; and much of the fashionable and
highly perfumed lip salve and pomade, was once
enclosed in the leg bones of old horses. Uses
ara aalv t,rt thn IL q.
portion of the beast is wasted.
The flesh is carefully dissected off the frame
of course, and being cut into suitable proper
tions it is run through series of revolving
knives, the apparatus being similar to sausage
machine of immense size, and is delivered in the
shape Of homogeneous mass of mince meat,
highly seasoned into casks, which are instantly
headed up, and conveyed per railroad, to the
egg plantation of of VI. de Sora.
The consumption of horses for this purpose,
by NJ. de Sora, has been at the average rate of
twenty-five per day for the last twelve months,
and so perfectly economical and extensive are
all his arrangements, that he is enabled to make
profit on the cost of the animals by the sale of
the extraneous substances enumerated above
thus furnishing to himself the mnce meat for
much less than nothing delivered at his henery.
1t has been ascertained that slight addition
OF salt and ground pepper to the mass is benefi-
cial to the fowls, yet NJ. de Sora does not de-
pend on these conditions alone to prevent pu-
trefaction, but has his store rooms so contrived
as to be kept at a temperature just removed
from the freezing point through all the months
of the year, so that the mince meat never be-
comes sour or offensive; the fowls eat it with
ayidity, they are ever in good condition, and
they lay an egg almost daily, in all weathers and
in all seasons.