irds of some variety popular and saleable. They sell most of their surplus eggs for hatching during February, March, April, and May, the price they realize varying with their reputations, from 5 cents to 50 cents per egg.

Their next sales are from the cull male birds of their early hatchings. These go for broilers, at from 35 to 75 cents each, from April to July. The early hatched chicks, at one pound each, bring more than those three times as large but later, in the Eastern cities.

The early hatched pullets become egg-producers by August and September, just in time to replace the hens that have quit laying on account of the moulting. The choicest of both sexes are reserved for breeding, show, or sale purposes, and bring fancy prices. It is no unusual return for such a fancier to have an income of from $5 to $10 for every hen that he starts the year with, before that year closes. T. E. ORR, Secretary of the American Poultry Association and Superintendent of Poultry at the Saint Louis Exposition.

Pounce (a corruption of pumice), gum sandarach or some other substance pounded and sifted very fine, to rub on paper in order to prevent ink from spreading on it. The best pounce for this purpose is ground cuttlefish bone. Pounce is also the term applied to charcoal dust enclosed in a piece of muslin, or some other open stuff, to be passed over holes pricked in a work, in order to mark the lines or designs on paper, silk, etc., placed underneath, which are to be afterward finished with a pen and ink. a needle, or the like; or to any other coloring matter prepared and used in a similar manner.

Pound, (1) an English weight of two different denominations, avoirdupois and troy. Since 1856 the legal original standard weight in Great Britain and her colonies has been the imperial pound avoirdupois, a cylindrical mass of platinum, grooved near the top and bearing the mark "P. S. 1844 1 lb.," the two letters P. S. signifying "Parliamentary Standard." The pound troy in Great Britain is defined as 5.760 grains and is divided into 12 ounces, being used almost entirely for measuring bullion; the pound avoirdupois contains 7,000 grains, divided into 16 ounces, and is used for all ordinary commodities. The imperial standard troy pound constructed in 1758 was the only legal original standard weight between the years 1824 and 1856, but previous to these years certain weights, both troy and avoirdupois, constructed in 1858 under Queen Elizabeth had been the standards. These standards were not very accurately constructed, and through constant use became worn, but the pound avoirdupois probably contained as much as 7,002 of our present grains, while the pound troy weighed 5.759 grains. In the United States the British imperial pound avoirdupois has been copied to a great extent, but in theory the pound avoirdupois of Elizabeth is legal in this country. Edward III., from evidence in the official records, made the pound avoirdupois the standard, and Elizabeth probably copied her standard from his 56-pound weight, although standards had existed since 1497. The troy pound derives its name from the city of Troyes, where it was used as the standard of weight in the fairs held in that city. In 1497 it was made the legal weight for gold and silver and some

authorities claim it was also used for bread, being known as the "old commercial weight of England," and containing 7,600 grains. This troy pound displaced the monetary pound which had been in use from the times of the Saxons, and which contained 5,400 or 5,420 grains and was divided into 12 ounces or 20 shillings. At about the same time the merchant's pound containing 6,775 grains, divided into 15 ounces, came into considerable use. (2) Pound is also the highest monetary denomination used in British accounts, being equivalent to 20 shillings or 240 pence, and originally to a pound weight! of silver (or of the alloy used). In the use of pound as designating money, the epithet sterling is generally affixed to discriminate from the pound weight. (See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.) (3) In law, an enclosed space for keeping cattle which have strayed on another man's ground, until they are replevined or redeemed. When cattle are put into pound it falls to the person impounding them to feed them, but he is entitled to charge the owner of the cattle the cost of keeping them in settling with him for the amount of damages to be paid. In England, an attempt to release from a pound cattle lawfully impounded is punishable by a fine. In Scotland the seizing of stray cattle and keeping them till damages are paid is called poinding of cattle.

Pound-net Fishing, any fishing which is conducted by means of fixed enclosures of considerable size into which the fish are led by suitable guides, and within which they are confined by appropriate devices. Under this head will be included the pound-nets proper and trap-nets, as well as the simpler forms of weirs, which together constitute a class of automatic fishing gear quite distinct from the various forms of seines, gill-nets, etc., on the one hand, and the small fish-traps, baskets and eel-pots on the other. Devices of this sort are employed in the prosecution of the fisheries in many parts of the world, but the method, although not originating in the United States, has here been more highly elaborated and is more characteristic of our fisheries than elsewhere. The precise form and construction of pound-nets varies greatly in different localities, owing to the necessity of adapting it to local conditions of bottom, tides, currents, the kind and number of the fish sought, the available capital, resourcefulness of the fishermen, etc.

