DIGEST OF STATE REPORTS. 401 



country, and f arn. 'ers may \rant to kno-n' whether it will pay to buy and use them. The 

 Sheffield Scientific , School of Connecticut has done the farmers of the East good service 

 by analyzing these a '^^"res— the superphosphates, guanos, &c.— showing their compo- 

 Bition and real cash va ^^^^- The same kind of work must be done in this State if farm- 

 ers are to receive the as. 'distance which they have a right to demand. * » ' # # 



The chemist may aid x li« farmer by showing the value of manural matters within 

 his reach, enabling him to . 'secure at home what is now imported at such great expense 

 from abroad. 



Of a recent important tliscovery in agricultnral chemistry lie says : 



Three years ago, Deherain,.of l^ance, made the important discovery that when vege- 

 table matter undergoes decomposii'iOQ in presence of some alkaline substance it com- 

 bines -wjith free nitrogen and retains it in a fixed form. This has been confirmed at the 

 Sheffield Scientific School, and science' will yet point out the means by which the farmer 

 may make at home all the combined ni,*^^rogen he wants. This discovery will be worth 

 more than the discovery of a thousand giiano-beds in the far-off Pacific. 



Prof. A. J. Cook, of the State i^'gricultural college, contributes an 

 illustrated paper on insects injurious to the farm, garden, and orchard. 



In an essay on the breeding and improvement of horses Mr. G. W.* 

 Sherman speaks of the importance and profits of rearing better horses' 

 as follows : ' 



First, call our common stock of horses worth on the average $150 each. Compare 

 this with the price Mr. Bonner paid for Dexter, $34,750, and you have a' surplus of 

 $34,600 in favor of fine breeding. This is no stretch of imagination. The line is cor- 

 rectly drawn, even if it should overtax credulity. Neither is this an isolated case nor 

 drawn at its full extreme. There have been sales made since lyjr. Bonner purchased 

 Dexter where parties have paid $30,000. Time would fail me in joinc over the list of 

 sales running into thousands. While on this head, it might be '■.he proper place to 

 mention some of the breeds of those famous equines and the fabulo^a prices paid to 

 some of these noble sires. First on the calendar is Mr. Rysdeck's Hamiltonian and the 

 sire of Dexter. This horse has been standing in Orange County the jast season for 

 $500 a mare, $250 required to be paid down ; while many of his tiescen<iaat8 are stand- 

 ing in other places and States for $200 and $300 per mare. I shall not t^ave time to 

 call your attention to all the notables in the horse family. Their namec ope being 

 handed down to us on pages of history. I will pass over the history of the Aii^jican 

 Eclipse and the Old Messenger — rival horses in their day — whose very names are alu^gj; 

 hallowed to all horse-connoisseurs. Next I will mention the OldHiU Black Hawk ana 

 Wadsworth Henry Clay ; few of the latter-day horses have left a more numerous or 

 better grade of colts. The old Green Mountain Morgan, the Bulrush Morgan, the 

 Stockbridge Chief, and Kimball Jackson head the list among the prominent horses, 

 and have bequeathed to us a legacy we ought to cherish and to regenerate. Had we 

 not been derelict in obeying the organic laws of horse-physiology, we should not have 

 allowed the race to become so degenerated. There is no truer saying than like begets 

 like. Had we, as a nation, been as mindful in propagating our brute creation as we have 

 in selecting and propagating our vegetables, we should have none of those walking 

 dictionaries of all tlie diseases that hOrse-flesh is heir to, in one volume, badly bound. 



Mr. O. F. Miller, in a paper on poultry-raising, contributes some val- 

 uable suggestions. After alluding to the small cost of raising and fat- 

 tening chickens, he gives directions for their proper care, the kind of food 

 they should have, and the most profitable varieties to raise. He says 

 that a poultry-house should be located on gravel or dry sandy loam. 

 Stagnant water should be avoided. It should be built facing the south, 

 if possible, and if on a side-hill sloping to the south, all the better. It 

 should be made warm and dry, and so constructed that it can ba easily 

 cleaned out, which should be done quite often. Fowls should be per- 

 mitted to range at liberty a greater portion of the time. Their nests 

 should be constructed so as to admit of easy access, and should be kept 

 comparatively dark, and so made that they can enter them unperceived 

 and lay without fear of being disturbed. They should not be confined 

 to one variety of food the whole winter. The food should be changed 

 every few days, or two kinds of food a day is still better; say a feeding 

 of corn in the morning and a feeding of oats or barley in the evening, 

 26 A 



