346 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



One other suggestion for August, and v/e will 

 leave the reader to seek his fields and crops. Ma- 

 ny persons complain that their hens will not lay, 

 and that notwithstanding their assiduity in furnish- 

 ing them with all the articles ordinarily recom- 

 mended to ensure fecundity, the eggs they pro- 

 duce will not "half pay the expenses." Now we 

 presume there is sornething lacking, or the fowls 

 would certainly not run their owners in debt. It is not 

 generally understood even by those who profess to 

 be the most deeply versed in the mysteries of 

 'Henology," that the hen, being omnivorous, re- 

 quires, to ensure fecundity, a very liberal allowance 

 of meat ! When enjoying her liberty in the fields, 

 pastures, or door-yards, the principal part of her 

 sustenance is derived from insects, worms, &c. She 

 partakes but sparingly, at such times, of grain, and 

 often when that article is supplied, leaves it for 

 the more inviting food which nature supplies her 

 with, in her favorite haunts. Now if we confine 

 her where the natural propensity for this descrip- 

 tion of food cannot be gratified, even though we 

 supply the best of grain, and in abundance, she 

 ill cease to lay. The privation aff'ects her health, 

 and there will necessarily be an end of profit, until 

 the deficiency is supplied. When fresh meat or 

 fresh fish cannot be obtained, the common scraps 

 of the butcher, which are hard and compact, and 

 can be kept any length of time, answer all the de- 

 sired purpose. 



Difference in Cows. — Cows under certain con- 

 stitutional circumstances, are naturally disposed to 

 convert their food into fat ; so much so that there 

 is great ditficulty in keeping some individuals in a 

 breeding state, and more especially the improved 

 Short-horns, I)evons, and Herefords. Turn a cow 

 of this description into rich grass, and she is soon 

 useless for anything but the shambles. The qual- 

 ity of the milk she gives may be fine but the quan- 

 tity almost nothing. We have had a Devon, the 

 property of a noble duke, which carried off" the 

 first prize in her class at one of the lloyal Agricul- 

 tural Society's meetings, not giving more than a 

 quart at milking. 



On the other hand, there is another class of cows 

 naturally disposed to turn all their food into the 

 pail. Turn a cow of this kind into rich grass along 

 with the one above, and she will rather get poorer 

 every day, if the milk is taken from her ; while her 

 plump and sleek rival is gaining weight. The 

 former will consume greatly more grass and water 

 than the latter, returning for its in proportion, a 

 still greater quantity of milk, but inferior in qual- 

 itj'. In town dairies, when fed on aoxxr grains, dis- 

 tillers' wash, Szc, the quantity sometimes yielded is 

 almost incredible. When such is the ease., however, 

 life is generally short, especially if cows are in a low 

 state at calving. Hence the reason why dairymen 

 purchase near-calves of this class in good condi- 

 tion. 



The above two classes may be called extremes 

 between which there is a mean — cows which if 

 turned into a rich field of grass along with the 



other, would keep themselves in good condition 

 and give a medium quantity of milk, the quality 

 depending upon the richness of the food. — Mark 

 Lane Express. 



For the New England Farmer. 



HUBBARD SaUASH-POTATOES. 



Mr. Editor : — The subscriber would like to ob- 

 tain a few seeds of the "Hubbard" squash, recom- 

 mended in the last Farmer by "J. J. H. G." As 

 the name and address are wanting, there seems to 

 be no way of communicating with him except 

 through you. If you can put me in the way to ob- 

 tain them, you will confer a great favor. 



It still seems to be a mooted question, whether 

 diffierent varieties of potatoes will mix, when plant- 

 ed side by side. Mr. French, in his article in the 

 Farmer for June, thinks they will not; Mr. Joseph 

 Blake thinks they will, and bases his opinion upon 

 the fact that the product of Jenny Linds or Cali- 

 fornias, of a red color, planted near Carters, were 

 white. If his Carters had turned red, he might 

 have had some plausible ground for his opinion to 

 stand upon. Does Mr. Blake know the fact that 

 colored potatoes "sport ?" That Pink-eyes will oc- 

 casionally be entirely colored, with no white on 

 them ? That Merinos, Peach-blows, Californias 

 (the latter especially,) and other colored potatoes, 

 are often partly, and sometimes entirely white ? I 

 have raised, within the last five years, hundreds of 

 varieties of the potato, and have found no mixing of 

 the roots from planting side by side, and no change 

 of varieties produced in that way ; though I have 

 produced new varieties by sowing the true seed 

 (from the balls ;) and agree with Mr. French, that 

 they will mix in no other way. 



Robert D. Weeks. 



Bowen's Prairie, Iowa, June 24, 1856. 



Remarks. — If correspondents would put their 

 names to their communications, it would save us 

 some labor and accommodate others. 



TAME FISHES. 



The last efficient sea-fish ])ond we chanced to 

 examine is situated near Port Nesson, in Wigtown- 

 shire. It was constructed in 1800. A flight of 

 steps leads downward to a small platform, by the 

 water's edge, and the moment the old woman, who 

 was our conductress, showed herself in the act of 

 descending those steps, the whole body of codfish 

 moved toward her, just as a flock of poultry follow 

 a henwife. She had in her had a basin filled with 

 sand-eels and limpets ; and when we neared the 

 surface of the pond, and were seen by the fish to 

 be manipulating the contents of the basin, as many 

 as could press themselves close in shore raised their 

 heads, or at least the anterior portion, quite out of 

 the water, opened their mouths wide, and made a 

 gurgling and occasionally a snapping sound, the 

 latter occasioned by the sudden shutting of their 

 jaws, when they felt or fancied that something had 

 dropped between them. 



As we stood on the lowest step, au niveau of the 

 surface of the water, some of them laid their large 

 languishing faces over our feet, allowed us to put 

 our hands beneath them, and roll them over, or 

 even raise and replunge them — as nurses do chil- 

 dren — out of, and then beneath their native brine. 



