American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-06-06
A Composition on Chickens.
BY LOUISVILLE BOY.


Mesr usually it takes two eggs for to
make a chicken, because, if you will put
eighteen eggs under hen, only about
nine of 'em will hatch. A hen is so care
less and stubborn that most likely she
wont cover her eggs all over, and SO they
get chilled; then they are everlastingly
gone up. Alse, the rats will rob nest :;
so that, if you get half of brood, it is a
tolable crop, and you should be thankful
Then, l think, it stands to reason this
ought to prove what | 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 a
thing which can ruft1e its feathers up
backward and rage worse than IL fool hen.
A turkey gobbler will do it, but he don't
go off into a red hot passion about it, and
make a 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 of the 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 SO a
dozen, and a chicken is more popular
where il is a 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 |
have heard. Once in q great while we
have spring chickens for dinner. Then
We have the preacher, or else some COM
pany, and eat at the secondhand table,
and can always tell by the savory smell
a going on in the kitchen that broiled
chicken ought to be good enough for any
body. But if 1 can't get something to
eat more substantialler than smell 1
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 a fox. If you can
show me a more stupider thing than a
hen wish you would uot her out The
rooster has got what little sense there ever
was in the family. 1t is one of the worst
difficulties with a 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
| fOwer-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 thet kind of foolishness. Then is
the time you want TO have two jackets on,
or else to forget to come home early, if ii
was you which left the lattice gate osen.
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 step-mOther. If hen once gets a
fair hold of a little chicken to shake it by
the nape 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 off to the neigh
bors to lay; also it is too soft thing for
the neighbors; but it is generally chronic
| for hen to do ii, and the only way for to
cure her is to cut her head off and boil
her down into soup. She won't go to the
neighbors to lay many times after that,
don't think.