Weirs. The terms weir and pound in connection with the fisheries are to a great extent used interchangeably, according to local custom. The chief distinction between a weir and a pound-net seems to lie in the character of the enclosure within which the fish are confined. In the former this is more fixed and has no bottom which can be lifted; in the latter the pound is a netting bag which can be raised to the surface.

The most primitive apparatus of this sort in use in the United States is represented by the brush weirs employed in the herring fisheries of Maine and Canada. These consist of brush walls constructed in the following manner: Stout stakes from 6 to 8 inches in diameter at the butt, and 20 to 35 feet long, according to the depth of the water, are driven into the bottom to a distance of about 6 feet and 3 feet apart. Between these brush, preferably of cedar or spruce for the bottom course is woven in and

out and held firmly in place by smaller stakes placed on the outside and bound to the large body-stakes. Toward the top a looser construction is adopted and the brush is placed vertically, as being less liable to be carried away by the current. Sometimes the brush is constructed in sections ashore and subsequently attached to stakes driven in the proper positions. This has the advantage that the brush sections can be removed and saved at the close of the fishing season, whereas the ordinary weirs, with the exception of such brush as can be removed from the tops, are likely to be totally destroyed by the winter's storms. When weirs are located on a bottom of solid rock into which no stakes can be driven, recourse is had to the construction of a platform of solid plank, which serves as a bottom to which the poles are fastened. The whole is heavily weighted and held in place by loading it with stones. In form and size scarcely two weirs are alike, but each is adapted to the topography of the bottom and the character of the currents to which it is related; and so varied are they that each is known to the local fishermen by a specific name. New weirs are constructed each spring, and the fishermen study with great care the arrangements of the channels, the conformation of the bottom, the set and force of the currents and especially the roadways along which the schools of herring move, locating their weirs with the idea of intercepting the greatest possible number of fish, The simplest form is perhaps the tidal weir, so arranged that fish can enter at openings through which the water flows during the last half of the flood tide, but find their retreat cut off during the last half of the ebb. The captured fishes are left stranded at low water and can be gathered by hand. This form of weir has, however, been practically abandoned, and more elaborate structures with wings and leaders adopted. These have the advantage of acting all through either the flood or the ebb tide or both. In a typical weir of this type the inner enclosure is more or less circular and perhaps 100 to 150 feet in diameter, with a mouth about 15 feet wide. The wings are of similar construction and about 100 to 150 feet long, diverging from the entrance of the weir into which they enter as the sides of a wedge-shaped passageway leading to an interior entrance about 10 feet wide. The outer ends of the wings are curved or hooked in various ways in order to direct toward the weir any fishes swimming in their direction. Leaders or centre fences are also walls of brush passing from the shore or bar to a point between the outer hooks of the wings. They may be several hundred feet long and are arranged at various angles to the weir proper. Among the fishermen a complete weir, with all the parts just described and of more or less symmetrical plan, is known as a patent weir; but very often the conformation of the shore or the presence of a bar or small island is taken advantage of and used as a substitute for the leader, for one or both of the wings, or for a part of the wall of the enclosure, in order to lessen the labor of construction. As a result we have bar weirs, shore weirs, channel weirs, etc. Sometimes a trap-door of netting is so placed across the mouth of the weir that it can be readily raised by pressure from without, but resists a push from within, thus furnishing an additional safe

guard against the escape of captives. Owing to their construction the most effective method of fishing these weirs is by drawing a seine through them and thus removing the catch whenever desirable and expedient. Usually this is done at low water.

The use of true brush weirs is almost entirely limited to the waters of Passamaquoddy Bay. Where weirs are employed elsewhere in the United States their walls are usually constructed in whole or in part of cotton-twine netting. In the salmon fisheries of the Penobscot River and Bay a form of weir is employed in which the leader or run and the wings are constructed of spruce poles and alder brush, the second and third pounds of netting and provided with wooden floors so placed that the fish are left stranded at low water on the floor of the third or fish pound. The several pounds are arranged either across the channel or parallel to the shore. In the Kennebec River the shad weirs are, with the exception of the leader, which may be of brush, constructed entirely of netting, and they have no floor save the bottom of the river. They are fished by means of small seines. In a few places laths have been substituted for brush in the construction of small weirs. On the north shore of Cape Cod, where the bottom is sandy and very gently shelving, the leaders are often half a mile long and even then the bottom of the weirs is nearly dry at low water. These shallow-water weirs are fished in a unique manner. At low water light twowheeled carts are driven to them across the sands and the fish are simply shoveled or bailed into them and carried to the shore.

