The weekly Shasta courier., 1873-08-16
FARM AND GARDEN.

FATTENING PoULTRY.-The follow
ing suggestions from the Boston Jour
nal of Chemistry are just in the nick
of time for those who are fattening
their poultry for Thanksgiving:
1t is hopeless to attempt to fatten
chickens while they are at liberty.
They must be put in proper coop
and this, like most other poultry appur-
tenances, need not be expensive. To
fatten twelve fowls coop may be three
feet long, eighteen inches high, and
eighteen inches deep, made entirely OF
bars no part solid, neither top, sides,
nor bottom. Discretion must be used
according to the size of the chickens
put up. They do not want room in
deed, the closer they are the better,
providing they can all stand up at the
same time. Care must be taken to put
up such as have been accustomed to be
together, or they will fight. If one is
quarrelsome, it is better to remove it at
once, or, like other bad examples, it
soon finds imitators. A diseased chick
en- should not be put up.
The food should be ground oats, and
may either be put in trough or on a
fiat board running along in front of the
coop. 1t may be mixed with water or
milk-the latter is the better. 1t should
be well soaked, forming pulp as loose
as can be, providing it does not run of
the board. They must be well fed
three or four times day-the first time
as soon after daybreak as may be pos
sible or convenient, and then at inter-
walls of four hours. Each meal should
be as much and more than they can eat
up clean. When they have done feed
ing, the board should be wiped and
some gravel may be spread. 1t causes
them to feed and thrive.
After a fortnight of this treatment
you will have good fat fowls. If, how
ever, there are but five or six to be fat
tened, they must have as much room as
though there were twelve. Nothing is
easier than to allow them the proper
space, as it is only necessary to have
two or three pieces of wood to pass be-
tween the bars and form a partition
This may also serve when fowls are up
to different degrees of fairness. This
requires attention, or fowls will not
keep fat and healthy.
AS soon as the fowl is sufficiently
fattened it must be killed; otherwise ii
will not get fatter, but lose flesh. II
fowls are intended for the market, oil
course they are or may be all fattened
at once; but if for home consumption
it is better to put them up at such in
tervals as will suit the time when they
will be required for the table.
When the time arrives for killing,
whether they are meant for market OF
otherwise, they should be tasted with
out food or water for twelve or fifteen
hours. This enables them to be kept
for some time after being killed, even
in hot weather.
PLASTER OF PARIS AS MANURE.-A
contributor to The Garden, in planting
his grape vines, has had excellent sue
cess with the use of plaster of paris as
a manure. sin planting these l had
the holes dug about twenty inches
deep. l then threw into each hole five
or six Jumps of old plaster, about the
size of my fist. l threw a little earth
over these Jumps, and then planted the
vines in the usual way. The result ha,
been wonderful. The vines, which
were not half an inch thick wher
planted, three years ago, are now two
inches and more in diameter, and beal
finely. The grapes are also free from
disease. Other vines not SO treated are
much smaller and produce less, the
fruit being also more liable to disease
To try the effect of this plaster, il
planting two American black walnuts
put the plaster to the one and not te
the other. Last year dug about the
roots of the one to which no plaster
was put, and threw in seven or eigh
Jumps of plaster among the roots; tn,
trees are now both of the same size
and, though only four years old, arr
sixteen or seventeen feet high"
FEEDING Mich Cows. w. H
Tanner, in the Country Gentleman, say.
that the most profitable food for cows
giving milk during winter, and thai
used in nearly all the best daries pro.
ducing milk for the New York market
is good quality of wheat bran anc
corn meal mixed as follows: Eight
pounds of bran and corn meal for each
cow daily. If the above can be thor.
oughly cooked with cut hay, it increase.
its value about one-ffth by actual ex.
pertinent. l produced from fifty cows
five hundred quarts of milk daily on ter
pounds of feed mixed as above anc
thoroughly cooked. l then changed te
dry feed, when it took thirteen pounds
of the same mixture to keep up the flow
A FUNNY ANECDoTE.-A French
philosopher of excellent heart, but
somewhat eccentric, lately discharged a