230 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



important question is, Are they any better than our 

 common breeds ? 



Allow- mc to make a few remarks on the Poland 

 Fowl, to begin Avith. Some few years ago, I pur^ 

 chased a pair of this breed, for •which I paid fotir 

 dollars. They -were of a shining jet black, with 

 white tufts, or topknots, on their heads, of great 

 beanty. I was told that they were great layers, 

 and that they never sat for incubation, or hatching 

 their young. If these facts were true, I considered 

 a great dilfioiilty overcome to the successful keeping 

 of fowls as a matter of profit. In brief, I found that 

 my hens of this breed, after a fair and full trial, did 

 not lay any more eggs during the year, in the aggre- 

 gate, than our ordinary fowls, that sit once in a sea- 

 son, and rear but one brood of chickens ! Three, 

 and sometimes four, eggs a week, per hen, were the 

 average number laid by them. The chicks were 

 raised under other hens. 



In regard to sitting, it is true that they do not sit ; 

 but it is rather a disadvantage, since they will fre- 

 quently make a mock attempt at it, and cover their 

 eggs a few days, a part of the time, render them ad- 

 dle, and leave them. They are, also, diminutive in 

 size. Their flesh is of a poor flavor, and it is very 

 hard fattening them ; and, in fine, as a market fowl, 

 or for the table, they do not begin to compare with 

 some of our domestic breeds, that can be purchased 

 for fifty cents or less per pair, the country over. 

 They are greatly subject to diseases ; so much so, 

 indeed, that I think I may safely say, that a hundred 

 of them would employ constantly one person skilled 

 in the "Materia Medica" of dunghill tribes. They 

 arc very tender, fit for a southern latitude only, one 

 would suppose, from the effect of a severe winter 

 upon them. 



I found that, in order to breed these fowls in pure 

 blood, they must have a yard by themselves, and not 

 even be allowed to see other fowls ! It is, indeed, a 

 fact, that the mere act of Avitnessing other fowls, in 

 adjoining enclosures, avLII destroy the purity of the 

 breed. [This is new to us. Can it be explained ? — 

 Eds.] 



I crossed the breed with success. I placed a Po- 

 land cock with a half dozen hens of the Dominica, or 

 blue-spotted breed. This amalgamation produced a 

 beautiful black hen, with a close coat of feathers, and 

 a fine, black tuft of feathers upon the head. The 

 color Avas iuA-ariably a perfect jet black in hens, while 

 the cocks Avere also black, but Avith a Avhite tuft upon 

 the head, less full, and more upright, than the pure 

 breed. The hens A\-ere fine, constant laj'crs, seldom 

 Avishing to sit. Their flesh Avas Avell flavored, and 

 the degree of fattening that they attained, Avhen Avell 

 fed on corn, oats, &c., Avas astonishing. Indeed, on 

 one occasion, I had to put them on a short alloAvance, 

 even in the season of incubation, Avhcn foAA'ls are gen- 

 erally poor, fearing that I should lose them through 

 extreme fatness or obesity. 



If one desires a fowl for its singularity and beauty, 

 it is Avell enough to buy Polands ; but he Avho pur- 

 chases in the expectation of finding them a more 

 profitable foAvl than our common breeds, Avill find 

 himself sadly mistaken. It is probably true, that, on 

 some occasions, there haA-c been great layers of this 

 breed ; and the same of any other kind. If a gen- 

 tleman should chance to got a large number of eggs 

 from any single or specific number of fowls, on some 

 particular occasion, it is no criterion of Avhat every 

 man may do. They have their years of prolific abun- 

 dance, and they haA-e their seasons of sterility. Food 

 and good management, in the rearing of foAvls, haA'o 

 their beneficial results, but the same person seldom 

 succeeds alike during a scries of years. 



T. B. MINER. 



Cltxton, Oneida Co., N. Y. 

 — American AgricuUiirist. 



PULVERIZED WOOD FOR CATTLE. 



The folloAving ncAV thing, in the Avay of food for 

 cattle, is furnished by a !Mr. Daniels to Chambers's 

 Journal. lie says, " About three years since, I had 

 occasion to send my cart-horses frequently through a 

 piece of coppice Avood, and Avhenever it happened that 

 they stopped Avithin reach of the rods, they Avould 

 greedily devour every bough they could come at. This 

 I noticed many times. At last I was led to examine 

 the rods on Avhich I had seen them feeding, and found 

 them completely stripped of their branches, some of 

 Avhich Avcre of a A-ery considerable thickness. This 

 led me to suppose that there must be some good 

 qualities in the wood ; and this consideration induced 

 me to get some pulverized, and giA'cn to my cart- 

 horses, Avhich experiment Avas repeated at scA-eral 

 different times, until I was fully satisfied that it had 

 no injurious effect on them. After this, I Avas led to 

 give it to my gig-horses Avith their corn ; and, haA'ing 

 ascertained that it did them no injiury, I had machin- 

 ery prepared for reducing the Avood for the purpose 

 of food, and began to feed both cart and gig-horses, 

 as also my coavs and pigs, mixing a portion Avith all 

 the food Avhich Avas given them. This practice I have 

 continued for the last ten months. Previous to feed- 

 ing my horses in this Avay, they had each three quar- 

 ters of a peck of oats and beans giA-en them per day, 

 for Avhich are noAV substituted three pints of barley per 

 day. They are in equally fine condition as Avhen fed 

 in the usual Avay, and more playful and free in their 

 work. Soon after the Avood Avas mixed Avith the fod- 

 der giA-en to the coavs, their milk, as Avell as their 

 condition, Avas much improved. For several Avceks 

 I^ast, I have been feeding sheep Avith the puh-erized 

 Avood, together Avith crushed Swedish turnips ; and 

 thej'' also appear to improve by it. I have likewise 

 fatted four pigs successively, mixing this food Avith 

 barley meal, and the results have proved most satis- 

 factory." 



This statement, howcA'cr strange it may sound, is 

 not so startling, when avc remember that the woody 

 matter of trees is, in its chemical nature, nearly al- 

 lied to starch, and that it alAvays contains some niti'O- 

 gen; so that, in reality, it furnishes the ordinary 

 materials of food, in another form. We presume, 

 hoAvcA'cr, that Avhite-Avooded, and not resinous, trees 

 are those Avhich furnish Mr. Daniels's cattle Avith the 

 ligneous pulp they thrive so aa'cII upon. 



THE CODLING MOTH. 



We copy from Hovcy's Magazine of Horticulture 

 part of a communication ujson the insect Avhich is the 

 parent of the apple Avorm, that is so destructive to our 

 fruit. It is by M. II. Simpson, Esq., SaxonA'illc, Mass. 



The other insect to Avhich I alluded is the codling 

 moth. This little moth deposits her egg in the eye 

 of the apple ; they commenced last year about the 

 1.5th of June, and were so destructive on my trees, 

 as to take about all the curculio spared, and many of 

 the Bartlett and Passe Colmar pears. They are about 

 all the season, or until the middle of September. 

 There are two or three crops of them. I produced 

 them from the egg in about five weeks. They were 

 tAvo Aveeks eating before they Averc ready to go into 

 the chrysalis state, and three Avecks before the per- 

 fect moth appeared. They are a small gray moth, 

 Avith a distinct mark upon the hind part of tiie Avings, 

 of a broAvn color, edged Avith copper ; they do not 

 extend their Avings more than seven eighths of an 

 inch ; they are very lively at night, and entirely at 

 rest in the daytime, from A\-hich I infer that they fly 

 only at night. I have never been able to find one 



