by means less expensive than the present, in order that the
market might be supplied on better terms with an article of food so fine
and delicate, and in such general respect. Various artificial means have
been used for brooding chickens, in order to increase their number, and
to bring them forward at an earlier season, but none of them have been
found to answer, though in Egypt immense quantities are raised every
year by the heat of ovens, bringing the eggs to a state of maturity. A
well-fed hen is supposed to lay about two hundred eggs in a year; but as
she does not sit more than once or twice in that time, it is but a small
quantity of chickens that can be hatched in the usual way, and it would
be highly desirable if some other expedient could be devised.--The most
expeditious way of fattening chickens is to mix a quantity of rice flour
sufficient for present use, with milk and a little coarse sugar, and
stir it over the fire till it comes to a thick paste. Feed the chickens
with it while it is warm by putting as much into their coops as they can
eat; and if a little beer be given them to drink, it will fatten them
very soon. A mixture of oatmeal and treacle made into crumbs is also
good food for chickens; and they are so fond of it, that they will grow
and fatten much faster than in the common way. Poultry in general should
be fed in coops, and kept very clean. Their common food is barley meal
mixed with water: this should not be put in troughs, but laid upon a
board, which should be washed clean every time fresh food is put upon
it. The common complaint of fowls, called the pip, is chiefly occasioned
by foul and heated water being given them. No water should be allowed,
more than is mixed up with their food; but they should often be provided
with some clean gravel in their coop.--The method of fattening poultry
for the London market, is liable to great objection. They are put into a
dark place, and crammed with a paste made of barley meal, mutton suet,
treacle or coarse sugar, mixed with milk, which makes them ripe in about
a fortnight; but if kept longer, the fever that is induced by this
continual state of repletion, renders them red and unsaleable, and
frequently kills them. Air and exercise are as indispensable to the
health of poultry as to other animals; and without it, the fat will be
all accumulated in the cellular membrane, instead of being dispersed
throughout the system. A barn-door fowl is preferable to an