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POULTRY and their eggs come more immediately under the care andmanagement of our country housewife, than any other outward part of the farmer'sbusiness; and accordingly many farmers think it their interest to let their wiveshave all the profit of their eggs and poultry, for raising money to buy what we callcommon or trivial necessaries in the house, as sugar, plumbs, spices, salt, oatmeal,&c. &c. which piece of encouragement engages our housewifeand her maid-servants to take special care of feeding her poultry in due time, settingher hens early, and making capons at a proper age.

  The best Feed for Dunghill Fowls, to make them layearly Eggs, and many of them --Is horsebeans and hempseed. Of the first,a particular woman had such an opinion, that she preferred it to all others, andthe rather as horsebeans in some wet summers grow in prodigious plenty, and are soldvery cheap, sometimes for less than two shillings a bushel; hempseed indeed is dearer.As this last is furnished with much hot oil, as the horsebean is with a very hotquality, they both cause hens to lay in winter, when no other common seed can sowell; but if hens were confined always in a room, it hinders very much their laying.The game hen lays most eggs, but they are commonly the least sort.

  Sorts of Hens.--The Hertfordshire dunghillfowls and their eggs have been in great esteem a long time, and at this time theireggs have the greater reputation of all others, insomuch that the very cryers ofeggs about London streets take particular care to make the word Hertfordshirebe well known; for our country is a Chiltern one, abounding with many hills, drysoils, gravelly rivers, plenty of most sorts of grain, and allow'd by professorsof physick to be the healthiest air in England, all which undoubtedly contributesto the breeding of the best of eggs and soundest of dunghill fowls; a proof of whichis very demonstrable, by the game cocks bred in Hertfordshire, that beat forthe most part those bred in other counties. But I can't say our dunghill fowls exceedall others, for there are excellent sorts of the Poland, the Hamburgh,and the Darking dunghill fowls; the character of the last of which is hereafterinserted.

  Of Hens sitting, and of Chickens and young Ducks.--Thegame hen sits oftner than the dunghill hen, and will fight the hawk better in defenceof her chickens: But as their legs are commonly as black as their feathers, few farmerskeep them, because their blackish chickens will not sell like the white-leg'd dunghillsort. When a hen sits on her own eggs, she commonly hatches in three weeks, but whenshe sits on duck eggs, a month. If she has sat a week on duck eggs, and by accidentthe eggs are broke, or the hen too much disturbed, so that if she is set again onother duck eggs, she will not sit out her time; in such a case, if she is set againon the hen eggs, she will, because on these she sits a shorter time than on the duckeggs. A hen that sits beyond her time of three weeks seldom brings all her eggs toperfection, which is chiefly owing to her being set in a cold place, or going toofar for her meat when off; but that is the best hen that hatches a day or two beforethe usual time. It is a fault to set a pullet with too many eggs. One was set witheighteen eggs, which she sat on well till the first chicken chirp'd, and then shewas affrighted, ran away, and forsook the rest, so that our housewife could preservebut three, and for bringing them up she was forced to use more than ordinary care.--Tohave early chickens, an industrious housewife living at Gaddesden had a broodof chickens a fortnight old this 25th of February 1747-8; she set her henin a chimney corner that had no fire near it, but on the back of the same chimneythere was a daily one kept, which struck such a sufficient heat to the corner, asenabled the hen to sit close in this cold season, and hatch twelve chickens, whichour housewife kept in this place, giving them offald wheat, that was screened atthe mill from good wheat, and now and then some wetted pollard; with these the chickenswent on well, and for eating up what the chickens and their hen left, our housewifelet in a laying hen now and then, so that here was no waste made.

  Dunghill Fowls, their Nature, by Mortimer.--Theoldest are best sitters, and the youngest best layers, but good for neither if kepttoo fat. To breed right chickens is, from two to five years old; the best month isFebruary, and so any time between that and Michaelmas [here Mr. Mortimeris wrong, for when a hen begins to moult, she ought not to be set, because her chickensthen seldom live.] A hen sits (says he) twenty days; geese, ducks, and turkeys, thirty;let them have always meat by them while they sit, that they may not straggle fromtheir eggs and chill them. One cock will serve ten hens. If fowls are fed with buck-wheat,they will lay more eggs than ordinary, and the same with hempseed; the buck-wheatwhole, or ground and made into paste, which is the best way: It is a grain that willfatten hogs or fowls speedily, but they are commonly fatten'd with barley-meal madeinto a paste with milk; but wheat-flower is better.--Mortimer, vol. I.

