The Western advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1872-1874, 1874-06-06
A Composition on Chickens.
BY A LOUISVILLE BOY.

MOST usually it takes two eggs for to
make chicken, because, if you will put
eighteen eggs under hen, only about
nine of EN- will hatch. A hen is so care
less and stubborn that most likely she
won't cover her eggs all over, and so they
get chilled then they are everlastingly
gone up. Also, the rats will rob nest {;
50 that, if you get half of brood, it is a
tOl'able crop, and you should be thankful
Then, think, it stands to reason this
ought to prove what I said at FIRST A
hen, which has got young family, is
more crosser than anything else which can
be compared with her under the sun in
the United States. There never was q
thing which can ru4e its feathers up
backward and rage worse than Is fool hen
A turkey gobbler will do it, but he don't
60 of into red.hOt passion about it, and
make fool of himself, and get enemies
all for nothing, like hen would. A
chicken in the spring time which was put
to hatch in March, if it has good luck and
don't die ofthe pip, or gaps, or the cholery-
morbus, or get drownded or something,
will be big enough to sell to the restaurant
about in June. They will fetch $6 a
dozen, and chicken is more popular
where it is spring chicken that if it
would live long enough to get as tough as
Methuseler. They say that spring
chicken is luxurious thing for to broil
and mix up with toast. That's what 1
have heard. Once in great while we
have spring chickens for dinner Then
we have the preacher, or else some CON-
pany, and l eat at the second hand table,
and can always tell by the savory smell
a going on in the kitchen that broilcd
chicken ought to be good enough for any,
body. But if l can't get something to
eat more substantialler than smell
always fall back on roast beef. A chicken
don't gather shrewdness like a owl, and
it never picks up any wisdom. 1t is not
a talented thing like fox. If you can
show me more stupider thing than
hen wish you would trot her out. The
rooster has got what little sense there ever
was in the family. 1t is one of the worst
difficulties with chicken that she don't
know its place. She won't stay in the
barn-yard, where she belongs, any way
you can fix it. If your mother has got
hower-beds in the front yard-and it's a
mighty curious mother which amt
every last chicken on the place will get
in to scratch them, if it takes till next
Christmas; and then good.by to the hya-
cinthes, and crocuses, and jerryranthems,
and all that kind Of foolishness Then is
the time you want to have two jackets on,
or else to forget to come home early, if it
was you which left the lattice gate open.
Anyhow, that's my advice. Also, hen
is hard-hearted and cruel, and will kill
every little desolated stray chicken who
tries to associate with her own brood, and
this is good enough reason why she is
like cfon -noHfha~ IF
fair hold of little chicken to shake it by
the napc Of the neck it will never kick
again in this community more than
twice. The frequentest bad habit which
a hen has got is going of to the neigh
bors to lay; also it is too soft thing for
the neighbors; but it is generally chronic
for hen to do it, and the only way for to
cure her is to cut her head off and boil
her down into soup. She won't 90 to the
neigh bors to lay many times after that, I
don't think.