Insect food is important to fowls, and essential for chickens and laying hens. "There is no sort of insect, perhaps," says Mr. Dickson, "which fowls will not eat. They are exceedingly fond of flies, beetles, grasshoppers, and crickets, but more particularly of every sort of grub, caterpillar, and maggot, with the remarkable exception of the caterpillar moth of the magpie (_Abraxas Grossularia_), which no bird will touch." M. Reaumur mentions the circumstance of a quantity of wheat stored in a corn-loft being much infected with the caterpillars of the small corn-moth, which spins a web and unites several grains together. A young lady devised the plan of taking some chickens to the loft to feed on the caterpillars, of which they were so fond that in a few days they devoured them all, without touching a single grain of the corn. Mr. Dickson observes, that "biscuit-dust from ships' stores, which consists of biscuit mouldered into meal, mixed with fragments still unbroken, would be an excellent food for poultry, if soaked in boiling water and given them hot. It is thus used for feeding pigs near the larger seaports, where it can sometimes be had in considerable quantity, and at a very reasonable price. It will be no detriment to this material if it be full of weevils and their grubs, of which fowls are fonder than of the biscuit itself." There is not any food of which poultry generally are so fond as of earthworms; but all fowls are not equally fond of them, and some will not touch them. They will not eat dead worms. Too many ought not to be given, or they will become too fat and cease laying. When fowls are intended for the table worms should not be given, as they are said always more or less to deteriorate the flavour of the flesh. A good supply may easily be obtained. By stamping hard upon the ground, as anglers do, worms will rise to the surface; but a better method is to thrust a strong stake or a three-pronged potato-fork into the ground, to the depth of a foot or so, and jerk it backwards and forwards, so as to shake the soil all around. By going out with a light at night in calm, mild weather, particularly when there is dew, or after rain, a cautious observer will see large numbers of worms lying on the ground, gravel-walks, grass-plots or pastures; but they are easily frightened into their holes, though with caution and dexterity a great number, and those chiefly of the largest size, may be captured. Mr. Dickson advises that cottagers' children should be employed to imitate the example of the rooks, by following the plough or the digger, and collecting the worms which are disclosed to view; and also to collect cock-chafers, "and, what would be more advantageous, they might be set to collect the grubs of this destructive insect after the plough, and thus, while providing a rich banquet for the poultry, they would be clearing the fields of a most destructive insect."