742 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 12 



A dozen dunghill fowls, shut up from any other 

 means of obtaining food, will require something 

 more than a quart of Indian corn a day ; 1 think 

 fifteen bushels a year a fair provision for them. 

 But more or less, let them always have enough 

 by them, and after they have become habituaied 

 to find enough, at ail times a plenty in their little 

 manger, they take but a liiw kernels at a tmie, ex- 

 cept just before retiring to roost, when they will 

 take nearly a spoonful into their crops ; but just 

 so sure as their provision comes to them scanted 

 or irregularly, so surely they will raven up a whole 

 crop full at a time, and will stop laying. 



A single dozen fowls, properly attended, will 

 furnish a family with more than 2,000 egcrs in a 

 year, and 100 full grown chickens for fall and 

 winter stores. The expense of feeding the dozen 

 fowls will not amount to 18 bushels of Indian 

 corn. They may be kept in cities as well as in 

 (the country, and will do as well shut up the year 

 /round as torun at large ; and a grated room, well 

 '^^lighted, ten feet by five, partitioned from any sta- 

 ?ble or other out-house, is sufficient for the dozen 

 fowls, with their roosting place, nests and feeding 

 'troughs. 



At the proper season, viz. in the spring of the 

 year, five or six hens will hatch at the same time, 

 -and ihe fifty or sixty chickens (jiven to one hen. 

 'Two hens will take care of 100 chickens well 

 •enough, until they begin to climb their little stick 

 ^roosts; they should then be separated from the 

 hens entirely ; they will wander less, and do better 

 away from the fowls. I have often kept the 

 ^chickens in my garden ; they keep the May bugs 

 and other insects away from the vines, &c. 



In cases of confining fowls in summer, it should 

 be remembered that a ground room should be 

 chosen : or it will do just as well to set into 

 their pen boxes of dried sand, or kiln-dried, well 

 pulverized earth, for them to wallow in, in warm 

 weather. 



From the Edinburgh Farmeis'Magazine. 

 XTTILITY OF THE BRITISH COUNTY AGRICUL- 

 TURAL REPORTS. 



Extract from the address of Sir John Sinclair to 

 the Hoard of Agriculture. 



County reports. — The idea of ascertaining the 

 ■agricultural state of every district in the kingdom, 

 and of printing each survey, according to one 

 uniform model, is the greatest undertaking ever 

 attempted by any institution; and, though carried 

 on with funds extremely inadequate to such an 

 attempt, yet it is at last in a fair way of beinor 

 happily accomplished. All the counties in Eng- 

 land will be completed in the course of this year. 

 Several will remain to be done in Scotland, for the 

 execution of which fit persons can be procured, as 

 soon as adequate funds are obtained for that pur- 

 pose. In the course of this year, five reports 

 have been already printed, and eight transmitted 

 to the board in a state ready for publication; so 

 that the progress has been considerable, and the 

 termination of this most important undertaking, 

 "by which so large a proportion of the funds of the 

 board has hitherto been absorbed is probably at 

 no great distance. 



The advantages to be derived from these re- 



ports, are universally recognized in foreign coun- 

 tries ; lor the same plan has been already adopted 

 in France and Russia, and will probably be imi- 

 tated in every other civilized country. A letter 

 has lately been received (rom a celebrated agri- 

 culturist in France, in which he stales his opinion, 

 * that such a measure is the most useful that can 

 be undertaken, i'or bringing, in a short space of 

 time, agriculiure to a high degree of perfection.'* 

 Indeed the information furnished by the various 

 reports and communications published by the 

 Board, far exceeds what is generally apprehended. 

 Dr. Coventry, Prolessor of Agriculture in the 

 University of Edinburgh, who from his situation, 

 is led to examine every work connected with the 

 subjects on which he lectures, has recently declar- 

 ed, 'that in these late reports and publications, 

 there is detailed more useful and distinct informa- 

 tion, on various branches of agriculture, and on 

 rural concerns in general, than was in print be- 

 fore these were drawn w^.'t What then may 

 not be ex[iected, when all these reports are com- 

 pleted, for little more than one half of them were 

 printed, when this idea of their merit and utility 

 was formed by Dr. Coventry. 



REMARKS ON THE CULTURE OF THE MORUS 

 MULTICAULIS, AND ON SILK-CULTUK^E. 



To the Editor of the rarmers' Register. 



December Uth, 1838. 

 Dear Sir — I take the liberty, through the co- 

 lumns of your valuable journal, to oHer to the 

 growers of the morus multicaulis a suggestion, 

 which, if attended to next season, will save many 

 young trees from destruction, and, if neglected, 

 more I fear will be lost, than can well be spared. 

 The management of about 60,000 trees having 

 devolved on me the past summer, and it being an 

 entire novelty, I was induced to observe, with mi- 

 nute attention, the peculiarity of their growth, and 

 to note carefully the best mode of working them. 

 The caution I am about to give, is, therefore, the 

 result of experience, and some little practical 

 knowledge of the subject. It has been said, that 

 the cultivation of the mulberry is precisely similar 

 to the cultivation of Indian corn ; this, in the 

 outset of its tillage, is an error, and proved so fa- 

 tal a one to me, that I lost several thousand young 

 trees before I found it out. There is no plant 

 more delicate and tender than the young mulberry, 

 and none that requires, at the period of its ger- 

 mination, a nicer and more cautious management. 

 The perennial grasses and vveeds, which, in early 

 spring, shoot up on the most highly cultivated 

 spots, give an immediate check to its growth, and 

 unless removed, would speedily destroy it. To 

 free it from this evil, without injury to the young 

 plants, is the desideratum ; and as hand-weeding 

 (on a large scale) is inadmissible, the hoe is usu- 



* The French expressions are, 'Je crois que ce tra- 

 vail est le plus utile de tout ceux qu'on peut entro- 

 prendre, pour amener, dans un tres court espece de 

 temps, I'ai^riculture a un grand degre de perfection.' 



t See Discourses explanatory of the Object and Plan 

 of the Course of Lectures on Agriculture and Rural 

 Economy, by Dr. Coventry, 1 vol. octavo, printed at 

 jidinburgh, 1808, p. 187. 