  To fatten Hens, Pullets, Chickens, Capons, or Turkeys.--Theircoops must be kept very clean, for all ill smells and nastiness is prejudicial tothe fattening of fowls, as contributing towards giving their flesh a bad tang, andan unwholsome quality; to this purpose, they should have also two troughs, that onemay be scalded and dried, while the other is in use, and both meat and water, orother liquor, should be kept from each other free of any mixture. As to their meat,there may be several sorts made; one by boiling barley till it is tender in water,another parcel of it in skim milk, another in strong ale; when so boiled, a littlecoarse sugar may be mixed with it. Or make a paste with barley-meal, and water orskim milk. And as to their drink, let them have strong ale or skim milk, or waterwherein a little brickdust is mixed; for if they have not something to scower theirmaws or crops, they will not thrive to expectation, therefore if brickdust is notput into their drink, either a little of that, or fine sand, should be mixed withtheir meat now and then, to get them an appetite, and make them digest their foodthe quicker; the ale will intoxicate them, and cause them to sleep much and fattenthe sooner, but the milk tends most to the whitening of their flesh. Now it wantsno demonstration by argument, to prove that variety of meats forward the expeditiousfattening of any animal; in this case, therefore, give any of these fowls these severalsorts of foods alternately; so will they be creating them an appetite while theyare fattening, to the making of them exceeding fat in a little time.

  An ancient Author's Way to fatten Chickens.--Boil(says he) bread in milk, as though they were to eat it, but make it thick of thebread, which slice into it in thin slices, not so thick as if it were to make a pudding;but so that when the bread is eaten out, there may some liquid milk remain for thechickens to drink; or that at first you may take up some liquid milk in a spoon,if you industriously avoid the bread; sweeten very well the pottage with good kitchensugar of four-pence per pound, so put it into the trough before them; put thereinbut little at a time (two or three spoonfuls) that you may not clog them, and feedthem five times a day, between their awaking in the morning and their roosting atnight. Give them no other drink, the milk that remaineth after they have eaten thebread is sufficient, neither give them gravel or aught else; keep their coops veryclean, as also their troughs, cleansing them well every morning. To half a dozenvery little chickens, little bigger than blackbirds, an ordinary porringer full everyday may serve, and in eight days they will be prodigiously fat. One penny loaf, andless than two quarts of milk, and about half a pound of sugar, will serve littleones the whole time; bigger chickens will require more, and two or three days longertime; when any of them are at their height of fat, you must eat them, for if theylive longer, they will fall back and grow lean; be sure to make their pottage verysweet.--Or you may pound rice in a mortar till it is very small, and the smallerthe better, for then it may be made into a paste with scalded milk and coarse sugar,which if given to chickens by a little at a time, so that they are not gorged, willfatten them in a very little time; let them have ale or good small beer to drink,and give their meat warm.--But there is a receit that directs the fattening of chickenswith rice without pounding or grinding it, only to boil rice in milk till it be verytender and pulpy, as when you make milk-pottage; it must be thick, that a spoon maystand an end in it; sweeten this very well with ordinary sugar, and put it into theirtroughs where they feed, that they may be always eating of it; it must be made freshevery day; their drink must be only milk in another little trough by their meat-trough;let a candle (ftly disposed) stand by them all night for seeing their meat, for theywill eat all night long. You put the chickens up as soon as they can feed of themselves,which will be within a day or two after they are hatched, and in twelve days or afortnight they will be prodigiously fat; but after they are come to their height,they presently fall back, so that they must be eaten. Their pen or coop must be contrivedso, that the hen (who must be with them to sit over them) may not go at liberty toeat their meat, but be kept to her own diet in a part of their coop that she cannotget out of; but the chickens must have liberty to go from her to other parts of thecoop, where they may eat their own meat, and come in again to the hen to be warm'dby her at their pleasure. You must be careful to keep their coop very clean.--Oryou may scald oatmeal in milk, and feed the chickens with it the first week, andrice and sugar the second week; in a fortnight they will be prodigiously fat; a littlegravel will now be necessary sometimes to cleanse their maws and give them an appetite.

