1837] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



331 



to assume a rich healthy appearance, and is an 

 excellent application after a crop of potatoes or 

 parsnips, both of which require land to be richly 

 dressed wiih stable or other stron>^ niamires, and 

 has not the eH'ect of decomposing them, us lime 

 does. 



" [t is also destructive to insects and their efri?s, 

 which lie in the soil or turf; it forces the earth- 

 worms and wire-worms from their lurking places 

 to come to the surface and die ; particularly When 

 laid on in a larijer quantity than I have named, 

 some farmers beinfj in the habit of putiinir on 

 double, even treble the quantity above stated — 

 bit I believe without havinsr produced proportion- 

 ahly larixer crops from inferior land; though it has 

 been asserted that its etl'ect is very permanent, 

 bciniif especially apparent on the succeeding clover 

 crops. 



" I am inclined to believe that paring and burn- 

 injran old ley will almost produce an equidlygood 

 e(li?ct where the land is suited Ibr it ; for although 

 the ashes may not be ol' that superior quality, or 

 possessing all those virtues peculiar to kelp ashes, 

 and the much greater portion of ashes that can by 

 this means be spread on the land may make 

 amends in quantity for quality. 



" An additional circumstance in favor of parino; 

 and burning is, that all the seeds or weeds, or the 

 eggs and insects which lie concealed in the turfj 

 are thereby destroyed more efTectually than by 

 any repeated ploughings. 



'•The careful ex|)erience of five years on this 

 head has convinced me of the propriety of (his 

 practice occasionally, especially on ground infested 

 with couch or knot-grass. From three acres of 

 land that had been pared and burned, which pro- 

 duced five hundred and forty smgle horse loads of 

 ashes, I obtained a very heavy crop of turnips : the 

 followinffyear I raised ninety-one thousand pounds 

 of potatoes, and by an application ofabout forty-five 

 bushels of lime per acre, I have since reaped fifty- 

 one imperial bushels of wheat per acre ; the straw 

 also was of very fine growth, five feet high, and 

 exceedingly white and bright. 



"Kelp ashes should lay on the surface of the 

 soil a month or two previous to sowing time, in 

 order to weaken their caustic power, or they are 

 otherwise apt to burn the young and tender shoots 

 of the corn, as well as the larvie of insects ; but by 

 laying a certain length of time on the surliice ex- 

 posed to the action of the atmosphere, or perhaps, 

 what would be better pract.ce, merely liirhily 

 turned into the soil, they become eminently bene- 

 ficial. 



"I am so partial to the use of ashes, that I 

 should recommend those who have lar<re woods or 

 forests to employ women and children to collect the 

 dry and broken boughs and under shrubs to be 

 burned for the sake of the ashes, which would be 

 found nearly equal to those of the sea-weed, and 

 could thus be procured at a much cheaper rate ; 

 besides gaining the advantage of converting what 

 is now wasted, or neglected, into a most valuable 

 and permanent manure, perfectly free from weeds, 

 and destructive to insects and worms. 



" Ashes are further beneficial, inasmuch as they 

 attract the moisture from togs and dews, and retain 

 it a considerable length of time. 



"Lime is so well understood as a manure for 

 wheat, that it would be a mere waste of time to 

 say more on the subject than as far as my own 



I experience goes, it appears to impart n greater 

 ilcgree of whiteness lo the straw than any other 



i miuiiire. Its other excellent (lualities cfnl)sorbing 

 moisture from the atmosphere in dry weather, on 



j lijrht or (jravelly soils, and increasing the weight 

 of the fjrain, are well understood ; it is to be la- 

 mented that some general rule for its application is 

 not made known, as, in the best books I have 

 consulted on the subject, if varies in the extraordi- 

 tiary [jroportion from fifty-six lo five hundred 



j bushels per acre, which last appears to me to be 

 an absurd quantity. 



" I have found it to answer perfectly at the rate 

 of forty or fli'ty bushels an acre on a ixood loam, 

 and I should apprehend that double that quantity 

 ouiiht to be sufficient Ibr the poorest land, unless it 

 be to destroy moss, when a still larger top dressing 

 is required, which, if well harrowed in, does it 

 effectually. This commixture of turf and lime, if 

 soon after ploughed in, in turn, becomes itself a 

 rnanure Ibr the very soil the turfpreviously render- 

 ed barren. 



" Soot is said to be an excellent top-dressing. I 

 have tried it but once, without having perceived 

 the advantageous results that are said to be de- 

 rivable from it ; it is only in the environs of towi^s 

 or villages that it can be obtained in sufficient 

 quantity to be available to a large farmer." 



AN EXTRAORDINARY MODE OF HATCHING 

 CHICKENS. 



No one, whilst at Ghizeh, should omit seeing 

 the chicken manvfactnry, where two old men per- 

 lijrm the maternal duties of as many thousands of 

 the ffallinaceous tribe. The eggs are spread out 

 on a flat surface of clay, in ovens, kept of course, 

 night and day, at a uniform degree of heat. The 

 old men visit their charge constantly, turning the 

 egi^s with long poles, so as to bring every part of 

 their surlaces in occasional contact with the clay 

 bottom of the oven, which is somewhat warmer 

 than the atmosphere. It is an extraordinary sight ! 

 Every instant some little animal, in his struugles 

 to enter this world of troubles, bursts its shell, and 

 starts into life, (an orphan from his birth !) keep- 

 ing the surfiice in a constant state of agitation. — 

 They are immediately taken out of the oven, 

 placed in baskets, and sold by measure — every old 

 woman in the neighborhood buying a pottle of the 

 miserable little creatures to take home and dry 

 nurse, until they are of an age to shift for them- 

 selves. 1 believe this method of hatching chickens 

 is common throughout Egypt, althousih I cannot 

 state on my own authority, that such is the case ; 

 if so, it may account for the degeneracy of the 

 breed of fowls, for they are invariably small, 

 though the egcs are not much less than those 

 usually met with in other countries. — ScotVs 

 Rambles in Egypt and Candia. 



From tlie Fanner's Magazine. 

 TAPE WORM IN THE POINTER AND SPANIEL. 



On an estate where a orreat quantity of rabbits 

 are annually destroyed in the month of November, 

 1 have observed that several dogs who were pre- 

 viously in ifood health and condition, soon became 

 weak, listless, and excessively emaciated, fre- 

 quently passing large portions of the tape-worm : 

 this induced me to examine the intestines of 



