166 



Sl)c iarmer's iHontl)lij btGitar. 



suit of tny own experience. I am now experi- 

 menting, not only by a trial of tite pure breeds of 

 several well known and highly xi^rproved varie-, 

 ties, but of crossing Iheni, a work of some tron- 

 ijle and difficiiliy, in order to be certain as to the 

 resnit. Of the pure blood, 1 have the ' Dorking,' 

 from a pair procined at consideralile expense 

 in Uoslon, by Rev. William A.Drew. 'Black 

 Poland,' with white tufts upon their heads, pro- 

 cured in New Vork by Doctor James Bales. 

 'While Poland,' with white tufts. 'Booby,' 

 brought to Wcsthrook by Mr. Stevens, and by 

 me procined from liim. ' Malay,' also from the 

 same gentleman. ' Wingale,' of the Englifb 

 breed, "procured from Paine Wingale, Esq., of 

 •Hallowell ; and coinnion kinds. The crosses 1 

 Jjave made are as follows: — Booby and Wingate 

 — Dorking and Poland— Spanish and Dorking — 

 Booby and Malay — Poland, Spanish and Dorking. 

 The crosses arc all chickens of the present year, 

 and many o( them late chickens. 



I give the preference — considering their quali- 

 ties for food, eggs, hariliness, &c. — to the Po- 

 lands. They arc not so large. as several of the 

 other varieties, but their flesh is rich, their con- 

 stitutions, hardy, and tliey have been truly deno- 

 minated everlasting layers. Their eggs are not 

 large, and they are rather inclined to forage upon 

 neighboring fields and gardens, and yet I think, 

 considering how little teed they require, they are 

 to be preferred. The Dorkings are an excellent 

 variety, but they nuist, I think, from breeding in, 

 or some other cause, liave depreciated from the 

 original stock brought out by Mr. Allen, of New 

 York, who represents the common weight of 

 that breed to be from 8 to 10 lbs. About 5 lbs. 

 is the largest 1 have met with— their meat is ex- 

 cellent, and they appear to be hardy, but mine 

 do not lay more than two-thirds as often. as the 

 Poland — their egi;s, however, are one eighth larg- 

 er, upon the average. They are peaceable, not 

 disposed to roam abroad, and in all respects good 

 citizens. I am ex[>ecti<)g much from the cross 

 of the Dorking anil Poland. The Booby does 

 not appear to be a great layer nor very hardy. I 

 have found much ditficidtyin rearing the chick- 

 ens, and have lost more than any other breed — 

 they are of slow growth and feather late. — They 

 are large, atid may be useful in increasin.g the 

 size of some of the smaller varieties, and with 

 this view, I have crossed them with other valuable 

 kinds. The meat I have not tasted, but have an 

 impression it nnist be coarse and .dry. The 

 Malay is a good layer, and 1 have crosses of this 

 breed. I shall raise none of the full bloods, tis 

 my Malay Roosur, which weigl)ed over ten 

 pounds, died early last spring. The Wi-ngate, or 

 English variety have proved good layers, vx-eigh 

 heavy, and their irieat is su[icrior, 1 think, to any 

 of the other breeds — they require much food, 

 and have suffered from breeding in. 1 hope the 

 crosses will improve the breed. The Poland 

 hens seldom show an inclination to set, and the 

 Dorking hens much less than the other varieties. 

 My hens lay nearly as well during the winter as 

 in the warm weather. Their iiabitation was 

 warm, and so constructed as to bring them on 

 the ground, where they found at alii times a good 

 supply of old plasiering, ashes, pulverized oyster 

 shells, charcoal, fre^^ll plater, once or twice a 

 week beef liver, or sonie other kind of meat or 

 greese instead. I Iced chiefly on baked or boiled 

 ])Otatoes, giving ilicir food to them warm in the 

 morning and night, occasionally dealing to them 

 a little corn or oats, and giving them all the 

 crumbs and skins, and fragments of the cooked 

 vegetables. To prevent their being infested with 

 lice, about once a fortnight I mixed in dough so 

 as to discolor it, a quantity of flower of brimstone, 

 which is a sure preventive, as well as remedy, 

 and may safely be given in small quantities to 

 young chickens, for the same purpose. It will be 

 seen from my mode of keeping my hens, which 

 averaged about 25, and three roosters, through 

 the winter, that I cannot give the precise cost of 

 keeping, but 1 am satisfied that potatoes may be 

 given as the general food, and fowls kept cheaper 

 in this mode than in any other — and they will 

 always be ready for the spit, if not stinted in 

 qu.nntity. I find my fowls fat at all seasons. 1 

 estimate that my hens afford me from their eggs, 

 without regard to their meat, a clear profit of 

 fifty per cent. I confine them to their yard, hen 

 house, and barn cellar in the winter, and think 

 with that degree of confinement, they lay better 



than they do. when allowed to wander at large, 

 nen-hou.ses jind roosis sliotdd be kejit neat, and 

 often whitewasJied, and their nest slionld always 

 have an inch or more of ashes or lime on the 

 bottom, inider the hay. Broken or rotten eggs 

 should never lie allowed to reanain in the nesis. 