Pounds. A pound-net in the more restricted sense of the term is constructed entirely of cordage netting, supported and held in place by stakes, and consists of three essential parts: the pound or bowl, the wings and the leader. The pound is located off-shore, usually in from two to four fathoms of water and consists of a bag of very stout netting of about one inch mesh, the margin of which is supported above the level of the water by stout upright stakes driven into the bottom at suitable intervals which vary with the character of the ground and the force of the waves and currents. Where the bottom is rocky further security is found by the attachment of anchored guy ropes to some of the stakes. The only opening in the pound is the slit-like entrance, usually about six feet across, on the inshore side. At this point the walls of the net are carried inward, in order to render the opening less conspicuous from the inside, and are sc arranged that by means of suitable ropes they may be used to close the opening when the net is drawn. The bottom of the pound is spread and secured by means of ropes which pass through loops or pulleys near the bottom of the stakes. The pound varies in diameter from 45 to 90 feet or more, and in shape may be circular, heart-shaped, rectangular or irregular, according to local custom and circumstances. Sometimes the pound is divided into inner and outer compartments, in which case the former is the real pound in which the fish are collected and retained; or the division may be so arranged as to classify the contents, as in the case of the pound-nets of Delaware Bay, many of which segregate the king crabs in staked enclosures. To many pound-nets is also appended at the side

a pocket or netting bag of convenient size and shape for the purpose of keeping fish alive after they have been removed from the pound, when it is desirable not to market them immediately.

The wings are vertical fences of netting, diverging from the entrance to the pound and having a length of 100 feet or more. The ends directed toward the shore are carried toward one another in the form of a semicircle, but leaving a wide opening between the two wings. The netting of which the wings are constructed is lighter than that forming the pound, and of about 11⁄2 inches mesh. It is supported by stakes and reaches from the bottom to the surface, the lower border being weighted with a heavy chain. The exact arrangement of the wings varies endlessly; sometimes there is but one; sometimes they have the form of an arrow-head; frequently there are two sets, one forming the inner or smaller "heart" which opens directly into the pound, and receives the open apical end of the outer or large "heart." But whatever their form they are designed to direct the fish toward the mouth of the pound, and to present as many obstacles as possible to its passage in the opposite direction. The leader is simply a straight fence of netting running from a point at or near the shore to just within the opening between the wings. It is made of lighter cordage and much larger mesh than either the pound or wings and lengths of heavy chain or other sinkers attached to the lower margin serve to keep it close to the bottom, the upper edge being supported at the level of high water by stakes.

The cordage pound-net is capable of almost unlimited modification, and the fishermen have shown the greatest ingenuity in adapting the principle to local and special requirements. Perhaps the most perfect and efficient form has been developed on the Great Lakes, where the pounds are often set in water of considerable depth, and the bag or pound proper may be as much as fifty feet or even more deep, with the entrance in the form of a funnel projecting into its interior. Size and shape of pound and wings vary with the conformation of the ground, kind and abundance of fish and direction of currents, but are very largely governed by local prejudices and regulations, or by the amount of capital available. The size of mesh and twine in pound, wings and leader also varies greatly, being controlled by the strength of the currents, the amount of eel grass, marine algae and flotsam which accumulates, the kinds of fishes sought, and sometimes by local regulations and customs which have little apparent relation to the natural factors. A leader constructed of netting having a large open mesh collects less floating material and is consequently less likely co be carried away by strong currents than one of small and close mesh, and is almost as effective in directing fishes into the wings as the latter. In the wings and pound, however, and especially in the latter, the mesh must be sufficiently close to retain the valuable kinds of ashes in the blind and the vigorous dashes for freedom which follow the discovery of their imprisonment. Generally in the sea-fisheries everything, from herring, or even bait-fish and squids, to bonitos and sturgeon, is desired; and the nets must be stout enough to withstand the fierce rushes of sharks or other sea-monsters. Consequently a small mesh of very stout

