THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



337 



slide below the lower bar, so as to retain the ducks 

 in unfavourable weather. A space of 10 or 12 feet 

 square, formed of common boards set up edgewise, 

 will, when you have not much room in your yard, 

 suffice for fifty ducks. Keep making coops in pro- 

 portion as your ducks increase in numbers, and 

 endeavour to keep the different sizes separate. The 

 first brood, early in the spring, requires for a few 

 days the warmth of the hen's body; and she should 

 not be made to take care of more than twenty or 

 thirty. A little later in the season, the young that 

 are tiien hatched do not require the services of 

 their foster-mother, and may, from the beginning, 

 be placed in a coop by themselves, to the number 

 of fifty. Young Muscovy ducks may be treated 

 in the same way, and they and the mongrels and 

 English ducks may all be indiscriminately reared 

 together. As soon as your young ducks are 

 hatched, let them be placed together for a few hours 

 in a basket containing some warm inside lining; 

 and when they have sufficient strength, place them 

 with the hen in the coops ; feed them with meat or 

 animal food of any kind, chopped fine with a com- 

 mon chopping knife ; for convenience I have 

 usually had it boiled ; a little rice-fiour or corn 

 meal may be mixed with it, and the latter may be 

 increased if you have but little meat. Let this be 

 continued for three weeks, and they are out of 

 danger, and can be raised on any kind of food 



Still it is to be observed that ducks will, in all cases, 

 thrive better on animal food; and where this can be 

 conveniently obtained, it may as well be given 

 them. Those planters who live near our seacoast, 

 by running a tijrht board fence across any small 

 branch of salt water, and placing in the centre a 

 fish trap made of laths, can easily procure a 

 sufficient quantity of fishes and crabs to feed all 

 their young poultry. A man with a cast-net could 

 in half an hour do the same. I have known per- 

 sons in the interior of the country substitute 

 squirrels, rabbits, and even venison ; and one 

 gentleman fed his young ducks on the fiesli of 

 alligators, thus rendering that which was a nui- 

 sance subservient to his profit. When your young 

 ducks begin to be tolerable feathered on the sides, 

 which will be in five or six weeks, they may 

 then be turned into the common poultry-yard, 

 always bearing in mind that those which are 

 best feJ and obtain most animal food thrive the 

 fastest. 



I have not treated of diseases to which ducks are 

 subject, since by the above treatment I have 

 generally found them healthy. As this is a long 

 essay, and may be too great a tax on your readers 

 to peruse, I would give in a single line the sub- 

 stance of my directions for the successful rearing 

 of young ducks : Crive them animal food, and 

 keep them dry, — American " Southern Cultivator." 



HOW GOOD AND BAD HARVESTS COME IN SUCCESSION. 



A lecturer upon astronomy the other day astonished 

 his audience by stating that the prices in Mark-lane 

 were greatly influenced by spots distinguishable upon 

 the face of the sun. These he went on to describe 

 as continuing to increase in number for the space of 

 upwards of five years together, until about three 

 hundred became observable, when in like manner they 

 would again decrease through another period of time, 

 the temperature of the earth being diminished or in- 

 creased in corresponding ratio. This is pretty much 

 in accordance with the prevailing opinion that good 

 and bad crops are produced in cycles, which have how- 

 ever been ascribed to embrace periods of seven years 

 each, instead of five years' duration, as here stated. 

 Whether it be one or the other, or neither, remains yet 

 to be ascertained ; and this can only be accomplished 

 by comparing results extending over a number of years 

 together. It is quite certain that some operating cause 

 continues to produce several fine seasons in succession, 

 and bad ones inversely. This effect will most probably 

 be hereafter traced to electricity, which is acknow- 

 ledged to be the active agent directly producing atmos- 

 pheric phenomena. 



Upon looking back to our journal we perceive that 

 1831 was the concluding year of a series of seven wet 

 and cold seasons preceding; and 1832 the first of a 

 series of years unprecedented for productiveness, which 

 continued with but little variation until 1840 and 1841, 

 both of which were wet seasons, while 1842 was re- 

 markably warm and dry. And so likewise were 1846 

 and 1847 : in the former year the potato murrain first 

 appeared ; the crop up to the 27th July had shown no 



symptoms of disease ; but the temperature, which up 

 to that time had been very high, suddenly fell, accom- 

 panied by heavy rain. 1849 and 1850 were wet and 

 unproductive seasons, and 1855 variable, but mostly 

 backward, until 1857, one of the most genial and dry 

 seasons on record, and attended with great productive- 

 ness. Upon tracing still further back, we find the year 

 1816 associated with an extraordinary wet and late sea- 

 son and harvest; then 1817 fair; 1818 hot andunpre- 

 cedentedly dry ; 1819, 1820, and 1821, mostly cold and 

 moist; 1822 fine, and an abundant crop. So far we 

 have data; which, upon examining closely, we find 

 that taking seven years previous to 1832 the seasons 

 were wet, cold, and unproductive; from 1832 they 

 were mostly dry, and all of them productive; ante- 

 cedent and subsequent to these periods they were 

 so variable that no continuous series can be traced 

 sufficiently to corroborate the theory we are investi- 

 gating. The winters most remarkable for severity are 

 1814, 1823-4, 1827, 1839-40, and the summers from 

 1824 to 1831 were exceedingly wet and cold, especially 

 at the latter end of May and to the middle of June— all 

 of them being unfruitful. 



So far it appears that thoproduetivenessof our green 

 crops is mainly dependent upon the state of the weather 

 from March until the middle of June, and more espe- 

 cially upon the temperature during the month of June, 

 that is from the 1st to the 21st. A dry May is very 

 conducive to the formation of a full-grown wheat- 

 ear, and a dry and warm temperature in Juno for 

 bringing it to perfection. Whenever the temperature of 

 the weather is such as to bring it quickly forward at that 



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