  Sir Kenelm Digby's Receit to makea luscious Food to fatten Chickens in the sweetest and quickest Manner.--Stone(says he) a pound of raisins of the sun, and beat them in a mortar to pulp, poura quart of milk upon them, and let them soak so all night; next morning put to themas many crums of grated stale bread, which beaten together will bring them to a softpaste; work all well together, and lay it in the trough before the chickens (whichmust be about six in a pen, and keep it very clean) and let a candle be by them allnight. The delight of this meat will make them eat continually, and they will beso fat (when they are but of the bigness of blackbirds) that they will not be ableto stand, but sit down upon their bellies to eat.

  Gaddesden Farmers Way to feed Chickens.--Notwithstandingwe live on a high hill, and on a red clayey soil, yet some of our farmers venturetheir early bred chickens abroad, and let them take their chance in going with thehen abroad from the first, even in February or March, though the weatheris frost or snow; but then we take care to give them a hearty food, for enablingthem to withstand the cold; and that is whole oatmeal and barley mixt together, whichwill so hearten them, that they will not kill themselves with chirping and pain,as those chickens are apt to do, that are fed with sloppy meat, such as wetted pollard,&c. And if the chickens should fall sick, we give each one sow-bug orwood-louse, and it often recovers it; but a hen as well as a chicken is killed bymusty corn. The chicken is cured by the bug, or both the hen and chicken are sometimescured by rue.--Butter and scouring-sand must be given a little in large pills orpellets.--For the same reason, put rue into the water the chickens drink, which willkeep them in health, and from the cramp.

  To make Capons.--This operation belongs to thecountry housewife. I know a yeoman living near Hempstead in Hertfordshire,whose estate is but about fifty pounds a year, that makes (as it is credibly reported)ffteen pounds a year by the sale of capons; his wife and daughter cut the young dunghillcocks, but I don't suppose they were all bred on his farm, for some for this purposemake it their business after harvest-time to go to markets for buying up chickens,and between Michaelmas and Allhollantide caponize the cocks, when theyhave got large enough to have stones of such a bigness that they may be pulled out,for if they are too little, it can't be done; and to know when a cock is fit forit, he should be pretty well grown, have a good comb, and be well fleshed, for thesesigns shew they are bigger than those of leaner fowls. To cut them, the cock mustlie on its back, and held fast, while with a very sharp knife she cuts him only skin-deepabout an inch in length, between the rump and the end of the breast-bone, where theflesh is thinnest; next she makes use of a large needle to raise the flesh, for hersafer cutting through it to avoid the guts, and making a cut here big enough to puther finger in, which she thrusts under the guts, and with it rakes or tears out thestone that lies nearest to it. This done, she performs the very same operation onthe other side of the cock's body, and there takes out the other stone; then shestitches up the wounds, and lets the fowl go about as at other times, till the caponis fatted in a coop, which is commonly done from Christmas to Candlemas,and after. Now if the stones are but big enough, as they lie to the back, they maybe safely taken out with a greased fore-finger, without much danger of killing thecreature, but when they are too small there is danger. This way of caponizing a cock,I have had done at my house for my information, by a woman deemed to be one of ourbest capon cutters, else it would have been a difficult matter for me to give a descriptionof it; for they that never saw such an operation, and venture at it, must expectto kill one or more, before he or she gets master of the science. And indeed it isfor want of this knowledge that the art of caponizing fowls is not so much practisedas formerly; but as I have given a pretty good account I hope of it, I am of opinionthe art will be revived, and capons sold in greater plenty than ever.

Kings-Head-Inn at Darking, Jan. 24th, 1747-8.

