Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart,
the work of extirpation should proceed, to the extent of curtailing this branch of farm-stock to its wholesome and legitimate proportions.
CHAPTER IX.
POULTRY.
Choice varieties of fowls add a pleasant feature to the farm premises. They engage the attention and sympathy of the juvenile farmers, and the time bestowed in the poultry yard keeps them from mischief: it is an agreeable and salutary relief from toil and study, and elicits the taste, the judgment, and the kindlier feelings of humanity, which are to be matured in the future accomplished breeder. When properly managed, poultry are a source of considerable profit, yielding more for the food they consume, than any other stock, although their value is not often considered. The agricultural statistics of the United States, for 1839, give us over $12,000,000 in poultry, and it probably exceeds $15,000,000 at the present time. It is estimated by McQueen, that the poultry of England exceeds $40,000,000, and yet McCulloch says she imports 60,000,000 eggs annually from France, (McQueen states it at near 70,000,000;) and from other parts of the continent, 25,000,000; besides 80,000,000 imported from Ireland. Poultry, then, ceases to be an unimportant object of agricultural attention, and assumes its appropriate place among the other staples of the farmer.
Hens
Are the most numerous and profitable, and the most generally useful of the feathered tribe. The hen is peculiarly an egg-producing bird. She has the same predisposition for laying, that the cow has for secreting milk. Some breeds are better adapted for this object than others: but in all that have ever come within our notice, the proper food and circumstances are alone wanting, to produce a reasonable quantity of eggs.
The egg consists of three distinct parts; the shell, the white,
and the yolk. A good-sized egg will weigh 1,000 grains, of which about 107 are shell, 604 are white, and 289 are yolk. Of the shell, 97 per cent. is carbonate of lime, 1 per cent. phosphate of lime and magnesia, and 2 per cent. albumen. The white consists of 12 per cent. of albumen, 2.7 of mucus, 0.3 of salts, and 85 of water. The yolk has about 17.4 per cent. of albumen, 28.6 of yellow oil, 54 of water, with a trace of sulphur and phosphorus.