In the places appropriated to hatching, it is good to have a fresh turf deposited, to prevent the eggs from becoming too dry, and it is even recommended that the eggs should be slightly moistened every day. It is said that the inner membrane of the egg is otherwise apt to become hard, so that the young chick cannot'break through it.
Where purity of breed is of importance, as when fowls are to be exhibited in prize competitions, great care must be taken to keep the different kinds perfectly separate; otherwise, intermixture to a certain extent is not undesirable. It is always, indeed, to be desired that each good kind be kept pure and in as great perfection as possible, for improvement of the stock. But even in a small poultry-house, it is desirable to have dif ferent kinds, some being particularly estimable for their flesh, some for the abundance and quality of their eggs, some for their disposition to incubate, etc. For web-footed birds, free access to water is required; but some of the kinds are well enough provided for by a pretty capacious trough.
Among the diseases of poultry, gapes (q.v.) is one which very frequently demands attention, particularly in young chickens. Pip or rovp is another. Some of the mala dies which cut off great numbers of young chickens, and still more of turkey-poults, may be in a great measure prevented by supplying abundance of nourishing and sufficiently varied food, with water and lime; and by preventing the young birds, particularly turkeys, from getting among wet grass.
It is sometimes taken for granted by writers on this subject, that all the birds which can be domesticated with advantage, have already been domesticated. The assumption is quite gratuitous, and it might as well be asserted that improvement has reached its utmost in any other direction. The concurrent supposition that the common domesti cated kinds were given to man at first as domestic, is likewise unsupported by evidence, although the domestication of some of our poultry birds must be referred to a very early date. Among the anatidte, some progress has recently been made in the domestication of new kinds; and a beginning may even be said to have been made as to some additional gallinaceous birds.
Much valuable information on the management of poultry will be found in the Hen Wife, Iler own Experience in Her own Poultry- Yard,"ay Mrs. Fergusson Blair of Balthayock (Edin. 2d ed. 1861).