SIR,

I AM very glad to obligeyou with the best account I can give of our fowls; they are large, and in generalwhite-leg'd; they that are most curious of their breed chuse a cock all white, andthe hen of a speckled mixture of feathers, but white leg'd, that making a strongerbreed than both being white: They are all round us very careful of their feed, crammingthem with fine ground down corn made in rolls and dipped in milk; they are receivedby all people as the finest of poultry that any place affords. I am, Sir,

    Your most humble Servant,

          Benj.Barnsley.

THIS is the largest tame land-fowl we have in England, andby many is preferred to others, if they are well fatted. There are two sorts of thisspecies, the common Suffolk or Norfolk turkey, and the BlueVirginia sort: The first are bred in vast numbers in those two counties, fromwhence London is chiefly supplied with these excellent fowls, as appears bythe many large droves of them, frequently seen on the roads thither. A turkey, soldat Artleborough near Norwich for fourteen-pence, at Stratfordnear Bow in Essex was sold for twenty-pence, so cheap are they in Norfolk;for here they have many dry sandy grounds, that produce abundance of turnips, barley,&c. which tend much to the growth of turkey poults. The other blue sortare of the flying kind, and will settle and roost on trees, yet may be kept as tamefowls, but they must have one wing cut, if they are to be hinder'd from flying, whichis practised by some, and by others not, because some gentlemen delight in theirflying behaviour; and where many of these sort are kept in parks, or other largeinclosed grounds, a boy may attend them, and by the frequent use of a whistle, tocall and invite them to a feed of corn now and then at a particular place, it willbe a great means of naturalizing these turkeys to the part, and keep them from stragglingtoo far from home; as it is practised in a nobleman's park, to my knowledge. Onecock is enough to seven hens.

  Of breeding Turkeys.--As they are of a moretender nature than most other tame fowls, they are somewhat difficult to rear, especiallyin a cold country, or on a wettish cold soil; in a warmer one, they may, if keptwell, be made to tread twice a year; but few do this, but are contented with onebrood only. They are commonly set with thirteen or ffteen eggs. The turkeys are veryapt to lay their eggs in hedges, where they live near them, and sit abroad: But ofthis, our right sort of country housewives are aware, and take care to set them ina barn, hovel, or other large cover'd place; for to stint them of room, is prejudicialto this bulky body'd fowl in their hatching and bringing up their young. When theyoung turkeys are strong enough to be admitted abroad, they are liable to be hurtby several accidents, by hawks, pole-cats, nettles, &c. before they attainan age of security. A nettle will sting them to death, by making their head to swell,till they pine and die; therefore many good country housewives, to prevent this,where they have nettles grow near their houses, will before-hand pull them up.

  To feed young Turkeys.--To a quart of pollard,put a hard egg, and as many leaves of wormwood as will make all green, both cut verysmall, and mixed with as much boiling milk as will make all into a soft paste; afteryoung turkeys have been fed with bread and milk one or two days, feed them with thispaste for a week, it will keep them alive. And if you will feed them with scaldedbran for a month afterwards, they will shift for themselves bravely, when otherwisethey often die very young. But there are several other sorts of food that some giveyoung turkeys, till they are big enough to range for a living abroad, as fennel,curds, &c. But in dry sandy grounds, they are certainly brought up inthe cheapest manner, because in this loose earth they easily find and pick up seedsof weeds and corn, worms and other insects; and as they in particular love to stocktheir craws with particles of sand, here they have it in plenty. Some spring seasonsof weather are attended with so much cold and wet as destroys many broods of youngturkeys, notwithstanding all the care that has been made use of.

  Of fattening old Turkeys.--A turkey is not tobe fatted like a dunghill fowl; if we fat them by crams, we mix barley-meal withpollard and water, with which we make pellets or crams, and put as many down theturkey's throat as it can well take in, every morning, for three weeks or a month,and turn him loose all the rest of the day. This we commonly begin to do before Christmas,that the turkeys may be fatted for a market or a friend. Barley-meal crams dipt inmilk make their flesh appear the whiter.

