THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



S87 



sprouted graiu and sprouted pulse, because the starch is 

 then converted into sugar. Therefore, as tlie corn comes 

 up, feed them with germinated corn, and so save them the 

 work of injuring your plant by plucking it up as it pushes 

 from the soil. A full-grown pheasant will, during winter, 

 consume at least "2 ounces of corn daily. 



I beg to express my conviction, contrary to the general 

 opinion, that rabbits and hares can be much more econo- 

 mically fed as game than pheasants. The former will have 

 few competitors for their food, which will in fact be nearly 

 all consumed by them ; but it is far otherwise with phea- 

 sanls, for every peck of barley and beans consumed by them, 

 probably as much or more will be eaten by small birds and 

 woodpigeons which are by feeding attracted in large numbers. 

 A friend of mine, who keeps (51) pheasants on about an acre 

 of ground, planted and netted over, finds that they cost him 

 about i'lj annually for food ; but when he turned down a 

 number in his wood, and fed them there, the expense was 

 very greatly increased, and he discovered that they had 

 many competitors for their food. He therefore considers it 

 cheaper to rear and turn down pheasants, than to keep so 

 many wild. Probably the most economical way of feeding 

 pheasants is with those self-acting iron troughs, which open 

 only when the pheasants perch upon them. Beans and In- 

 dian corn are too large to be eaten by very small birds, and 

 therefore more economical than barley. 



There are seasons in the year when viinged game benefit 

 the farmer by the destruction of an immense number and 

 variety of flies, grubs, and insects. High farming is a good 

 protection against game damage. The poor miserable un- 

 remunerative crops of undrained and ill-farmed heavy lands 

 Bufl'ered immensely the last cold and wet season by game 



damage, the protracted harvest exposing the crops for many 

 weeks to depredations by game and other wild birds. 

 Yours, truly, 



March, 186\. J. J. Mecui. 



I'.S. — A friend shot a full-sized woodpigeon to-day, and 

 on opening his crop 1 counted out 11 full-sized beans. As 

 •'50 average beans weigh an ounce, and as at 10s. per quarter 

 every pound of beans would be worth a penny, it follows 

 that this pigeon would consume annually (at 11 beans per 

 day) 11,9G0 beans, weighing 198 ounces, or 111 pounds, 

 which, at Id. per pound, would be 2s. 7d. annually for one 

 pigeon. Whether this pigeon had finished his dinner or 

 not, 1 cannot say, or whether he breakfasted and supped as 

 well as dined; but, at any rate, 41 appear to be his mini- 

 mum number. JNIy friend says that a woodpigeon would 

 consume that number twice a-day. I should recommend 

 poultry fanciers to weigh the corn consumed by their fowh 

 daily, and then they could estimate the profits or loss es o 

 feeding. If a pheasant consumes 'i ounces of corn daily, it 

 would amount to os. ltd. annually. This expense may lie 

 much more than doubled if other birds are to share in their 

 food. If any farmer has to feed 1,000 pheasants annually 

 from his growing and ripened crops, it would be a very 

 serious affair. Farmers should take especial care to cover 

 their corn well by harrowing, or they may lose much of their 

 plant by woodpigeons, rooks, and game. 



[This is, perhaps, the most absurd and suicidal production 

 ever written by any man aspiring to the position Mr. Mechi 

 assumes, that of an Agricultural Teacher. The two great 

 points of the letter are, that shooting tame pheasants is a 

 commendable British sport, and fattening hares and rabbits 

 on swedes and mangels a farming economic ! — Ed F.M. ] 



THE ECONOMY OF POWER. 



Sources of large profit are so strange to the farmer 

 that the revelation of anything like Aladdins' lamps or 

 unexpected nuggets will be most safely made to him by 

 degrees, as he may be found able to bear them. So often 

 have over-sanguine expectations of enthusiastic minds, 

 and conclusions from mere estimate and coloured asser- 

 tion, proved miserably deceptive — particularly in such 

 matters as deep drainage, purchased cattle-foods, and 

 hydiaulic manuring — that wonderful results, declared 

 from whatever quarter, are likely to provoke the deri- 

 sion of the incredulous, and to be viewed by shrewd 

 busines.s-men as dubious and overdrawn. It certainly 

 is not fair to class every extraordinary result among 

 the shams which afford the commercial world an oppor- 

 tunity for ridiculing and decrying the stolid farmer, 

 and the landlords an excuse for screwing up their rents; 

 but still there are grave reasons why we should hesitate 

 to publish miraculous increases of yield or loweiing of 

 expenses without ample caution and qualification, and 

 we should have an eye to the extent to which the ma- 

 chine, the process, or the management producing the 

 alleged gain, may be applied by the farmer generally. 

 For, while on the one hand a great proportion of our 

 agriculturists hold land with a very deficient amount 

 of capitul, and are unable to invest in heavy improve- 

 ments, on the other hand there are not a few hungry 

 proprietors eager to extort more rent under the pretext 

 that their tenantry ought to mint money, according to 

 the papers, by the modern inventions and discoveries. 

 Both forget that our new mechanical and chemical 

 me&n9 of mor« profitable husbanclry domand first ot 



all an adequate capital on the part of the tenant, and a 

 like liberal application of capital by the landlord; for 

 no tenant can reasonably adopt a £700 steam-plough, 

 a costly meat manufacture, a high artificial manuring, 

 or venture upon a Lois Weedon annual whent-crop, 

 unless the landowner provides a perfect drainage by 

 pipe and water-course, farm-buildings fitted with the 

 needful machinery and convenient appliances, freedom 

 for the tenant to make the most of the soil, and security 

 for his recovering what he may invest in high manage- 

 ment. Great advances upon our present modes of 

 husbandry ought to be quietly and unostentatiously 

 introduced ; yet the difficulty is to awaken the attention 

 of the farmer toa great improvement without chronicling 

 results and publishing glowing accounts calculated to 

 " open the eyes of landlords" before the tenantry had 

 time to profit by the novel discovery. Hence, we 

 may have unintentionally erred in announcing too ab- 

 ruptly the wonderful powers latent in the steam-plouah, 

 and calculating upon future profits too startling to 

 be committed to the agricultural mind all at once. 

 Perhaps the press might better help the cause of steam 

 culture by recording results as they arise, than by com- 

 puting future gains to be derived from the deeper and 

 more perfect tillage — no matter how reasonable may 

 be the figures of such an estimate. George Stephen- 

 son vouched for only ten miles an hour for his first 

 locomotive, though he knew it would run more than 

 double the pace; and we, following his wise example, 

 instead of reckoning upon so many bushels per acre as 

 the future increuee in produce from steam ploughing, 



