336 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



by -every family in the country. Most persons may not think it expe- 

 dient to keep enough to render any pecuniary profit to be received in 

 this way an object worthy of consideration. That there is a profit 

 from the eggs of hens, when properly managed, beyond what can be 

 derived from most branches of rural gain, according to the amount 

 invested, has been sufficiently proved. The profit of one hundred 

 hens in the year, properly managed, cannot be less than one hundred 

 dollars, after paying every expense attending them. But if there were 

 no pecuniary profit from them, the part they contribute in supplying 

 our tables with their most valuable stores, renders them indispensable. 

 True, it costs something to feed and shelter them ; and occasionally 

 they may interfere with some of our other interests, as well as occa- 

 sion us some vexations. Yet, how amply do they compensate us for 

 all this ! How much do they add to the cheerfulness and gaiety of 

 the farm ! Who can fail to be interested, and oftentimes delighted 

 with the ceaseless clatter of their commingled tones of joy for sunshine 

 and food ! Were it not for the pompous shouts of the gobler, and the 

 lordly crowing of Chanticleer, what an unchanged silence would now 

 and then reign about the farmer's door-yard ' But with that and the 

 perpetual cackling of an hundred hens, each daily leaving their nests 

 after laying, is a specimen of animated nature scarcely elsewhere to 

 be witnessed. 



PULVERIZATION. In Agriculture, the separation of the 

 earthy particles of soils, in such a manner as to render them of a fine 

 mellow mouldy quality, or to partake of the nature of powder. This 

 state of mould is obtained in different ways, as by frequent ploughing 

 and harrowing in the less stiff sorts of land ; and in those of the more 

 heavy and retentive descriptions, by the same means, and the fre- 

 quent exposure of them to the influence and effects of the atmosphere, 

 with the growth of such sorts of crops as produce a close thick shade 

 upon them. This state of the soil, when produced in lands, has 

 various advantages, the roots of plants penetrate it with more readi- 

 ness and greater facility. It admits of the particles of moisture more 

 equally, and in a more extensive manner, by which the fibrous roots 

 of the crops are more fully supplied with nourishment. It likewise 

 produces a more equal and regular mixture of the different materials 

 of which the soils are constituted and composed, so as to yield the 

 nutrition of plants in a more extensive and abundant manner. The 

 rains in the vernal months are also, by this means, more abundantly 

 drank up and retained, in consequence of their sinking to a greater 

 depth, as well as more equally diffused through the different parts, 

 from which much advantage is derived in the support of the crops. 

 By this fineness in the particles of the soils, the manures, or other 

 ameliorating substances, are also more extensively and more perfectly 

 blended and incorporated with them, and of course a more equal and 

 abundant supply of nutritious materials provided for the growth and 



