A good fattening food for fowls may be made as follows: - Mix the different meals together with boiling water; then add suet, knead all together, and give in balls as much as will rill each fowl. By this treatment they will fatten very rapidly, and this food makes them look beautifully plump, and consequently they are eagerly sought for in the market.

We will now say a few words as to the different descriptions of fowls, pointing out which are the best layers- the best for sitting, and the best and finest for the table.

It is very hard to disabuse some people of their prejudices, and many-good old-fashioned people, when you ask them what description of fowl they consider best, invariably reply, "The old barn-door." Doubtless, they are a useful sort, but in these days of progress poultry-keepers generally like to keep pace with the times; and it is no more expense to keep fowls that will lay eggs all the year round, half as large again as the old barn-door and produce chickens in March the size nearly of a common fowl.

We will commence with the Spanish - a most elegant breed, jet black, with a white face, extending in the male bird all over the face and even under the beak. The hens of these fowls never sit, so the eggs must be placed under a common hen. There is one drawback in the Spanish breed of fowls - the chickens when young are very delicate, and greater care must be devoted to them; they amply repay the trouble, as the hens lay larger eggs than any other kind of fowl. There are several varieties of Spanish; the white Spanish; the red-faced white Spanish (these latter are very good layers, and commence early); the Minorca, a Spanish fowl, but without the white face - their eggs are large, and they will sit; lastly, there is the Andalusian, very fine-looking fowls: these also are very good layers.

The Dorking fowl, which may easily be known from all other varieties of fowl from having five toes, is, in our opinion, one of the best fowls a poultry-breeder can possibly have. It is described as being an excellent farm-yard fowl, being a good layer, a close sitter, an attentive mother; the chickens also grow rapidly, and are most excellent for the table. The Cochin China is also a very great favourite with poultry-feeders; their large size, and the number of eggs the hens lay, naturally led to their becoming in great request; it matters not how cold the weather may be, even in deep snow, and with severe frost, you may always depend upon your handsome Cochins providing you with new-laid eggs.

There is another description of fowl which no breeder should be without, and that is the Bramah Pootra; they are good layers, their eggs are a very good size, and they make capital mothers; of all the fowls we have ever kept, they are undoubtedly the best. If at liberty, they will almost keep themselves; and even if confined, they thrive as well as any other fowls. They fatten quickly, and are most excellent eating; they run to a tremendous size; when full-grown they have been known to weigh from twenty to twenty-five pounds a pair. Dr. Bennett, in describing them, says: "The cock is mostly white, with neck hackles pencilled with black, and rump hackles of the palest possible shade of straw colour; the tail is black, with glossy green plume feathers; the wings pencilled with black.

"The pullets are white, with black tails; the wings and neck slightly pencilled with black, the comb is small and serrated. Very frequently they have a perfect pea-comb, which is always a rare indication of fineness of flesh. The wattles are small, but the ear lobes are extremely large and pendulous. The legs are yellow, and usually very heavily feathered, though there are some excellent specimens with smooth legs".

Another writer describes them better than they have ever been described before, and in comparing them with the Cochin China goes on to say: " In the shape of Cochin China fowls, no one can fail to remark the absence of breast, which is indeed one characteristic, as the lack of it enables the fluffy thigh to become more apparent; and the wedge-like shape of the bird, while wide behind and tapering to the breast, forms the development of those points which constitute the chief beauties in that breed. Now in the Bramah Pootra this lack is materially supplied, inasmuch as there is a breast amply developed, and possessing a rotundity approaching, when in hand, to what game-fowl breeders and amateurs call cleverness, which is that a well-proportioned fowl, placed breast downwards on the palm of the hand, should balance. This cannot be when the breast is wanting. A lady lately imported some of these birds, and after they had been in charge of the man (who had had the care of the Cochins for years) some days, asked his opinion. 'Madam,' said he, 'these will get fat where the Cochins will starve."' The Cochin seeks its roost early, and besets the hen-house door; the Bramah Pootra always roams far from home till almost dark.

We have seen them, like rooks, following a man at the plough, and pecking in the newly turned furrows three fields from home; such a thing is seldom or never seen in others. The chickens are all hatched either black or yellow; at the age of six weeks a change takes place - the black get gradually grey, and look as if their feathers were covered with a cobweb, while the yellow become white and then speckled like a silver-pencilled Hamburg chicken. They are very hardy, less expensive to keep, and are quite as prolific in eggs as the Cochins.