While families remain in the country, it will sometimes be expected of the housekeeper, that she should know something of the management of poultry. We shall therefore appropriate a section to that purpose, in which we shall lay down some general rules for that business. These hints may likewise be equally useful to those small families, who retire from the noise and bustle of large towns and populous cities, to spend the evening of their lives amidst the tranquillity of rural scenes.

Fowls

In the first place, particular care must be taken that the hen-roost be kept clean. Do not choose too large a breed as they generally eat coarse ; and six hens to a cock will be a good proportion. When fowls are near laying, give them whole rice, or nettle seed mixed with bran and bread, worked into a paste. In order to make your fowls familiar, feed them at particular hours, and always in one place.

Great care must be taken to keep your storehouse free from vermin, and contrive your perches so as not to be over one another, nor over the nests, in which always take care to keep clean straw. Wherever poultry are kept, all sorts of vermin will naturally come; for which reason it would be proper to sow wormwood and rue about the places in which you keep them, and you may also boil wormwood, and sprinkle the floor with it, which will notonly contribute to keep away vermin, but also add much to the health of your poultry. As to rats, mice, and weasels, the best method is to set traps for them.

If you feed your hens now and then with barley bruised, and with the toasts taken out of ale, they will lay often, and all the winter. To prevent your hens eating their own eggs, which they sometimes will, lay a piece of chalk cut like an egg, at which they will often be pecking, and thus finding themselves disappointed, they will not afterwards attempt it. When your hens are inclinable to sit, which you will know by their clucking, do not disappoint them, nor put more than ten under each. March is reckoned a good month to set hens in ; but if they be properly fed, they will lay many eggs, and set at any time.

Ducks

Ducks usually begin to lay in February ; and if your gar. dener be diligent in picking up snails, grubs,-caterpillars, worms, and other insects, and lay them in one place, it will make your ducks familiar, and is the best food, for change, you can give them. Parsley, sowed about the ponds or river they use, gives their flesh an agreeable taste; and be always sure to have one certain place for them constantly to retire to at night. Partition off their nests, and make them as near the water as possible. Always feed them there, as it makes them love home, ducks being of a rambling nature. Their eggs should be taken away till they are inclined to sit, and it is best for every duck, as well as every fowl, to sit upon her own eggs.

Geese

The keeping of geese is attended with little trouble; but they spoil a deal of grass, no creature choosing to eat after them. When the goslings are hatched, let them be kept within doors, and lettuce leaves and peas boiled in milk are very good for them. When they are about to lay, drive them to their nests, and shut them up, and set every goose with its own eggs, always feeding them at one place, and at stated times. They will feed upon all sorts of grain and grass; and you may gather acorns, parboil them in ale, and it will fatten them surprisingly.