 Dirty ibod should not be given them. To do 

 well, they require pure water, and all their food 

 fresh and uninjured from taint or fermentation. 

 I estimate that duilug the year, (dedncting the 

 time ol' their molting and inclination to set,) 1 

 have got daily one half as many eggs as I have 

 had laying hens. Every ihtnily can, with a very 

 litilc trouble, with their flock of a dozen hens, 

 have fresh eggs in plenty during the whole year, 

 say in all, 2000, and 100 full grown chickens ; and 

 of all the animals domesticated for the use of 

 man, (if such be the fact,) the hen is capable of 

 yielding the greatest possible profit to the owner. 

 It is a pleasant recreation to feed and tend a bevy 

 of laying bens. 



Care should be taken to change roosters often, 

 as otherwise the best variety in the world will 

 rtm out, and cease to be profitable from breeding 

 in; and I feel great confidence that much im- 

 provement niny be maJe by due attention to 

 crossing, and in this way some of the evils from 

 breefling in, be averted. I have stated th;it 1 

 give my fowls meat or greese ; this is indispen- 

 sable if they are not allowed to go at large. If 

 corn is fed out, it should l>e ."-Daked, and I.'i 

 bushels is a fair yearly .allowance lor 12 hens and 

 a rooster. But thoy should always have food by 

 them, and after tliey have become habiluated to 

 find enough at all times, in the ti-ongb, they take 

 but a few kernels at a time, except jii.-t belbre re- 

 tiring to roost, when they will take nearly a spoon- 

 lid into their crops — but if they are scantily or 

 irregularly fed, they will snatch iqi a whole crop 

 full at a lime, and stop laying, and not nntie- 

 quenlly engender some fatal disease. 



James L. Child. 



Fall of the Leaf. — Tiie season of the fall of 

 the leaf has come again, with ils sad and salu- 

 tary teaching. Who can shut his heart against 

 its great lesson.' Who, as he sees the liost- 

 wilhered leaf driven by the fitful gusts of autumn 

 winds, is not reminded that such is human life ? 

 Even as a leaf when the tiosts have dried up its 

 sap, and its stem clings no more to the parent 

 tree, so is our lift;. It may be green to-day, and 

 float gaily upon the summer breeze, but the frosts 

 of death are gnawing at its stem, and we know 

 not if it shall wave there tomorrow, or be driven 

 away by the wintry blast to eternity. Happy are 

 we, if nature |)reaches not to us in vain, in this 

 her solemn day, — Emporium. 



Agricultural Products of the United 

 States for 1843: 



Wheat, - - 100,310,856 bushels. 



Barley, - - - 3,220,731 



Oats, - - - 145,929,tK;G " 



P.ye, - - - 24,380,271 

 Buckwheat, - - 7,9.5Sl,410 

 Indian Corn, - - 494,018,300 •' 

 Potatoes, - - - 105,75(1,133 " 

 llav, - - - 1.5,419,807 tons. 



Flax and Hemp, - 171,007 " 



Tobacco, - - 185,731,554 pounds. 



Cotton, - - ■ - 747,060,090 

 Rice, - - ' 89,879,145 



Silk Cocoons, - - 315,965 " 



Sugar, - - - 126,400,310 " 

 Wine, - - - 139,240 gallons. 



The supposed value of the above, $007,185,413. 

 The articles of wheat, barley, buckwheat, pota- 

 toes, tobacco, rice and sugar, amounted to less in 

 1843 than in 1842; though the aggregate value 

 of all the above-named articles in 1843 was 

 $24,54.5,445 greater than iii 1842. The popula- 

 tion of the United States in 1843 was 19,183,583. 

 — .V«/. Inlelligeyicer. 



Improvemeuts in Agricultarc. 



The following glance at some of the improve- 

 ments which have been made in agriculture 

 within the last fifty years is from the pen of Alex- 

 ander Walsh, Esq., of Lansingbiirg, N. Y. — Farm. 

 Sf Median. 



