1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



331 



motion — how many railway trains has it propelled 

 across the country — how many thousand wagon 

 loads of salt has it elaborated from the brine — 

 how many more millions tons of iron has it fur- 

 nished, raised to the surface, smelted and ham- 

 mered ! It ha? made Birmingham a great city, 

 the first iron depot of Europe, and filled the 

 country with crowded towns and busy villages. 

 And if one small field has done so much, what 

 may we not expect from those vast basins laid 

 down by Lyell in the geographical map of the 

 United States ? — Hugh Miller. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 TABLB OP MEASURES OP LAND. 



Knowing the difficulty often experienced by 

 farmers and others, in laying off small parcels of 

 land to be used in making an experiment in 

 growth of crops, or application of manures, — I 

 have prepared a small table of measures, in the 

 simplest form, which may be useful to the read- 

 ers of the Farmer. 



It will be seen by reference to the plan that a 

 practice sometimes followed by farmers is very 

 erroneous ; if the side of a square containing 

 one acre measures 208.71 ft., one-half that length 

 will not make a square containing one-half an 

 acre, but only one-fourth an acre, and one-third 

 the length of line will enclose a square of one- 

 ninth an acre, and one-fourth the line, squared, 

 will contain one-sixteenth an acre, and so on, the 

 square of the fraction of the line taken will give 

 the part of an acre enclosed. 



ONE ACRE CONTAINS 

 160 square rods ; 4840 square yards ; 43,560 square feet. 



ONE ROD CONTAINS 



.30.25 square yards ; 272.25 square feet. 

 One square yard coutains nine square feet. 



THE SIDE OF A SQUARE TO CONTAIN 



One acre 208.71 feet 12 65 rods 64 paces. 



One-lialf acre.... 147.58 " 8 94 " 45 " 



One-third acre.. .120.50 " 7.30 " 37 " 



One-fourth acre. .104.36 " 6.32 " 32 " 



One-eighth acre... 73 79 " 4.47 " 2i\ " 



208.71 feet. 



The square above is supposed to contain one 

 acre. J. Herbert Shedd. 



Boston, May, 1858. 



CliOSE BREEDING. 



There has long been a controversy among men 

 on the subject of close breeding, some contend- 

 ing that it is very injurious, others that it is not 

 seriously objectionable. By close breeding is 

 meant, breeding by animals of near affinity of 

 blood. It is contended by the objectors to close 

 breeding, that fowls, sheep, hogs, and cattle that 

 are bred for a long series of years in the same 

 flocks, without the addition of any alien blood 

 from other flocks or breeds, surely degenerate 

 and become less useful. And this is given to ac- 

 count for the unserviceable fowls, the gaunt hogs, 

 the weakly sheep and the scrawny cattle that are 

 so frequently found on old farms, among old- 

 style farmers. Those who see no objections to 

 close breeding cite many examples of it to sus- 

 tain their views, such as Flying Childers, a horse 

 of unrivalled beauty and speed, known to have 

 been closely bred ; the Darby Game fowl, bred 

 at Knowsley Park for several hundred years with- 

 out change from the blood of the original stock ; 

 the pair of wild geese brought by Col. Jaques, of 

 Somerville, Mass., from Canada, in 1818, whose 

 stock at this time, bred in a direct line from the 

 original pair without the addition of any strain 

 of new blood, is not the least degenerated. But 

 notwithstanding these isolated cases of the seem- 

 ing safety of close breeding, we must give our 

 testimony strongly against it. We cannot but 

 feel that close breeding among human creatures 

 or animals is generally attended with bad effects. 

 It is true, cousins may marry with safety to their 

 offspring, but it is very common that bad results 

 are known to follow. We have seen nor read of 

 no great man nor woman the offspring of cous- 

 ins. And we believe that the children of cousins 

 are generally inferior to their parents. The same 

 physiological laws are in action in both human 

 and animal creatui-es. It is a law, we believe, of 

 human physiology that similarity of tempera- 

 ment is unfavorable to the offspring, whilst dis- 

 similarity of temperament is favorable. Now, it 

 is a general rule that similarity of temperament 

 obtains in families. This will be especially the 

 case if families should breed in-and-in for sever- 

 al generations. Even in this view of the sub- 

 ject it is best often to seek favorable crosses in 

 breeding animals. 



It is well known that the barn-yard fowls on 

 many farms are very unserviceable. It is known, 

 too, that this is not for the %vant of good fare, 

 shelter, &c. It is known, also, that in many 

 instances these fowls have been bred-in for many 

 years without a single fowl from any other flock 

 being added. The inference is very plausible 

 that close breeding has affected them unfavora- 

 bly. 



We know a woman whose hens have for sev- 

 eral years been very serviceable. She is the 

 wife of an intelligent and successful farmer, and 

 she laughs at the mania for foreign fowls. She 

 thinks she can show as large eggs and as many 

 from a hen, as much profit with as little expen- 

 diture as anybody. Her plan has been for many 

 years to breed from her best hens, to set only the 

 largest eggs. If she sees a fowl in any neigh- 

 bor's yard that is very fine, she buys it or swaps 

 for it ; if she sees a very large agg elsewhere, 

 she secures it if possible ; thus constantly bring- 

 ing new strains of promising blood. Her fowls 