  A further Account of the Breeding and Feeding ofTurkeys.--These fowls are bred by some farmers as the most profitable sort; othersreject them for their troublesome breeding up, and being too great devourers of corn.One author observes, that when they have a large range of liberty they will feedon herbs, and seeds of herbs, without trouble or charge, except in breeding and fatteningtime, and then they require very careful attendance, as they are a tender chillyfowl; that where they have a wood or grove near a house, the hen turkey will seekher nest abroad, conceal it from the cock, and bring up her brood with more successthan the more tame; that they seldom fatten before winter be well spent, when theyforget their lust; that the cold weather gets them a stomach, and the long nightsafford them much rest; and observes, that the whitish or light colour'd turkeys aremuch better meat than the blacker sort, but withal, that they are more tender intheir nursing up; when young turkeys are hatched, to give them a pepper-corn, onecorn with a little milk to each turkey poult, as being a great preservative againstthe cramp, which these fowls more than ordinarily are subject to suffer by; thatan egg boiled till hard, and chopt small with wormwood or cloves, is a good firstfood for warming their bodies and creating an appetite, and so is cheese-curds andwormwood. They should be kept from rain while they are very young, in shelter tilla warm day, and then they may be brought out in the middle of it for an hour or two,under a coop, at about a week old; and so on, longer and longer, till they can shiftfor themselves without the hen. It is reported, that a turkey may be improved inbulk and goodness of flesh by castration; and I think, that if the eggs of the bustardwere search'd for in April, and set under turkeys, they might be brought upas tame as dunghill fowls. But of this most noble fowl the bustard, more is designedto be wrote, when I publish my Treasure of new Discoveries in the Improvementsof Instrumental Husbandry, &c. In short, as the turkey for its large bodyand delicate flesh is kept by many farmers and gentlemen, and that the chief artof breeding them lies in their right managing of the poults, I have further to add,that if they are timely fed with a proper food, and kept under cover for the firstfour or five weeks from rain, slugs, or snails, that are apt to scour and kill them,and a turf of grass every day given them, there needs little care in their attendanceafterwards. And if they are bred near oak or beech trees, their mast in a plentifulyear will fatten them without any other meat, as is often seen by those turkeys bredon Gaddesden-Hill, and fed amongst our many beech trees, that are ofthe largest sort in England. 

THE Profit of keeping Ducks.-- The duck is not fit to bekept where there is but little water in ponds or ditches, for if there is but little,they mud and spoil it for kitchen uses, and for watering of cattle; but they arecertainly very profitable where there are good conveniencies for keeping them, becausethey run up in growth very fast for an early market, eat up the weeds on waters,devour spawn and young frogs, caterpillars, slugs, and snails, &c. returndowny feathers, live cheap, and when fatted under confinement, with a pure meat,they are dainty food for the nicest palates; where there is a river or a springymoor, they will get three parts of their living abroad.

  Of the several Sorts of Ducks kept in England.--Thecommon white duck is preferred by some, by others the crook-bill duck, some againkeep the largest of all ducks, the Muscovy sort; but the gentry of late havefell into such a good opinion of the Normandy sort, that they are highly esteemedfor their full body and delicate flesh; they are very great devourers of grain, insomuchthat if they were wholly to be maintained on it, it must cost a person many timesmore than ducks are sold for at the poulterer's shop. A good parcel of ducks willdo great service in a turnip or rape field, where they are seized by the black caterpillar,and so will a turkey or a goose, for all these fowls are very greedy of such insects,and accordingly have proved a cure, when no other applications could.

  Of breeding Ducks.--One drake will serve fornear twenty ducks. In the hardest weather, one quart of barley will be sufficientto feed ten or twelve ducks one day; however, the better they are fed the more eggsthey'll lay, and so fed they'll lay abundance at intervals of time, beginning aftermoulting time about Allhollantide or about Christmas. Those who haveno duck eggs of their own seek out to buy some, for having them in readiness to setthe first broody dunghill hen, that they may have the earliest ducklings to market,for when they are very early sold, they may fetch eighteen pence apiece, in February;but then such an early brood must be kept in a house, unless the weather is verymild indeed; and for their first meat, it should be a very hearty sort, made withbread and milk, and pollard mixt together; so that in breeding ducks, the dunghillhen, which commonly sits first, and keeps house better than ducks, becomes very serviceable,and thus there is the greater opportunity to enjoy a brood of ducks both by the henand the duck's sitting, and of bringing up the more young ones. On this account manyfarmers sell their duck eggs to a good advantage. Our Vale farmers wives duly observeto dip the bills or beaks of the ducklings as soon as they are hatch'd in milk, andwhere they make cheese to give them curd. 