twine, often reinforced by slings of stout rope, is employed. If the fisheries are specialized and only a particular kind of fish, as whitefish, shad or salmon, is desired, the net can be endowed with a certain selective property by using a mesh just small enough to retain that kind, while permitting the escape of all of smaller size. As the object of leaders is to intercept the moving schools of fishes and to direct them toward the enclosure, they are naturally placed in such positions as the fishermen's knowledge of local movements and conditions dictates. They may begin at or near a shore or at the edge of a bar and their length varies greatly with the gentleness or abruptness of the slope of the bottom, and is further controlled by navigation laws prohibiting the obstruction of channels. Sometimes owing to local topography or to the set of the current continuously in one direction the leader is arranged with an opening on one side only so that fishes swimming in but one direction are taken. When located in tidal waters, however, they usually have double wings and openings so that they operate with both ebb and flow of the tide and are effective against fishes moving both up and down the shore. Frequently when the bottom slopes very gently, and the fish are known to move diffusely or in scattered schools, several pound-nets are arranged in lines or series, the leader of one beginning at the outer end of the pound of another. On the Atlantic coast pound-nets are generally placed singly and very rarely are more than two placed on a line, but in Lake Erie four or even more may be arranged in a series, the last member of which may reach far out into the lake and into deep water. Such lines must be extremely effective and almost completely obstruct the passage of larger fish. But perhaps the greatest ingenuity is shown in the methods of fastening the nets to the bottom. Usually stout stakes of oak or other wood are employed, varying in number, length and thickness according to requirements. Where the bottom is of mud, clay or sand, these are driven in by use of a piledriver, maul, or other means, for about six feet, more or less, according to the holding quality of the ground, force of current, etc. When the bottom is soft and the stakes small a man is often suspended in a sling from the top and the stake worked into the ground by swinging it back and forth. On sandy bottoms suctionpump and force-pump pile-drivers are times employed for driving the stakes. Where the bottom is very stony and the stakes difficult to drive and insecure in their hold, they are often supplemented by guy ropes attached to anchors, large stones, or large outlying piles. Anchored nets may be buoyed up by floats attached along the upper edge, and sometimes become practically floating pound-nets. Such nets, which are in use on the coast of Maine, are operated by a complex system of ropes. At places on the coast of Maine where the bottom is of solid rock it becomes necessary to attach the stakes to solid plank platforms weighted with heavy stones.

some

Trap-nets. Any form of enclosure employed in the capture of fish may be called a trap, and trap-net is frequently used as an equivalent of pound-net. The best usage of the term, however, is to indicate those forms of pound

nets which are especially adapted to deep waters or a considerable tidal rise and fall by the attachment to the upper margin of the nets of floats which keep it always level with the surface. When surface-swimming fish only are sought, the parts which correspond to the leaders and wings of pound-nets frequently hang suspended above the bottom. The whole is of course held in position by a suitable system of ropes, anchors and moorings. This type of apparatus is an approach to the floating gill-net, the sets of which are often arranged in the form of leaders and enclosures.

Methods of Operation.- The method of fishing and caring for pound-nets of course differs in details according to the locality and size of the net, tides, currents, disposition of catch and numerous other factors, but is essentially the same everywhere. Usually three or four men constitute a fishing-crew, who proceed to the net in a large scow-like boat. The first operation is to loosen the bottom-lines which keep the pound distended. This is done successively at each stake around the entire circumference of the pound. At a point especially designed as an entrance and usually situated at one side of the mouth of the pound, the edge of the net is then lowered just sufficiently to admit the boat, and immediately after its entrance is again raised. The mouth of the pound is then closed, and the men begin to lift the net and pile it in the boat, proceeding slowly forward, so that the fish are crowded into a continuously diminishing space. The area into which they are finally "bunted" is frequently constructed of stouter twine in order to withstand the strain imposed upon it by a large catch. The fish are then bailed out with dip-nets, either into the fishing boat or into another boat which has been stationed on the outside of the net or into the pocket at the side of the pound. Except under special circumstances, as when the fares are very small, or during the progress of severe storms, it is customary to fish pound-nets on every week-day, preferably at low water, or occasionally, when the run of valuable fish is unusually heavy, even twice a day.