The Plow. — In this implement the advance in 

 thirty years has been truly astonishing. — There 

 is scarcely less difference between the neat cast 

 iron plow of the present lime, and the clumsy 



wooden article used for the purpose at that 

 period, than between that and the iron pointed 

 crolcheil slick of the ancients, lii the ease of 

 working aiul the efiect produced on ilie soil, 

 every man competent to judge will ad.uiil iliat 

 the difterence eflccted by improvemeut in the 

 last thirty j-ears, is filiy j)ercent. 



The Threshi.ng Machine. — Experience sliows 

 that the farmer who gels out and sells his grain 

 in autumn, admitting the prices are the same, rea- 

 lizes from his crop at least ten per cent, more 

 than he who does not dispose of bis crop till the 

 next spring. But it may be safely asserted that 

 in grain-growing districts the whole force oflho 

 farm, if devoted to that object alone, would not 

 be able to bring his grain into market in the fall 

 if thrashed by band. Hence the thrashing ma- 

 chine has oome to his aid, and does the work so 

 much belter and quicker than it can be done by 

 band, that the getting out of a thousand bushels 

 of wheat is counted a small aftair. 



The Horse Rake. — With this instrument on 

 land fitted as meadows always should be, one 

 man and horse will do the work of six men with 

 ham) rakes. The value of this labor-saving ma- 

 chine will not be disputed by those who have 

 tested its power when time (nesses or storms 

 lower over the bay-field. Ii is not less valuable 

 as a gleaner in the wheat or barley stubble, 

 where no care can prevent a quantity of grain be- 

 ing left, surprising to one who has never used 

 the horse-rake. 



Agricultural Associations. — The splendid 

 agricultural improvements now here and there 

 exhibited, are the results of Agricultural Jom-nals 

 and Agiicullin-al Association,s, wheie eiilcipris- 

 ing individuals meet periodically, and by inler- 

 changing all their ideas, increase the general 

 stock in at least the compound ratio of their 

 numbers; each one returns home with the know- 

 ledge possessed by the whole, and with a com- 

 mensurate slock of new suggestions for future 

 reflection and experiment. The spontaneous 

 operations of Ihe hnnian mind in an unassisted 

 state, require ages to arrive at results which Ihe 

 united efforts of numerous individuals, excited 

 by emulation, would produce perlia|)s in a few 

 days. lAIost other employuienls lead to associa- 

 tion, while the farmer remains in an isolated 

 state, scarcely regarding the operation of his 

 neighbor. 



Agricultural Associations of this and other 

 States have already effected wonders, and these 

 wonders are now becoming the joint stock of the 

 Agricultural Society of this State, which has been 

 got up by the unremiited and persevering exer- 

 lions of a few gentlemen, who have thereby con- 

 ferred lasting benefits upon iheir couiilrymen. 



Indian Corn. — The benefits of skillfiil culiiva- 

 tioii are shown in the improvement ofthe corn 

 crop, as much perhaps as in any other" way. A 

 crop of seventy-five bushels per acre is now as 

 common as fifty was twenty years since : and 

 there can he little doubt that one hundred 

 bushels per acre «re now oftener reached lliaii 

 was seventy at that lime. 



Weight of Cattle. — The records of the 

 Snfithfield market in London prove lliat wilhin 

 one huiiilrcd years the average weight of the 

 cattle killed fur that market has nearly doubled, 

 rising from belween lour and five hundred lo be- 

 tween seven and eight hundred, and the gieater 

 part of this increase has been in the last forty 

 years, it is calculated that the cattle offered at 

 the Brighton market, near l^oston, average at least 

 fifty jier cent, more at the present time than they 

 did 20 years since. This improvement we owe 

 to the knowledge brought to bear on the breed- 

 ing of cattle and agriculture generally. 



Imi'roved Pigs. — Here is an improvement 

 which no one, however slightly acquainted with 

 the animal, can deny. The dullest eye can dis- 

 tinguish between the round, fat, beautiful Berk- 

 shire, the ihin, lean, long-nosed and long-legged, 

 hound-like creature, which seems more fitted for 

 Ihe chase than tor the sty. The farmer feels the 

 difference in his corn crib, and more than all in 

 his pocket. The difference in the cost of feed- 

 ing and in the [lork made, between the im- 

 proved varieties and those generally led twenty- 

 five years since, is not less than forty per cent. 

 This is the result of skilful selection and crosses. 



Fruits. — Compare the quantity and quality of 

 the fruits and vegetables now offered in our mar- 

 kets w ith those exhibited thirly years since, and 



