496 



FARMERS' REGISTER-CHUMMING BIRD— QUERIES. 



if the member of the family to whom he applied 

 was engaged and not ready to attend him, he 

 would t^y over and over again to excite attention, 

 by flying into diflerent apartments of the house, 

 and buzzing wilhm a lew inches of our liices. 

 "Peel's" solicitations generally succeeded, as the 

 younger brandies of the family were delighted in 

 attending to him. He appeared to be more tbnd 

 of syrup when made thick than any other food 

 which was offered to him. If it \vas too mucli 

 diluted, after sipping a little he would fly to his 

 resting place and Avait until it was altered. We 

 also at times gave him sugar and cream, wine 

 and water mixed whh sugar, and once some honey 

 obtained from an humblebee's nest, which it ap- 

 peared to treat with great contempt. 



Sometimes when he was fluttering around the 

 flower held outside of the doorway, a stranger of 

 the same species, having less confidence inhuman 

 nature, would dart at the little fellow and drive 

 him away, as if anxious for him to escape from so 

 perilous a situation. But it only had a momentary 

 effect on our little friend, as he would return with 

 as confiding an assurance of safety as before. His 

 little twittering r.oise and averted eye, as he mo- 

 mentarily withdrew his flower, appeared to say 

 surely thou wilt not hurt me. After he had visited 

 us every day so frequently for about three weeks, 

 and had been admired by numerous persons, he 

 disappeared on the 11th of last month, being fed 

 about the middle of the day, v.diich was the last 

 time he was seen. As the wild humming birds 

 which were quite numerous before, disappeared 

 about the same time, it is probable he ac- 

 companied them to more southern regions. As 

 we were on terms of the most friendly kind, it is 

 hoped our little traveller will again revisit us alter he 

 has finished his perigrinations among the flowers 

 of the south, as it is very doubtful whether he v/ill 

 find them as sweet as he did the honey suckles of 

 JPelaware county. 



M. M. 



JVinth mo. Alh, 1834, 



[We have heard several unquestionable statements 

 which concur with the i'br,-going in proving that the 

 humming bird may be easily tamed. When taken full 

 grown, they will soon begin to eat, and become famil- 

 iar. A young lady of oui acquaintance, has at differ- 

 ent times reared two young humming birds which were 

 brought to her in their nests. They fed on a mixture 

 of honey and water, sucked from a vial. Both very 

 soon became perfectly tame, and required no confine- 

 ment, except to protect them from the cat, whicli killed 

 one after it could fly. The other lived longer. It was 

 fully grown before it disappeared, and had several 

 times visited the adjacent woods, and was seen with 

 companions of its kind, but would return when sought 

 for, and suffer itself to be taken by the hand of its mis- 

 tress. It was not confined, and the cause of its disap- 

 pearance, during the same summer, was not known. 

 Perhaps, the time had arrived for it to seek its winter 

 home in a more southern region. 



The flowers of the coral or native honey suckle of 

 Virginia are, of all, the most attractive to humming 

 birds, or furnish the liquid food on which they live, in 

 most abundance. A large vine of this honey suckle 

 when in bloom, will seldom (in fine weather) be with- 



out one or more of these little visiters: and if the vine 

 is trained near the windows, they will often enter the 

 house — and might perhaps be induced to repeat their 

 visits, and be easily rendered tame. We recom- 

 mend to some of the young ladies who (we hope) are 

 readers of the Register, to attempt the domestication of 

 the hummingbird. What other pets could compare ia 

 interest with this most beautiful of nature's works, 

 which seems scarcely to belong to the earth? The de- 

 licacy of its form, the brilliancy and variety of its co- 

 lors, and the singular beauty of its movements, are be- 

 yond what the most vivid imagination could have con- 

 ceived, if the reality was unknown. If Marmontel's 

 romantic Elise could have seen a humming bird enter 

 her viiiidow, she would have reaHily believed it to be 

 the form assumed by her sylph lover — and certainly no 

 material form more appropriate could be imagined, in 

 which to embody such an etherial being.] 



QUERIES ON STONE FENCES, GYPSU3I AND 

 LIME. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Campbell County, November 18th, 1834. 



I am just commencing a system of improve- 

 ment, and as I have no experience of my own to 

 guide me, I am compelled to avail mj'self^ so far 

 as it is practicable, of the lights of others. In the 

 country where I live, agriculture is, as yet, in a 

 rude and primitive state. The great bulk of our 

 cuhivators have made no effort to reclaim their 

 exhausted lands, and are stdl practising the same 

 unskilful and destructive tillage, by which our 

 state has been so completely impoverished. The 

 ihw who, like myself, are attempting a better 

 system, have made but little progress, and are, 

 generail)^, regarded by their neighbors as idle 

 visionaries; and we must be content to bear this 

 character, until we give practical evidence to the 

 incredulous, of the benefits of our new plan of 

 cultivation. There is, however, a presage of 

 better things. Tlie land owners of this quarter 

 are, I think, generally impressed with the neces- 

 sity of doing something, and that speedily, to 

 renovate the rapidly depreciating soil, and only 

 require a successful example to encourage them 

 to the effort. Having still some fresh land in 

 cultivation, and some in forest which may be 

 cleared, they will not labor under the same dif- 

 ficulties and discouragements in commencing a 

 system of improvement, to which the older parts 

 of the state have been subjected; unless they should 

 imprudently defer the adoption of that system, 

 until, like the sloth, they have devoured the last 

 leaf, and have nothing lefl but a painful and te- 

 dious migration. I think there is a general dis- 

 position to reduce, and gradually to abandon the 

 culture of tobacco, without which, I am sure, no 

 great or successful effort can be made towards the 

 renovation of our lands. 



Our soil is a stiff and close loam unmixed with 

 sand, and resting, for the most part, on a foun- 

 dation of red clay. There is an occasional inter- 

 mixture of what we call gray land, which ge- 

 nerally inclines to be g'ad^', and is, commonly, 

 subject to become very wet during the winter and 

 spring. The substratum of this gray land is, 

 generally, a yellov,', and sometimes a red clay. 



