FARMERS' REGISTER, 



45 



taijes of a superior climate, one in five of the 

 hatched birds dies, and many are deformed, doubt- 

 less liom iho unequal rtp|)licntion ol* the hoaf. It 

 liari only been by the Eccaleobiiui, as far as I can 

 learn, that the birds have been lMOM<fiit out with 

 certainty, or been reared successfuJIy alter beinrr 

 hatched ; every bird is perfect and will fjrow to its 

 full size. The distinguished characlerisiic of this 

 invetiiion is exact regulation of temperalurc at 

 diderent stages of advancement, lor egirs, as is 

 well known, develope heat naturally in liie course 

 of hatcliinir, and consequently the anificial heat 

 requires to be judiciously diminished as the natur- 

 al heat increases. By employing sleam or hot- 

 water pipe', the temperature is not only capable 

 of being exactly regulated, but is diffused gene- 

 rally and equably tiiroughout the oven, and acts 

 upon all sides of the egg alike. Hence, the eggs 

 it! the Eccaleobion require no handling or turning 

 during the process — there is no fear of Iheir heinif 

 roasted on one side or cooled on the other. Provi- 

 ded all is fair and above board, as the projirietor of 

 the Eccaleobion describes or the superintendents 

 inform the vistors, there can be no difTieulty in 

 multiplying egg-hatching and chicken-rearing 

 establishments all over the country. Poultry is 

 at present a dear article, on account of the very 

 limited and imperfect manner of its production ; hut 

 this need not be the case any longer. There is 

 nothing to prevent every town in the kiuirdom 

 having its ckicken manufactory as well as any 

 other branch of business. Wherever there are 

 establishments with steam-engines having a re- 

 dundancy of steam, it woidd be the easiest thing 

 in the world to erect a fowl-producing apparatus 

 in connection with the works. And if this did 

 not in some degree improve the resources of the 

 country, and the condition of the people, I do not 

 know what would. 



EXPLANATION. 



To the Editor of the Farmer's Register. 



In your last No. I find a mountain correspondent 

 of yours has made it my duty lo tax you with post- 

 age to the tune of 12^ cts. F did not wish to do this, 

 or I should have asked you to correct the caption 

 of my October communication; but I supposed all 

 your readers knew that the caption was yours and 

 not mine, and I ask you and your correspondent 

 to rea<l my piece fiirly, and then say if the caption 

 have either matter or spirit in it that is authorized 

 by the communication.* ! hold that it was clearly 

 my purpose to show that the early maturation of 

 the crop resulted from its never having hs feeding 

 roots disturbed or broken; and I appeal lo common 

 sense, untrammelledjbv usasje, without li^ar, to sus- 

 tain me. Who is he that breaks the feeders of his 

 horse or his ox with the expectation of "early 

 maturation?" Who has not seen iti the burning 

 month of July hundreds of acres of corn killed by 

 breaking all its feeders'? I crant that this king 

 of plants is hard to kill, and if you give it water 



* As according to our rules, every article in the Far- 

 msrs' Register must have a name, and the writers sel- 

 d.om furnish any heading, the duty generally falls upon 

 the editor as it did in the case referred to above. If it 

 was inproper, the fault was ours. 



the very devil cannot kill it ; but let me ask why 

 wage war upon it? why worry and distress the 

 plant that gives you bread 1 who, I ask " Moun- 

 taineer," was ever so ma<l as to break the young 

 shoots of corn lo enable him to break the feeders? 

 and when this was done what was his reward? 

 My soil was what was called poor; I purchased for 

 21 sliillings the acre. The tenant then upon it 

 paid £ 10 rent, 40 years an-o ; but at the end of the 

 year he entered " leg bail," and is dead, or in the 

 fir west. And yet I believe that all wiio passed 

 my field, (and il is upon the main southern road,) 

 entertained but the one opinion that there was 

 none better, as a large field, from Washington to 

 Tennessee. I hope I have answered " Mountain- 

 eer's" bill in chancery lo his satisfaction; if not, 

 he may rule me lo give farther answer, and if I 

 have time, I will answer him, with this reservation 

 that he shall lay by his forensic character, and 

 write as a fiirmer. 



For the further benefit of " Mountaineer," let 

 me say that 30 years or more past I visited Judge 

 Peters and Mr. Young. The Judge had done 

 much for ajrriculture, and I felt myself bound to 

 call upon him and tender him my thanks. He 

 was a perfect gentleman ; but as a farmer, practi- 

 cally, he had no pretensions. Mr. Young, I think, 

 owned a large paper manufactory, and was farm- 

 ino: upon a small scale — an amiable, clear head- 

 ed man, and was delighted in showingthe power of 

 lime upon his land; his neighbors however thought 

 he farmed upon the profits of his paper mill. I 

 give you these things that 3'ou may use them for 

 what ihey are worth. Faiufax. 



January Ith. 1840. 



For tiie Farmers' Register. 

 ON MAKING EXPERIMENTS. 



Allhough the successfid progress of agricullure 

 essentially depends upon this practice, yet unless 

 it be fJjllovved wuh perfect impartiality, sound 

 judgment, and unremitted attention to every cir- 

 cumstance connected wilh each case, it often does 

 far more harm than good ; for conclusions are fre- 

 I quenlly drawn and ofiinions formed fiom experi- 

 l menis carefully n^adc, which, if not directly the 

 reverse of what they should be, are at least, ma- 

 : terially different from the trutii. Thus, a nco-'icrent 

 I experimentalist will rarely ever give us more of 

 I his operatif)ns than a general description, althouirh 

 i he is too often tediously minute in staling liis own 

 opinions derived from them, to the entire omission 

 perhaps, of the chief fiicis, by which alone others 

 could judije whether those opinions were right or 

 wrong. Should he happen to be well known and 

 respected as a farmer, many will immediatelj" at- 

 tempt to pursue the course which he has vanruely 

 and indistinctly described, solely from their confi- 

 dence in his character; and will find loo late, 

 either that he had omilled some statement which 

 was material to the success of their imitative 

 experiments, or that his opinions and practices, 

 which they had adopted in tnin, did not suit Iheir 

 particular farms. This immediately weakens their 

 iiiith in all experiments whatever ; for they have 

 not always the good sense lo discover the true 

 cause of iheir lailure, but erroneously ascribe it to 

 the inutility of the practice itself, insiead of ihe 

 I parelessness qf the experimentalists. 



