The complete Indian housekeeper & cook

One fowl costs as much as another to feed, while some are good layers and some are not. The first thing to do, then, is to choose your fowls, and not waste time in keeping birds that will not repay care. Of course, if jmu wish to go in for fancy breeding, a pure breed to start Avith is necessary, but for ordinary purposes Light Brahmas or Houdans may be met with in most big stations. The latter are the better layers, but they are slightly more delicate, and though they feather earlier than any other breed, they are not quite so soon ready foi table as the Brahmas. Silver Dorkings are an excellent all-round breed for India. The first thing after getting decent fowls is to find them a suitable house. Most people think that any hole or corner will do for a fowl-house; the idea of whitewashing never enters their head, yet they are surprised if the birds droop and sicken, and wonder why the animals are so infested with insects. It may safely be said that the fowl-tick or blood-sucker is responsible for most of the failures in fowl-keeping in India ; therefore no pains should be spared to ])revent their gainimr a foothold in the fowl-house. If it is too expensive to build a mud lean-to with a galvanised iron roof, and burnt brick doorways in which iron staples for the door-pins can be built It is still possible to do much towards making the ordinary wooden roofs and lintels insect-proof; for it is in the crevices that these pests lurk by day, coming out at night to fasten on tlie birds. Common cloth stretched as a ceiling, and tarred will mend matters to some extent, and a thorough lepe fplaster) with the usual mixture of cowdung and sancl, to which some phenyle has been added, will keep the walls free. But in one station the writer was completely vanquished by the in- 117 ii8 The Complete Indian sects, till a large, mud-brick dome, like an oven, was built, with small lattice-work bricks here and there for ventilation, and an arched doorway just large enough for cleaning purposes. This was thoroughly mud-plastered inside, and a huge fire lit, w'hich vitrified the whole of the dome. In fact, the great ob- ject of having an iron or domed roof is that you can purify the place by ifire, which is the only effectual way of doing it. 'I’he })erches should be about one foot from the ffooi’, which should invariably be two inches deej) in sand. They are best made by permanently fixing two uprights in the ground. The uprights should have slots in them, in which a horizontal bar can be fixed, and whence it can be taken out to be cleaned. The bar should not be quite round, and the diameter should be large enough to prevent cramp in the feet. With regard to a run for your fowls, give them as \nuch liberty as you can, and rather than confine them to close quarters, go to the expense of a few yards of wire- netting. It will w’ell repay its cost. If possible, net in a shady bit for your fowls, for they get fever if much in the sun. If this is impossible, spend eight annas on a grass thatch, elevated about two feet from the ground, w'here they can take shelter. Put a j)ile of wood-ashes somewhere about, and a heaj) of lime. Then the fowl-yard w ill be ready.