366 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 6 



proved system of agriculture, thousands of acres 

 that would have been doomed to nearly total bar- 

 renness have been broucrht under the most promis- 

 ingcultivation. As yet, the supply has not kept 

 pace wiih the demand. Ft will somewhat surprise 

 our renders, that, in the county of Forfar alone, 

 153,000 bushels of bones were used last year — a 

 quantity which, at three shillina's per bushel, 

 would cost, as nearly as may be £23,000 ! This 

 great supply came from Russia. But, for reasons 

 not precisely known, the Russian government 

 have issued an ukase, whereby bones to be ex- 

 ported must, after the 1st of January next, pay a 

 duty so high, that it is almost certain the supply 

 from that country will be wholly cut off'. — Edin 

 burgh Observer. 



From the Penny Magazine. 

 PIGEOX-ROOSTS. 



Meadows." Those swamps, for the most part, 

 are overgrown with tall coarse grass; and around 

 many of their margins grows a profusion of alder 

 bushes, seldom attaining more than fifteen or 

 twenty feet. Why or wherefore the pigeons se- 

 lect those bushes for their roosting-places might 

 be somewhat difficult to conceive, since the forest- 

 trees in the uTimediate vicinity would afford them 

 much greater security ; but such is the case at 

 present, and such it is known to have been. 



Although the nests and their inhabitants are 

 exceedingly numerous in the forests where they 

 breed, yet the number of pigeons that roost in one 

 of those " alder-swamps'- upon which they chance 

 to fix as a rendezvous, surpasses all belief. There 

 are thousands and tens of thousands, and in some 

 cases hundreds of thousands ! and they are there- 

 fore so closely stowed together that they support 

 and rest upon each other. The assailants, instead 

 of going armed with guns, or even with axes, 

 carry a pretty long pole or club, and a few dry 

 pine-knols, to linfht up when they get to the roost- 

 ing-pface, not fijrgetting sacks wherein to deposit 

 their victims. Having reached the pigeon-roost 

 towards midnight, a light is struck, and the blaze 

 of one or two of the pine-knots astonishes and 



There is an extensive district of country stretch- 

 ing eastward from the head waters of the Ohio, 

 through the northern parts of the states of Penn- 

 sylvania and New York, which, f'mm the major 



part of the forest trees being beech, is known by j confounds the unsuspecting occupants of the 

 the general appellation of the '•' Reechwoode." I branches over-head. They move to and fro, they 

 When there is a favorable season for the beech- j A^''^'''') l^ut- '^o not attempt to quit the bushes, 

 tree bearing nuts, which is not always the case, I seemingly determined to retain possession of 

 the whole surface of the ground is strewn with ' ^''"'i'' roosting-place regardless of consequences, 

 them by the trales, about the period when the ear- While one person holds the torch the other is bu- 

 Jy snows begin to fall. The beech-nuts remain pily engaged in dealing destruction ; when in that 



beneath the snow unmolested during the whole 

 winter; about the time when the influence of the 

 spring causes them to vegetate, myriads of pigeons 

 are attracted to that part of the country, where 

 lliey continue to sojourn, while this, their favorite 

 food is in tolerable abundance. In case the temp- 

 tation is exceedingly strong, the old birds will 

 sometimes nest and breed again ; the place they 

 select being generally along some ridge or emi- 

 nence, where the branches of every tree become 

 literally loaded with their rudely-constructed nests. 

 When the time of incubation is over, the neigh- 

 boring settlers resort to the breeding-ground ; and 

 as powder and shot are expensive articles in the 

 Backwoods, the woodsman's favorite weapon — 

 the axe— is called into operation ; such trees as are 

 of a moderate thickness are hewn down, and hun- 

 dreds of young and simple pigeons, some in the 

 nests and others perched upon the branches, are 

 brought to the ground. Bags and sacks are then 

 put in requisition, and such as are of approved 

 size are huddled by scores mto those unsportsman- 

 like receptacles ; whilst numbers of the rejected 

 are left to perish by hunger, if they have unfortu- 

 nately survived the concussion caused by the fall- 

 ing of the tree. When the parties set tired of 

 "cutting down and picking up," and have got 

 themselves and their horses (for many brmg 

 horses to those " pigeon frolics") pretty well load^ 

 ed, they set out on an expedition of " "pigeon ped- 

 dling" among such as have either no time or taste 

 to engage in this rude and barbarous recreation. 



The breeding-ground is altogether distinct from 

 the pigeon- roost; while the old ones are hatching 

 their second broods, the young wanderers from the 

 south are left to take care of themselves. Through- 

 out the whole of the beechwoods there are low 

 and swampy pieces of ground designated " Beaver 



particular place the ranks of the poor innocents 

 seem somewhat thinned, the killed and wounded 

 are placed promiscuously in the sacks, and in some 

 other part of the roost the former scene is reacted. 

 Those torch-light excursions yield more than 

 abundance to the adventurers ; yet it generally 

 happens that they resort by daylight to the scene 

 of their nocturnal deeds, where they seldom liiil to 

 meet with scores of the dead and wounded birds 

 they had overlooked in the hurry and darkness of 

 the preceding night. It is exceedingly strange, 

 that among the thousands of |)igeons taken in the 

 manner here described, there never happens, b}' 

 any chance, to be any old birds ! As soon as the 

 second broods are capable of accompanying their 

 parents in their onward journey to tfie fiir regions 

 of the north and west, they all as with one accord, 

 leave this section of country ; for by this time their 

 favorite food — the beech-nuts — is quite exhausted. 



From the Soutliern Review. 

 ON MANURE. 



Extract from an ariide on the " Principles of 

 y^gricuUure,^^ by Professor Thomas Cooper. 



By a manure, in popular language, is meant any 

 animal or vegetable substance added to the soil^ 

 which will undergo, or which has previously un- 

 dergone decomposition by putrefying. 



More accurately, manures comprehend any ad- 

 dition to a soil, bj' which it is rendered more ca- 

 pable of promoting the growth of vegetables plant- 

 ed in it. 



Hence, a manure may act by altering the me- 

 chanical texture of a soil. t?i relation to the roots 



