326 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



try ; but young chicks and turks are fed only 

 what they will eat up clean, but are fed often. 

 The goslings are allowed all the grain they 

 can eat, in addition to a good pasture, until 

 about three months old, when they are shut 

 up to finish oflf on corn meal and beef scraps, 

 which usually takes about three weeks. 



I have a few words which I wish to say to 

 those about to purchase poultry of fancy deal- 

 ers. In the first place there are three classes 

 of them ; the first, and in my experience the 

 largest, are dishonest men, who tell you that 

 their poultry is "extra fine," "second to none 

 in America" and that for the mere trifle of 

 $10 he will send you a pair of the desired 

 breed, the cash to accompany the order, and 

 if the birds don't suit he will refund the money. 

 Now that sounds pretty well until you come 

 to try it on. The birds arrive, do not suit, 

 the express charges are three dollars, the re- 

 turn express three dollars more, which would 

 leave you six dollars out any way, and the ten 

 dollars come back minus the charges for box- 

 ing and various imaginary expenses. Taking 

 an account of stock after this transaction you 

 will find yourself just about $10 out, if you 

 order from 100 to 200 miles from h. me. The 

 next class is composed of honest men who do 

 not know what good poultry is. The third 

 class are honest men who do know. The only 

 fair way is to have the birds sent "C. O. D." 

 — that is. bill payable on delivery, and in case 

 the birds are not accepted the would be pur- 

 chaser to pay one-half the express bill. 



I have seen several accounts in ihe papers, 

 lately in regard to setting turkey hens at any 

 season of the year, whether bioody or not. 

 I kept several over winter lor the purpose of 

 hatching out my surplus goose eggs, and al- 

 though I followed the directions, verbatim et 

 literatim, they would not sit ; after trying sev- 

 eral of them twice, I came to tbe conclusion 

 that Josh Billings knew what he was about 

 when he said "the best time to set a hen is 

 when the hen is ready," and that the rule is 

 equally applicable to hen turkeys. If any one 

 has had better success, I should like to hear 

 the particulars. If desirable, I will give my 

 management of winter chicks in my next. 



Theodore (i. Lincoln. 



Taunton, Mass., April 30, 1869. 



excellent opportunity for any of the cabbage 

 tribe ; in fact one not to be lost. 



Another difficulty arises in getting proper 

 plots for onions and carrots, as in the majority 

 of old gardens, they are so liable to the grub. 

 He has found that the more ground h ma- 

 nured for the two latter crops, the more 

 liable they are to the grub. 



Old asparagus beds are another excellent re- 

 source to fall back on, but there are gener- 

 ally so many candidates for ground of this 

 kind, that the difficulty is to choose. His 

 plan for many years has been to follow the 

 brassica tribe with peas, giving no manure 

 The peas he follows with celery. By sowing 

 two rows of peas at a time he gains when the 

 peas are sown on a celery bed. The celery 

 being pricked out at a good distance, say six 

 inches apart, is prepared to await the removal 

 of the peas successively. He sows celery late 

 and grows it quick, as that is the only way to 

 have it crisp and tender. 



He makes it a rule to break up a bed or 

 beds of asparagus every year, and to plant an 

 equal quantity. He plants the asparagus on 

 the celery ground, and the beds he intends 

 for asparagus he manures very deep, putting 

 old half-rotten leaves at the bottom and plant- 

 ing the celery in the old manure at top. 

 When the celery is removed the ground is in 

 excellent order for the asparagus. The beds 

 being six feet wide he plants two rows in a 

 bed, 30 inches between the rows, and the 

 plants a foot apart, leaving a shoulder of 18 

 inches on each side of the bed. This answers 

 admirably. The old beds of asparagus which 

 are broken up are then forced, and he has 

 strong plants in rows a yard apart of three 

 years' standing, which he takes up and forces 

 in succession. He grows Cape and other 

 autumn broccoli and cauliflower in another plot 

 constituting a different rotation. 



ROTATION IN" THE VEGETABLE 

 GARDEN. 



A writer in the English Gardeners'' Maga- 

 zine says that one of the great secrets in work- 

 ing old vegetable gardens is to prevent as 

 much as possible plants of the Brassica tribe 

 from following each other. He thinks tbat the 

 continual digging in of the rotten remains ot 

 cabbages, cauliflowers, &c., has a tendency to 

 cause the disease called club. Rispberries 

 and strawberries which have stood, it may be 

 years, on the same ground, offer, when broken. 



MB. LANG'S SALE. 



A full report of the sale of horses by Col. 

 Thomas S. Lang of North Vassalboro', Me., 

 May 11, is given by a correspondent of the 

 Boston Journal. The attendance of buyers 

 was not as large as was expected, and the sale 

 is represented as far from spirited, and the 

 prices obtained as extremely low. 



The Maine Farmer says : — 



"The aggregate amount realized from the 

 horses sold was $6320 ; and it may be added 

 that the animals were sold at figures very far 

 below their real value, and much less, in many 

 instances, than could have been obtained at 

 private sale. The neat stock announced in the 

 catalogue to be sold were withdrawn. Among 

 the prominent gentlemen in attendance at the 

 sale was Mr. Winthrop W. Chenery, of the 

 Belmont Stock Farm, Somerville, Mass. 



"It is with much regret that we chronicle 



