1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



325 



day, ai every respectable eatino:-house, the first 

 tliiiij? that tercels the eye of the traveller and heads 

 the hill of iiire, is a ca|)oii, either boiled or baked. 

 In France ihey are made doubly uselhl, not oidy 

 as an article ot' Ibod, but a means of proiluction ; 

 if I may be allowed the expression, they are used 

 as a Ibster-moiher ti^r raising chickens, which they 

 do nujch belter than the hen, owinc; to the hirge 

 size and thick coat of feathers. The poulterers 

 use a considerable number of them lor this pur- 

 j)ose, — ihe moment the hen has hatched her brood 

 ihey are given to the capon, which rears them with 

 all the care of the mother, the hen is cooped and 

 fed until she gains her flesh and strength, and then 

 turned out to lay and set again ; in this way the 

 poulterer is enabled to raise a large number ol 

 chickens from half the number of hens. The ca- 

 pon at market sells higher than any of our domes- 

 tic fowls. VVhat is the reason then in our country, 

 where good living is so highly prized, the capon 

 is seldom or never seen? Should you travel from 

 Maine to New Orleans, you will probably never 

 have this (juestion put to you at table, "Sir, shall 

 I help you to a fine piece of capon." I would by 

 no means attribute this neglect of one of the fin- 

 est dishes in the world toobiuseness of palate, but 

 rather to a want of the necessary inlbrmation as 

 to the maimer of performing the operation on the 

 cock. To obviate this, I will subjoin directions, by 

 the observance of which a man of common 

 adroitness can make two dozen capons in an hour. 

 Lay the chicken before you on his left side, with 

 his head towards your right hand. Let an assistant 

 hold him by his head and legs extended ; with a 

 sharp knile make a transverse incision of one and 

 a half inch or more in the side just below the 

 ribs. Insert the fore finger, and near the middle 

 of the body, at the distance of about three quarters 

 of an inch from the incision, near the spine will 

 be found the testicles, which may very easily be 

 removed by the thumb and finger ; sew up the 

 orifice and daub a little tar over it to keep off the 

 flies. Care should be taken in cutting through the 

 several integuments lest the viscera be wounded. 

 The cock should be about half grown. Not one 

 in a hundred will die if the operation be properly 

 performed. After a fair trial both of the bacon and 

 capon, should you relish them, I may be induced 

 at some future time to serve you up some other 

 dish, which I only hope may be found as agreea- 

 ble to your numero js readers as was the long and 

 learned dissertation we had some time since upon 

 Hollow Horns. With my best wishes, 



I am respectfully your ob't. serv't. 

 J. W. J. 



From llie Genesee Fanner. 

 DUCKS. 



It is stated in a New- York newspaper, "that 

 several of the farmers on Long Island, who raise 

 large numbers of ducks, have had nearly their 

 entire flocks of young ones destroyed, by a red 

 insect named the ' Lady bug:' a post mortem exa- 

 mination led to the discovery, as, on opening the 

 body, the bugs still living were taken out by the 

 handful." So far as our observation has gone, in- 

 sects of all kinds, with perhaps a single exception, 

 have flourished abundantly the present season, 

 the high temperature of June having proved as 



propitious to their increase as to the rapid growth 

 of vegetation. The exception to which we have 

 alluded, is the conmion striped bug, so fatal to 

 cucumbers and squashes, of which we have not 

 seen a single one the present season. 



CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE NATURE OF THE 

 VEGETABLES THAT HAVE COVERED THE 

 SURFACE OF THE EARTH, AT DIFFERENT 

 EPOCHS OF ITS FORMATION ; READ BEFORE 

 THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF PARIS, ON 

 THE 11th SEPTEMBER, 1839. BY SIONS. 

 ADOLPHE BRONGNIART. 



Translated from the French, and communicated for the Jour- 

 nal or Science and Arts, by E. W. Haskins * of Buflalo, 

 New York. ' 



• TJuriosity is one of the most distinctive faculties 

 of the human mind; one of those that most clear- 

 ly mark the distance between man and the brute 

 creation; and for this reason it may designated 

 one of his most noble faculties, whenever directed 

 to any end really worthy of his being. 



It is this which continually excites us fo extend 

 the field of our knowledge, and to fathom the 

 most hidden mysteries of nature, without beincr 

 able to hope, for the most part, any other reward 

 than the good which will result to all intelligent 

 beings, in proportion as they are able to form ideas 

 more exact upon the nature of the phenomena 

 which surrounded them. These phenomena ap- 

 pear the more diflicult of investigation in propor- 

 tion as, by their nature and position, they are 

 farther removed from our direct observation; and 

 in like manner we are struck with the results to 

 which profound researches have conducted those 

 men who have made these investigations the ob- 

 ject of their studies. 



The invention of the telescope, by opening to 

 our view what is passing in the elongated regions 

 of space; and of the microscope, by revealing to 

 us the existence of numberless beings so minute 

 as, but for this instrument, would forever have 

 escaped our observation, have made, upon the 

 human imagination, the most vivid impression. 



The sciences have made such rapid advances, 

 within late years, that no one can reasonably ex- 

 pect to open new views and to disclose new 

 truths equally exciting to human curiosity as those 

 disclosed by the telescope and the microscope; 

 but still, the study of the soil upon which we 

 daily tread, has become, within the last half-cen- 

 tury, in the hands of Werner, of Cuvier, and 

 the crowd of learned and able men who have as- 

 siduously followed these illustrious pioneers, one 

 of the sciences the most fruitful in results, not 

 only of high interest to the professionally learned, 

 but well calculated vividly to interest the imagi- 

 nation of all persons who love to reflect upon the 

 great phenomena of nature. 



In investigating the layers which compose the 

 superficial strata of the earth, their order of su- 

 per-position, their nature, and the animal and ve- 

 getable remains which they contain, geology 

 traces for us the history of the earth, during the 

 long periods of time that have preceded its pre- 



*Mr. Haskins prefers an orthography in some cases 

 peculiar, and retains also certain French idioms. — 

 Eds. 