SORTS of Geese.--There are several sorts of Englishtame geese, some smaller bodied than others, but the largest and finest sort thatI ever saw was at Sir Jeremy Sambrook's, at his seat near Northaw Common;but that truly honourable and very worthy gentleman, Sir John Rawdon,shewed me, at his seat near Brentwood, Essex (when I carried to himfourteen young tame pheasants) a breed between the English and Portugalsort, which he prefer'd for their good qualities.

  Geese sitting and hatching.--This business comesin particular under the country housewife's inspection, and for managing it to profit,she should feed her geese well betimes, even from Christmas, that they maylay early eggs, and enough of them for setting her geese in February or Marchat farthest, and therefore some oats ought to be given them or other corn, or wettedbran or pollard, besides what food they get abroad; coleworts raw or scalded, orturneps boiled and bran mix'd, or raw carrots chopt small, or guts and garbage willvery much contribute to their laying and sitting betimes, that their goslings orgreen geese may come to an early market for fetching the best price; feed them inthe out-house they are to lay and sit in, for naturalizing them to the place; providethem wheat or other straw, and make them a nest with it as far off the company ofother geese as conveniently can be, and as a goose sits about a month let her havewater and gravel constantly by her, and meat in due time; set her on her own eggs,for it is thought by some that her knowledge extends as far as this, to approve of,and sit better on her own than those of other geese. And that if a dunghill largehen is broody first, it is profitable to set her with five or six goose eggs; butthis is very seldom done, because a goose well fed will lay and sit early enough,and cover thirteen or ffteen eggs. The goose having hatch'd, if the weather is severelycold or wet, she and her brood should be kept in till the goslings get older andheartier, by giving them at first bread, bran, pollard, yetted barley, or other cornscalded in milk, with chopt clivers, lettice, coleworts, or turnips boiled to a mash,with bran or pollard mixt with them, or minced raw carrots amongst it, till aftera week or more that they can eat buck-wheat, barley, oats, or other raw corn, andshift for themselves. Likewise be sure to put fennel in all their water. Thus thegoslings may be prevented having the cramp or other illness, which, for want of acareful and right management at first, sometimes kills them; and for their greatersecurity, let them go and be kept out a little at a time, till they are able to endurethe weather, and preserve them from eating musty corn, from the kite, from the pole-cat,and Baltick rat, from hemlock, henbane, and other poisonous herbs by land,and from the pike or large jacks in water, for that all these are enemies to youngducks and goslings.

