er, when the man comes home from work. As to the
_fatting_ of fowls, information can be of no use to those who live in a
cottage all their lives; but it may be of some use to those who are born
in cottages, and go to have the care of poultry at richer persons' houses.
Fowls should be put to fat about a fortnight before they are wanted to be
killed. The best food is barley-meal wetted with milk, but not wetted too
much. They should have clear water to drink, and it should be frequently
changed. Crammed fowls are very nasty things: but "_barn-door_" fowls, as
they are called, are sometimes a great deal more nasty. _Barn_-door would,
indeed, do exceedingly well; but it unfortunately happens that the
_stable_ is generally pretty near to the barn. And now let any gentleman
who talks about sweet barn-door fowls, have one caught in the yard, where
the stable is also. Let him have it brought in, killed, and the craw taken
out and cut open. Then let him take a ball of horse-dung from the
stable-door; and let his nose tell him how very small is the difference
between the smell of the horse-dung, and the smell of the craw of his
fowl. In short, roast the fowl, and then pull aside the skin at the neck,
put your nose to the place, and you will almost think that you are at the
stable door. Hence the necessity of taking them away from the barn-door a
fortnight, at least, before they are killed. We know very well that ducks
that have been fed upon fish, either wild ducks, or tame ducks, will scent
a whole room, and drive out of it all those who have not pretty good
constitutions. It must be so. Solomon says that all flesh is grass; and
those who know any-thing about beef, know the difference between the
effect of the grass in Herefordshire and Lincolnshire, and the effect of
turnips and oil cake. In America they always take the fowls from the
farm-yard, and shut them up a fortnight or three weeks before they be
killed. One thing, however, about fowls ought always to be borne in mind.
They are never good for any-thing when they have attained their full
growth, unless they be _capons_ or _poullards_. If the poulets be old
enough to have little eggs in them, they are not worth one farthing; and
as to the cocks of the same age, they are fit for nothing but to make soup
for soldiers on their march, and they ought to be taken for that purpose.

PIGEONS.

181. A few of these may be kept about any cottage, for they are kept even
in towns by