POULTRY.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2153, 19 January 1881, Page 4

POULTRY.

Game fowls are great fovorites with many poultry breeders, but they are so pugnacious and relentless that it is only whore there is plenty of room for them to roam about that they can bo kept. Yet there is not another more beautiful or graceful bird than n game fowl; its variety and beauty of plumage, quick-active movements which are so graceful in every action, and its courage, have caused these birds to bo bred very extensively throughout tho country, and good specimens readily soil from £2O to £3O, and even more. It is only a few years since a black-red cockerel was sold »t the Palace Show for £IOO. It is astonishing how heavy they are in body, and any ono unacquainted with tho close, hard feathers of the game would imagine them to bo small birds ; but take them in band, and then it will be found they are as heavy as other varieties which apparently look twice as large in body. They aro full of flesh, carry very little offal, and are smaller in bone than the Asiatic breeds. There is plenty of meat on the breast, like the partridge and the pheasant, and their flesh is moat delicious and juicy in flavor ; in fact, a young game cockerel is almost as good eating as a pheasant. Then they are exceedingly hardy in constitution, and there is not another variety which are ao good at finding their own living, and they are very fair egg producers. The great drawback to their being even more extensively bred is, as we have already mentioned, their pugnacity. Still, in a farmyard, with an unlimited run, they are most useful birds. Many of the large game breeders make arrangements with small farmers ond cottagers to “ walk,” as it is called, a few cockerels at the farm, or around the cottages, where the latter are situated in a Cargo open space, or tho eggs ore supplied, and so much per head is paid for the chickens on arriving at a certain age. By this means a breeder is enabled to got the pick of a greater number of birds than if he hatched and re-

tained them himself. This plan is also frequently adopted with other varieties with profit to the persona to whom the birds are entrusted and advantage to tho breeders. The game, like the shorthorn cattle, are a most useful variety for crossing with other breeds. It is tho crossbreds, when judiciously crossed, which make tho most useful birds for

domestic uses. They aro more precocious, hardier, end generally ready for killing at an surlier date than tho pure breeds. The game and the Brahma crossed together make splendid birds for tho table. Tho former gives quality and additional flesh just whore the Brahmas are most deficient viz., in tho breast; while the largo frame of the latter variety crossed with tho game results in increased size, with loss offal, finer flesh, and whiter skill than is found in the Brahma. Those, therefore, who keep poultry or market would do well to purchase, say naif a dozen Brahmas, with us little log(Feathering as possible, and cross them with her a black or brown-rod game cockerel. We prefer a young bird, us he is generally more attentive to tho hens, and as tho Brahmas aro somewhat idle and not given to roaming very far in searching for food, he would bo more likely to take them about, and scratch amongst tho litter and straw around the stacks. At this time of the year, when

the corn is being stacked or threshed, a

quantity folia about, and if some active poultry are kept, these will pick up much of , iliflt -which would otherwise be wasted, and it n : 'a only by >omomhoriug those little matters, y. so < materially rqduco the cost of ’ 'q#df, .that poultry keeping can bo made t,> rp/itablo. i • ; .i : i -i