  The Loss and Profit of keeping Geese.--Theyare not fit to be kept where there is a scarcity of water, but only where there ismuch pond water, or near a river, or on a common. Here geese may pay better thanany other tame fowl; because they are great devourers (hog like) of meat, and bitegrass rather closer to the ground than a sheep, and therefore their keeping is disallowedof on many commons; but where they have plenty of water, grass, and weeds, they'lllive and thrive with very little expence all the year, except in feeding time forlaying eggs, in sitting time, and in bringing up their young. Then it is that somegeese-owners buy oats or other meat, as those do who live on Box-Moor nearHempstead, to whom I have sold oats for this purpose; but for the rest ofthe year, the old geese are very little expensive. A goose, it is said, may liveforty or fifty years, as has been proved; and although she is very old when she comesfat out of the stubbles, yet her body being furnished on a sudden with new flesh,she may eat to satisfaction: Which leads me to observe, that notwithstanding it isthe custom of many farmers in Hertfordshire and elsewhere, to fatten geesechiefly in stubbles, yet it is the custom of many others to sell them lean, as mayevery year be seen by the great droves of such geese travelling towards London,from Flag-hundred near Yarmouth, in Norfolk. In one drove therewere fourteen hundred sold at Stratford in Essex, for twenty-pencea piece, to fatten for the London poulterers. If geese are fatted in stubbles,when they are brought home every night, they should have some pollard or bran mixtwith skim milk, broth, or water, or corn soaked and given them in water; but in amorning they should eat nothing before they are drove to the field, because they'llsearch for their meat with the greater diligence. Again, in case geese are to befatted altogether in a house, that house is best for this purpose that has the leastlight, and is farthest off the noise of other geese. There are several sorts of meatto fatten them with, as French wheat just broke at the mill and given in water,or the flower of it made into a pap or paste is a great fattener; so is ground maltmixt with pollard and given them in water, or barley-meal wetted into a thin paste;but let the meat be what it will, they must always have a pan of water by them, whereinis some gravel or sand; and if with any of these meats, some coleworts, lettice,or clivers are given besides, it will increase their appetite, and cause them tofatten apace, in a fortnight or three weeks time; for goslings especially are suchextream lovers of lettice and coleworts, that they'll almost fatten upon them alone,and so they will on carrots cut small, or on turneps boiled to a mash and mixt withpollard, which is the cheapest meat they can be fatted with. A goose is easier broughtup than a turkey, for a turkey, when as big as a pigeon, may be stung to death bya nettle.

  Eighteen Goslings killed and carried away in oneNight's Time by a Polecat.--A Man who lives on Box-Moor, near Hempstead,had eighteen goslings carried away in one night; and believing they were carriedaway by a polecat, diligently searched amongst the hedges to find his hole, but findingnone, they proceeded to search about a bay of hay in a barn, and perceiving a hole,they cut down into it, and there found a polecat lying in the midst of it, with mostof the dead goslings, for which they had only the satisfaction of killing him.

THE Pleasure and Profit of keeping Swans.--Swans are statelybeautiful birds, and are said to be a very proud, but chaste fowl; and are so sensibleof affronts, that I have often seen a cock swan scare both women and children inwing-running after them. They are chiefly kept by gentlemen, who regard them morefor fancy than profit; not but they will pay indifferently well, if kept under aright management in large ponds or in a river. Nor will they leave the place if pinion'd,but keep strictly to it, even if it be only a pond of no great compass, as has beenseen in Ashridge-Park, for some years, in the time of Scroop the lateDuke of Bridgewater; but if they go unpinion'd, they are apt to take flights,tho' they seldom entirely forsake their first habitation. They are a very hardy bird,and are not devourers of fish to any great damage, for they never dive deep, hardlyever farther than their necks will reach, so that they can only take a few of thesmallest fish. And as to the expence of their maintainance, what they get in andabout the water, and the grass that grows on the land contiguous to the pond or river,with a few oats now and then, will suffice, except in a hard frost, when they aredeprived of the benefit of water; then, indeed, they must have a greater allowanceof oats. The young swans, called cignets, if fatted, are a dainty dish, and eat excellentlywell in a pye, provided they have not exceeded two years of age. Their long neck,broad feet, and broad bill, are necessary; their neck to reach, and their broad mouthto take up much slime at once, in order to take up worms and other insects from thebottom of ponds; the upper part of their bill is pierced, in order to discharge thewater.

  Of Breeding Swans.--Swans make their nest withflags or rushes, which they build on the water, amongst flags, to a very great bulk;here they generally lay their eggs, in March, to the number of four, five,or six, and then sit on them for seven or eight weeks before they hatch; in whichtime, as their nest is always pretty near the shoar, they must have oats given them.When they have hatch'd, the young swans have nothing given them besides what theold swan provides, which are flies, worms, or other insects, weeds and grass, carryingthem now and then on her back, and so will the cock swan, and provide his share forthem; but after three weeks age, the cignets will eat oats, which are placed in atrough fix'd in the water about two foot from the land, to which both old and younghave always free access; and now it is that the cock swan is most furious at spectators,as being very jealous of his mate, and fond of her brood. Where there is not goodroom in a pond for their large nest, or conveniency to make one with flags or rushes,grass, straw, and such like stuff must be laid near the edge of the water, on theland, and the swan will, if not much disturbed, lay her eggs in a nest she buildsthere.