Places and Seasons.- Notwithstanding the great ingenuity exercised, pound-net fishing has certain limitations. These devices can be effective only in the comparatively shallow waters in the proximity of shores or bars, and on relatively smooth bottoms, though the former difficulty has been somewhat overcome for certain classes of fishes by the invention of the floating trap and the latter by the construction of artificial floors. A more serious obstacle is their inability to withstand the beating of severe storms or heavy surf. The ideal location is in a sheltered bay or estuary, where the bottom slopes gently to a channel washed by strong tidal currents and serving as a roadway for migrating schools of valuable fishes. The absence of pound-nets from great stretches of our coast and their concentration at certain favored points is due more to these factors than to the distribution of valuable kinds of fishes. A very brief review of the geographical distribution of pounds and weirs may be given. Brush weirs are nearly peculiar to the fisheries of Maine and in the typical form are nearly restricted to the capture of herring on both the Canadian and American sides of Passamaquoddy Bay. Net

ting weirs are largely employed in the bays and rivers of Maine, on the north shore of Cape Cod, in Narragansett Bay, parts of Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, Albemarle Sound and the Great Lakes. Of true pound-nets a few are found on the coast of Maine, a great many in Vineyard Sound and other waters south of Cape Cod, where perhaps the most important pound fisheries of the country exist, some large ones in Long Island Sound and the neighborhood of New York harbor, others in the bays and even on the ocean front of New Jersey, in Delaware Bay and a very large number in Chesapeake Bay and the lower parts of its tributary rivers. The southernmost point on the Atlantic coast at which pound-nets are employed to any considerable extent is in Albemarle Sound. In the fisheries of the Great Lakes and especially at the western end of Lake Erie pound-nets are very extensively employed. On the Pacific coast they have been adopted only in the lower waters of the Columbia River, where they have now almost completely superseded the old form of wooden trap in the salmon fisheries. It will be observed that from the entire Gulf coast and the greater part of the southern Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States pound-nets are practically absent. Several years ago an attempt was made to use pound-nets on the coast of Texas, but the frequent tearing of the nets by sharks, large gars, etc., permitting the escape of the contents, led to their abandonment. It is quite probable, however, that this difficulty could be overcome by the construction of weirs of galvanized-iron wire-netting and that their employment in southern waters in the vicinity of large cities would prove extremely profitable. The prevalence of severe storms during the winter has rendered the operation of pound-nets feasible only in the warmer months and this also has prevented their use widely in the South, in many parts of which facilities for preservation and rapid transportation of fish are lacking. In most places the extreme limits of the fishing season are the months of April and November, and even within this period the nets are sometimes completely wrecked by storms; and on many days the more exposed nets are quite inaccessible even to the hardy and experienced fishermen who operate them.

Importance, Extent and Products.- If a classification of the fisheries of the United States according to the kind of apparatus employed were made, it is altogether probable that those conducted by means of pound-nets and weirs would rank first in the value of their product. While the complete data for an estimate of this sort are not available the great importance of this class of apparatus may be appreciated by a review of a few statistical facts relating to some of the fisheries in which it is employed. For the shad fishery, one of the most important of the Atlantic coast rivers and bays, the latest complete statistics published cover the year 1896. During that season 13,714,755 shad, having a value to the fishermen of $1,655.000, were taken by all kinds of apparatus. Of this number 3,139,830, valued at $361,632, were captured in the 3.810 pound-nets set especially for this purpose, and about 750,000 more from others from which returns were received. These nets were valued at $464,062 and 3,076 persons were employed in their operation. By far the most important cen

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eases are both usually brought on by neglect in the matter of food and drink. Pure water is one of the first essentials, and the fowls usually having an unnatural thirst, the pure water is an easy medium for administering some of the simple remedies, such as the Douglass mixture or a little carbolic acid in the water. With brooder chicks many of these irregularities of the bowels are caused solely by extremes of heat and cold. Chicks under three weeks old will scarcely endure day and night extremes of more than 15 or 20 degrees without manifesting bowel trouble, however carefully they may be fed. With mature fowls in confinement, a failure on the part of the attendant to provide them with grit, gravel, oyster-shell, and broken bone is a fruitful cause of these two diseases. Sour and rancid food will also cause diarrhoea, while fowls nearby fed on sound grains will be free from it.

