me we could not have purchased them under $1 50 the couple.

The cost of thirty-eight chickens till ready to kill was $4 37. We
always knew exactly the expense attending the poultry, because we had
a separate book from the miller, in which every article was entered as
it came into the house; and as the chickens were kept distinct from
the other fowls, I could tell the exact sum they had cost us when they
made their appearance at table.

The first thing that was given them to eat was egg, boiled quite hard,
chopped very fine, and mixed with bread-crumbs. After that they had
groats. I find they consumed:

Three quarts of whole groats . . . . . $ 37
Two bushels of barley . . . . . . . . 2 25
One bushel of middlings . . . . . . . 1 12
Twenty-five lbs. of chicken-rice . . . 63
Making altogether . . . . $4 37

The reader must be told that those thirty-eight chickens had other
things to eat than those I have put down; they had nearly all the
scraps from the house, consisting of cold potatoes, bits of meat,
pudding, &c., and any pieces of bread which were left at table were
soaked in skim-milk; and the rice was also boiled in it. O course, in
a smaller family there would not have been so many "scraps" for them;
but, however strict you may be with children, you cannot prevent their
leaving remnants on their plates, all of which would have been wasted
had it not been for the chickens and pig-tub.

We were not so fortunate with the ducks. We did not keep any through
the winter, consequently we had to purchase the eggs, which were
placed under hens; for those eggs we paid four cents each, and out of
thirteen, which was the number given to each hen, we never reared more
than eight ducks.

Thus, in the first instance, they cost us six cents each; and they
were likewise more expensive to feed than the chickens. They were
never fit for the table till they had cost us sixty-three cents the
couple. One reason of this was, that as the chickens had all the waste
bids, they had nothing but what was bought for them; but then they
were such ducks as could not have been purchased at the poulterers'.

We never killed one unless it weighed four pounds; they used to be
brought in at night, and placed in the scale: if it was the weight I
have mentioned it was killed, if not it was respited till it did so.

At first we tried cooping them to fatten, but found it did not answer,
as they moped and refuse