  How to fatten Swans.--To fatten these largewater fowls, they must not be totally deprived of water, and therefore for accommodatingthem in the most natural manner, stakes must be drove into the ground round a placein the water, by the shore-side, and on part of the contiguous land; so that onehalf must be land and the other half water, that is to be thus inclosed for abouthalf a pole square, that the swans may have liberty allowed them enough to be oneither. Here the cignets, or old swans that are to be fatted, must be confined tofeed on oats, and nothing else, and if well supplied with them, they will fattenin three weeks or a month at farthest. Swans are of a dunnish colour for the firstyear; but before the second is over, they will be perfectly white. Then the cockmay be partly known from the hen, by the larger comb, neck, and legs. About Michaelmastime they should be pinion'd, and for doing it safely a person should have some fore-handknowledge of it, and not venture at random, lest he kill them by being an ignorantoperator, as one I know did, who was thus the death of four young swans out of six;therefore observe the following method.

  Pinioning a Swan.--Mr. Bradley, in hisFarmer's Monthly Director, page 132. (sold by Mr. Brown, at the Black-Swan,without Temple-Bar, London) says, That the feathers must be pick'dclean round the first joint of one wing, then take a strong pack-thread, and knithard enough round the place, a little below the joint, to stop the bleeding, whenthe pinion is cut off with a very sharp knife. For doing this, the month of Septemberis a good time.

HOW to preserve Eggs sound.--Dr. Godfrey in his booksays, That eggs have been laid under a running water, and after two years lying inthe same have been found perfectly sound for eating, and breeding of chickens. Healso further says, that if eggs are covered with a proper varnish they will holdsound a year, as has been proved by putting them under a hen that produced chickens;for by these means the air is kept from entering their shells, and so are preservedfrom rottenness.

  A second Way to preserve Eggs sound.--This isdone by the art of packing them in a wicker-basket, hamper, or cask, for if you placetheir large ends downwards, they will keep sound two or three months. The reasonfor this is, when you place them the reverse way, the air has a greater contact withthe wind-bladder in the large end of the egg, so as to waste and exhaust it muchthe sooner thro' the pores of the shell, for as this wind-bladder (which supportsand helps to keep the yolk from sinking and running amongst the white) becomes moreor less damaged, so will the egg be in proportion.

  A third Way.--When you pack eggs for carriageor keeping some time, always set their broad ends downwards, and between every layerof them put straw, and keep them out of the power of cold air, that it may not freezethem; therefore reserve the hamper, basket, or cask, in a warm room in winter, andin summer in a cellar. The broad ends of the eggs, which are porous, have a thickskin, which the egg feeds upon while it lies in this posture; but when the eggs lielong ways, there is little else but skin, and when that is fed on, and eat up bythe rest of the egg, the egg begins to rot. It is also observable, that the chick'sbill lies next the bottom, and here through the little holes it fetches its breath.Now if these little holes lie uppermost, the air has the more power to enter andspoil the egg.

  A fourth Way.--A farmer's wife, to save hereggs in a cheap time against a dear one, used to put them on wire or other sieves,or on other bottoms, and by laying them thus, she turned the eggs once every week,from August till towards Christmas, in imitation of the common higlersway, who, when they meet with a disappointment of sale, turn their pack'd-up eggsin a hamper bottom upwards, and by so doing once a week, they will keep sound fouror five weeks.

  Rotten Eggs sold knowingly.--It is too oftenpractised by some farmers wives, to save their eggs from harvest-time to sell nearChristmas, and though many be rotten, yet they will sell them as sound onesif they can, though they know them to be rotten. Therefore,

  To know rotten Eggs.--When they are rotten,on holding them against a fire, candle, or the sun, they appear of a dirty or blackishcolour.

  Hertfordshire Eggs.--We generally are so carefulof sending clean eggs to London, that when we find any of them sully'd, weput them for a minute in warm water, and rub them with scouring sand; then lay themon a cloth, and they presently dry.