Vol. III. No. 66. 



THE AGRICULTUEAL NE^YS. 



343 



POULTRY NOTES. 



The following notes are taken from the Farm 

 Jourmd of Pliiladelphia : — 



In killing lice on chicks, quick work can be done by 

 taking a machine-oil can filled with lubricating oil and 

 putting a drop or two on each chick's head. 



For diarrhoea, or cholera, in hens, ducks, or turkeys, 

 give a weak solution of copperas, say a jiiece as large a.s 

 a pea to a tea-cupful of water. If they have real cholera 

 they will readily drink this, if given to them for drinking 

 water. 



Canker in fowls can be successfully treated by washing 

 the head and eyes, and rinsing out the mouth and throat, 

 with a dilute solution of chlorate of potash and alum, equal 

 parts. Ilemove the ulcers with a quill and apply powdered 

 burnt alum to the places left liare. Repeat twice a day. 

 Isolate the sick fowl. 



Pip is not a disea.se : it is a condition. A hard 

 .substance develops ou the tongue, which interferes with the 

 partaking of food, especially hard grains. Anoint the 

 tongue with glycerine, repeating the treatment several times 

 in succession, and a cure is generally effected. 



Breeding Turkeys. 



In Farmers' Bulletin No. 200, of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, 'Turkeys: Standard 

 varieties and Management,' the following observations 

 are made on the selection and treatment of breeding 

 stock ; — 



There are some rules that must be followed in the 

 selection of turkeys for breeding, if it is hoped to succeed 

 Careless neglect has given no end of trouble to turkey raisers. 

 In some instances, which the writer has investigated, all 

 the turkeys owned in one locality have descended from the 

 one original pair imrchased many years before. If this 

 foolish procedure had been continued, it would have resulted 

 in the destruction of the constitutional vigour of the turkeys. 



A few plain rules which may be observed to advantage 

 are as follows: — 



Always use as breeders turkey hens over one year old. 

 '. Be sure they are strong, healthy, and vigorous, and of good, 

 medium size. In no instance select the smaller ones. Do 

 not strive to have them unnaturally large. 



The male may he a yearling or older. Do not imagine 

 that the large, overgrown males are the best. Strength, 

 health, and vigour, with well-proiiortioned size, are the main 

 points of excellence. 



Avoid close breeding. New lilood is of vital importance 

 to turkeys. Better send a thousand miles for a new male 

 than to lisk the chances of inln-eeding. 



AFRICAN RUBBER. 



follows, writes a correspondent: 'After the milk has been 

 collected and brought to the house, a smoke fire is made, 

 over which a funnel is placed, then a stick is cut, made to 

 the .shaiie of a paddle, which is dipped in the milk and then 

 held over the top of the funnel in the smoke. When dry, 

 another dip is taken and again dried, and .so on, until the 

 rubber round the paddle becomes an inch or so thick, or 

 even less. If too heavy to handle, then a knife is taken and 

 a cut made down the rubber into the wood, which enables 

 the product to be taken from the paddle. The rubber, 

 which is tlren [mt on one side, is ready for the market. The 

 same process is again rejieated until all the rubber has been 

 cured. The process should be slow ; by smoke onli/, not by 

 fire. The difl'erence between Para and African rubber is 

 similar to that between a loaf of bread just made up into 

 dough and a loaf that has been through the oven ancl been 

 properly baked. In other words, while the substance is the 

 same the one is an imperfect article ; the other a finished 

 one, so far as the production of rubber is concerned.' 



The East African Qaarterlt/ (Vol. I, no. 2) 

 reproduces from the Anf/ln- African Arr/us the follow- 

 ing interesting note on African rubber : — ■ 



The c|uestion of making West African rubber more 

 marketable is now exercising the minds of merchants engaged 

 in that trade. The rubber that comes from Para (South 

 America) fetches on the English market double the price of 

 that product from West Africa. The only reason for this is 

 the different method of curing the rubber when taken from 

 the tree^a very simple process. The way to effect it is as 



SCIENCE NOTES. 



Fixation of Atmospheric Nitrogen. 



On p. 279 of this volume of the Agricultural Netvs we 

 dealt with the subject of the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen 

 by means of chemical agency, stating that experiments con- 

 ducted in Germany had demonstrated that a substance 

 known as calcium cyanamide could be prepared on a com- 

 mercial scale and used as a fertilizer. 



In his address at the recent meeting of the British 

 Association, Dr. Wni. Somerville, Chairman of the sub-section, 

 Agriculture, dealt at considerable length with this subject. 

 He stated that it had long been the dream of chemists to 

 discover a chemical process, ca[)able of industrial application, 

 whereby the nitrogen of the atmosphere could be made 

 available to supplement the rather limited supplies of 

 nitrogenous manures. Sir Wm. Crookes looked hopefully to 

 electricity to solve the i>roblem. He pointed out that with 

 current costing -^.-d. per unit — a rate possible when large 

 natural sources of power, like Niagara, were available — the 

 cost of .such artificial nitrate of soda need not be more than 

 £o per ton. In Germany it had been estimated that the 

 cost of electric nitrate, as compared with Chili nitrate, 

 would be in the ])roportion of 24 to 39. 



That good progress had also been made in another 

 direction in the commercial fixation of atmospheric nitrogen 

 viz., by the jn-eparation of the substance calcium cyanamide, 

 already referred to, was shown l:>y the results published by 

 Professor Gerlach, of Posen. 



' So far,' said Dr. Somerville, ' as one might judge from 

 the information available, it would appear that agriculture 

 would not have long to wait till it was placed in the 

 possession of new supplies of that most powerful agent of 

 production, nitrogen.' 



Wrapping Fruit. Every year we are learning to 

 put up our fruit with more care. The improvement comes 

 both with the fruit grower and with the consumer. The 

 market is becoming more refined, and customers are willing 

 to pay more for a fancy article put up in a tasteful fashion. 

 The use of the box for shipping apples is a step in this 

 direction, and the wrapping of the individual fruits in paper 

 is another step. Experience this year has .shown this last 

 step to be a very important one, for it materially increased 

 the prices realized. (^Southern Planter.) 



