National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1871-12-08
What | Know About tiIenl Farming.

added Hen Farming 10 its then near'
filled brim, AZ once selected "a spot Y
warm southeastern hillside exposure
with any quantity Of grasshoppcrs, AZ
pletree- worms, and kindred bugs coi
suited hen architect, and forthwith
ordered the material for making m
prospective flock II suitable cottage a
the modest cost Of one hundred an,
twenty-five dollars II WIS lean-to
and the chickens are of the same style
The ediice being completed after scvem
theoretical alterations, CLEANED from thu
HeatM and Homc, Country GeHd'emo"
RToi New Pwker. 1mericm 1qricw
twiSf, HeekiV TiiLURe, Scientific Ameri
can, and josh BWiHg's limathr, TIN
roosting poses adjusted, and the laying
boxes scientifically and elegantly ar
ranged the covers mounted with ger
man silver hinges, uon-upsetablc ant
seli-supplying water fountain, and !
plentiful supply of yellow, white an'
popcorn, oil-cake, shorts, sweepiugs
indian meal, oysters shells, ground bone
ashes, lime, cayenne pepper, and the
run of three acres (garden and iiowel
beds incluJedl ! procured
One a. Large Spotted Hen
One a. Small Russet 4"
One ~ Medium Purple Rooster O..
Game)
Then an interested neighbor gave me
One a. Dominique Pullet
Two (2) Dunghill Fowls
but rs we kept no stock the ID. II. fowl
didn't do we'll so we made delicious
pot-pie of one of them.
One ~ Banta Chicken.
] then added n mammoth rooster IL
3-i lbs. live weight by paying two dol
lars and fifty cents for him, and one
dollar commission to the broker, togeth-
er with thirty cents TO n small boy for
bringing the little pet home.
My next care was TO increase my flock
at as little expense rs possible by en-
couraging my hens to set. Accordingly
| bought of friend bakers dozen (l3)
of White Leghorn Eggs ut the astonish.
ing low price of one dollar and seventy
/ five cents, and devoted one wef1-located
! laying box to these, and several others
to the commoner sort OF eggs, with high
hopes as to the result of the next three
weeks.
The season was 80 well advanced that
the garden must be planted, and my
feathercd tr asures being of a rowing
turn of mind, instead of setting, took to
the garden not from any special love
of the seeds therein, but soft. fresh earth
and sun-basking, to the utter ruin of nv
future hopes and chickens. The garden
being at length given up for the season,
we discovered to our Joy that one hen
,oas actually setting, and on the 81 7J
eggs too, but that the others had been
kicked out of the nest, and had become,
as the insurance folks say, total loss.
Next being informed that our neighbors
were harassed by the creatures, we were
obliged to place item in close confine
ment, and from getting lousy and lack
of range they picked off all their feath
ers and utterly refused to lay. At las
the old hen came off from the fourteer
shilling York money! eggs, with THU
result, viz:
Eleven az mixed BOOSTERS.
One ~ Snuff-colored Pullet.
One (D Rotten Egg
1t being now cold weather and the
chickens could not be raised by hand q
having other engagements of business
clIaracter,) we suffered a neighborine
skunk to close them out raw, reservine
the old ones for our own palates. The
rooster that we inventoried at So. rs
(only the original cost accidentally got
caught by the head and expired in the
crotch of tree on which they all persist
ed in roosting, instead of the lean to,
Notwithstanding my preferences, elabo
rate roosting apparatus, and the 1926
cottage. The Dominique pullet and the
Russell hero each sustained fractured
limb arising from my efforts with stones
to induce them to deaist from eating our
scanty crop of tomatoes (the Trophy and
scratching up the pansies and mignopette
under the bay window. One crisp morn
ing we heard the report of a gun near us,
by someone hunting the squirrels which
hive the hillside, and later in the day
we found the purple rooster and one of
the dunghill fowls dead, the former hav-
ing seventy-nine shot in his body, and
the d. Fl. f. looked us if she had had
bunch of keys or an army combination
cork screw and jack knife fired clean
through her, annihilating our expecta-
tions of profit or pot-pie.
Our little flock had dwindled to SO in
significant IA number, and the famed
ones not being able to straddle about in
the snow, the conclusion arrived at by
the combined wisdom of the family was
that they should be fattened and served
up i'll fine style for Christmas dinner,
and in the Spring start with new flock,
after devoting our long Winter evenings
to hen culture, ever hopeful of success.
Being assured of the impossibility of
fattening them in their then lousy con-
dition, and furthermore that the fumes
of birthstone were death to hen lice, so
resolving to be thorough with it, we
burned IA large dish of it at night under
the roost but not being awakened as
usual by their 3 O'Clock "a. NJ. musical
efforts, dire apprehensions filled our
minds, when we tremblingly ventured
into the lean-to only to find our Christ
mas dinner gone up, our bipeds living
cold and stiff on the ground, excepting
one which hung by one foot from the
perch wrong end up, past all her lame
legged troubles.
We buried them darkly at dead of night,
And we sinoolhed out each scattering feather,
and shoveled the dirt on with all our might
Bantam. Dunghills and all together.
p. S.-From the fact that all our fowls
escaped having the gaps, pip, roup, scald-
head, blind staggers, comb, rot. and all
other hen diseases, except the scratches.
md that our disasters arose only from
such causes as are common to all hen
roosts, our courage is good, and we fiat
ter ourselves that another year the bal
,nce sheet will show large margin in
)ur favor, when we shall report in de-