No. 2. 



Liquid Manure. 



51 



quirement of nature, they should have daily 

 a good supply of sweet and fresh green ve- 

 getables. Cabbage and lettuce are the best 

 — turnip-tops and vvatercresses — but on no 

 account any sour plants, which scour them 

 as do spiunach, the cuttings from grass 

 plats, and most sorts of garden t^ocds, as 

 their instinct does not serve them to choose 

 the wholesome from the noxious weeds, more 

 than it does animals that happen to stray 

 into a clover-field, or happen to receive too 

 large a quantity into their stables. I have 

 known them to burst. Green food with 

 fowls is an astringent, the very reverse of 

 what vegetables are with us. This fact 

 will not appear so surprising, when it is re- 

 collected that one takes them raw, and the 

 other cooked. 



A plentitul supply of clean water, in daily 

 well-cleansed vessels, and wholesome food 

 are necessary. Frequent changes, and mix- 

 tures of corn, improve the appetite. Barley 

 is decidedly their staple food in this country; 

 Indian corn, or sometimes rice, mixed, for a 

 change. Oats occasionally, but in too large 

 quantity, are apt to scour. Occasionally 

 buckwheat and hempseed, as a stimulant, 

 mixed with the barley for a change, are 

 very beneficial, particularly whilst moult- 

 ing. One meal may be composed of boiled 

 or steamed potatoes, well smashed up whilst 

 hot, with a portion of barleymeal, or oatmeal 

 for a change, but which must be allowed to 

 remain till cold. ^Books copying errors from 

 one another, make a great mistake in advis- 

 ing food to be given hot. It is unnatural, 

 they have no good cooks amongst them in 

 their own state; and it is decidedly injurious 

 to their digestive organs, except when fat- 

 tening, when they are doomed soon to be 

 killed for table. Feed twice a day at least, 

 or three times if not to fattening; morning 

 early, before the usual hour for laying, if 

 possible ; at noon, the noontide meal may be 

 the potatoes as above directed, and before 

 sunset — not later than four o'clock — that 

 tliey may go to roost by daylight, or they 

 will go without their food. Regularity 

 greatly tends to health, and disturbance of 

 any sort is very hurtful. Rice occasionally 

 boiled in a cloth, greatly increases its bulk, 

 and they are very fond of it. Reaumur 

 says, that gieat economy is derived from 

 steeping or boiling the barley, to increase 

 its bulk, when they will be satisfied with 

 one-third less quantity. But I cannot speak 

 of this from my own experience, nor can I 

 say that beneficial effects are produced by 

 giving them much flesh, raw or boiled. But 

 fat, as advised in books, produces scourings; 

 spiced or salted meats, and kitchen stuffs, 

 are certainly pernicious to their stomachs. 



In fattening for the table, when they are 

 not required to live long, or show fine fea- 

 ther, this may not be of any consequence. 

 Will some of your practical correspondents 

 enlighten us? They require in pens, or 

 small yards in towns, to be well supplied 

 with grit, sand, and small gravel ; slaked 

 lime, and old mortar pounded is very benefi- 

 cial, and serviceable in assisting to make 

 the pen or yard dry. I will add to the 

 above, that there is no economy in keeping 

 poultry in towns, in small quantities, which 

 is always exceedingly expensive, if well fed 

 and taken care of; which, however, is com- 

 pensated for, to those who wish to make 

 certain that the eggs are quite fresh and 

 newly laid. All calculations of expense 

 must be erroneous, there being so many 

 contingent expenses. As a source of trade, 

 much depends upon rearing the best breeds, 

 to be early in the season, laying in stock 

 and store at proper times, jiaving a ready 

 sale for produce, and to "buy cheap, and 

 sell dear." — London Gardener^s Chronicle. 



Liquid Manure. 



It is now a pretty general belief among 

 farmers, that there is " some good" in liquid 

 manures; but, some how or other, we never 

 see much preparation either for the collec- 

 tion or application of this, the cheapest and 

 most valuable of all manures, and we verily 

 believe that the subject is as yet scarcely 

 thought of — in a way to lead to any practi- 

 cal result — by one bona fide rent-paying 

 farmer out of a thousand. Now, having for 

 several years been an experimenter in this 

 way, and sensible of the very great import- 

 ance and value of liquid manures, I shall 

 here take the liberty of throwing in my 

 mite to the general fund, by communicating 

 the little I have gained by experience to my 

 fellow-farmers. 



As I discard all chemical formula — the 

 tank, watering-cart, and other et ceteras, 

 from my system, and attach the fertilizing 

 ingredients to a substance which farmers 

 can actually work in with spades and sho- 

 vels, I have more hope that my plan will be 

 followed. 



Chemists, generally, do not tell us the 

 reason why liquid manures will not do much 

 good when applied in a fresh state, though 

 this is perfectly plain to all reflecting men. 

 Liquid manure, if applied upon an impervi- 

 ous or gravelly soil, in a fresh state, is not 

 retained long enough for its decomposition 

 to take place, or for the roots to drink it up. 

 It is put on a liquid manure, and runs off in 

 the same state; but apply it to a soil rich in 

 decayed or decaying vegetable matter, and 