(b) Roup. This is by far the most common disease to which our domestic fowls are subject. It is generally considered contagious, but the most careful experimenters have failed to identify the germ or to inoculate a well fowl from a diseased one. Still we advise caution, and recommend that affected birds be isolated. Roup being simply an aggravated cold which rapidly takes on the catarrhal form, prevention is most advisable. Under buildings we shall urge freedom from draughts and dampness, which are the most prolific causes. The bird taken in the early stages, kept warm and dry, fed liberally, and the throat and nasal passages sprayed with a weak solution of carbolic acid or an emulsion of unrefined petroleum, will generally recover. If he gets seriously ill, kill and bury him.

5. The Kinds of Food.-This is a subject on which volumes could be written. In brief, since analyses show that the egg and the body of the young bird are almost identical, we may conclude that the food that is best for egg production is almost the best also for the growing fowl. When the fowl is grown and is about ready to be fatted for market, then a different ration is best, as will be shown.

For either the growing chick or the eggproducing hen, in addition to the grits, bone, and shell already referred to, the best results are obtained by a liberal supply, in large variety of form, of the three following classifications of food:

(a) The Grains.-These are the natural food of our domestic fowls. They grow in such a variety in this country that there is no excuse for limiting our fowls to a scanty variety. Many erroneously suppose that what a hen picks up first is best for her. Throw down a few handfuls of corn, wheat, oats, and millet to a bunch of fowls and the corn will be taken first, the others in the order named. Notice that this is in the order of the size, instinct teaching them to take first that of which they can get the most in the shortest time. Now the corn is the grain that ordinarily should be fed the most sparingly. It is so rich in the carbonaceous, or fat-making, elements that it is neither a good egg-maker or a good flesh-producer. To feed to fowls thin in flesh or to feed on a very cold evening, to enable the fowls to keep up their temperature through a long night, corn is best.

Of all our grains we esteem oats the best Fowls do not take so kindly to oats as to wheat which we rank as second. Use these twc grains alternately. Do not mix your grains. Give them something different each time if possible. Kaffir corn is one of our very best poultry foods. Sorghum seed and broom-corn seed are very similar. Buckwheat and sunflower seed in moderate quantities are excellent. Never feed more grain than they will clean up in a few minutes, unless you bury it among the litter so that they must scratch and work for it. Better that your fowls be kept slightly hungry and in working condition than too fat.

There is not so much necessity for soft foods as most people imagine. With plenty of grit to do the grinding, fowls will do well a longer time on the grains fed whole than on any other rations. There are, however, two forms of the grains that we urge to be used freely, namely, common coarse bran constantly in boxes, dry, where the fowls, young and old, can get all they will eat of it, and ground oats. This last we like to feed mixed with bran for the middle-ofthe-day feed-the only time we think it advisable to feed soft, wet food.

(b) The Greens.-The hen at liberty, or in a state of nature, in summer consumes a large quantity of green, succulent food-clover, white clover, alfalfa, lawn-grass, plantain, and a score of other forms of greenness will be found in her full crop as she comes up to the perch at night. On such a ration, together with the grains she picks up, she does her best at the egg-basket, or puts on good flesh the most rapidly. This should teach us, therefore, what to supply her in the cold weather if we wish he to do then the work of summer. We must sup ply these green things to her. Cabbages and mangel wurtzels, one each hung in her pen, are good. Clover and alfalfa, harvested before the stalks have become woody, cut into short lengths, steamed or wet with hot water, and then dried out in part with the bran or chopped oats-this is the most dependable of all green foods in winter.

(c) The Meats.-"As full as an egg is of meat" is an old-time proverb. The white of an egg is largely albumen, and this is best supplied to the laying hen in some form of meat. The hen at liberty gets many a bug and worm. The hen in confinement must have these supplied if she is to produce eggs. The growing and fattening fowl also needs the meat in some form.

Avoid as far as possible the meat-meals of the trade, of uncertain origin and quite likely to be adulterated. Use the coarse granulated beef-scraps whose contents can generally be discovered. These, having been prepared by steam cooking, keep well in any climate. Add to these an abundant supply of clean-cut bone and the combination is cheaper, richer, and better than even the ground bone obtained by grinding fresh bones secured from the butcher.

(d) Fattening Fowls.-Where it is desired to quickly finish either young or old birds for the market, the crate-fattening process has no equal. Two birds are confined to a slatted coop two feet each way, and, for convenience in handling the droppings, the bottoms are slatted also. The most successful food is some skim milk or buttermilk, thickened to the consistency of batter with finely ground and sifted sats.