178 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



DKCEMBER 19, 183^. 



covers the pollito, nor the days it lias been free 

 iVom llie shell, but then you know you can eat the 

 more of them, and pay accordingly. But to re- 

 turn to my story. During the rainy season, the 

 rivers of the State of Tobasco overflow the banks, 

 and the little eminences become so many tempo- 

 rary islands, to which all terrestrial animals retreat 

 for shelter. On these little mounds, too, the m- 

 habitants place their huts, and it is fine sport to 

 "o hunting in a canoe from one inlet to another 

 all over the country. Monkeys, parrots, peccaries, 

 snakes, in short all animals of a tropical climate, 

 mnj- be found in the same congregation. 



One afternoon, in the month of October, 1828, 

 in company with the Vice-Goveruor of the State, 

 I entered one of those huts aforesaid, to take some 

 refreshments and rest, when I observed before the 

 door a large cock with three or four dozen of 

 chickens around him, engaged in all the occupa- 

 tions usually appertaining to the hen, and appar- 

 ently very proud of his office. Neither man, wo- 

 man, child, pig, nor hen, would he sufter to mo- 

 lest his little ones in the slightest degree, and he 

 would occasionally cock his eye up towards the 

 birds of prey in the air with a menacing gesture, 

 as much as to say, " and you too had better keep 

 at a respectful distance from my spurs." The fol- 

 lawing was the account of this phenomenon given 

 nve by my companion. Col. Estrada. 



" The cock is chosen to hatch the eggs, on ac- 

 count of his superior size, and to take care of the 

 ckickens^oi^iimHmt of his superior strength, 

 while the hMM^nus*ftft freeito continue filling 

 other nests. To qualify him to take her place, he 

 is first rendered intoxicated by swinging him over 

 and over in a hammock, under which tobacco is 

 burnt to keep him enveloped in tho smoke. As 

 soon as he becomes senseless and niotionless, the 

 fsathcrs are stripped frotn his broid breast, and 

 ho is placed in a large nest with as many eggs in 

 it as his body can cover, in the position taken by 

 the hen herself while hatching. Wheh he recovers 

 from the stupor, the pressure of tht warm eggs 

 an-ainst his naked breast, seems toloccasion an 

 agreeable sensation, which detains lim on the 

 nfcst the full period of incubation. ' (fhy he con- 

 tinues his care to the chickens after they escape 

 from the shell, is best known to hims If — but you 

 see the fact before you, and the pra tice of thus 

 substituting the male for the female i) general in 

 this country." 



Now, Mr. Editor, all I ask of yoV and your 

 readers is to tiy before you deny the tiuth of the 

 storv. Henry Jerrike 



1 the Daily AUkny Arsvs. 

 SCMOOI- OP AGRICULTURE. |nO. 1. 



And why not a school of agriculture] as v/ell as 

 a school of medicine, of law, or of divii^ty ? The 

 objects of education should be, not onlylto qualify 

 youth for the discharge of civil and social duties, 

 but to facilitate their knowledge in the particular 

 business which is to form their empltjyment in 

 manhood. Agriculture is as necessary tojthe wants 

 and comforts of life, as are the learned professions, 

 and mainly contributes to our wealth pud pros- 

 perity. It gives employment to the raflss of our 

 population, and is the great business of our state. 

 Politically and morally, it is the conservative 

 organ of the Ijody politic. The interests of all are 

 consequently identified with its prosperity and 

 improvements. Its pursuits are interwoven with 

 the whole range of the natural sciences, and arc as 



susceptible of being benefitted by their study and 

 application, as are any of the civil employments of 

 life. Why not extend, then, to this great branch 

 of industry, that sort of education which is so 

 eminently calculated to multiply its products, an^ 

 at the same time to raise the moral and intellecti^ 

 al standard of that class of our citizens, who fro 

 their numbers, must continue to control our politi 

 cal destinies, and give the impress to our characti 

 as a people? 



It will not be said, I trust, that manual labor 

 incompatible with mental improvement. The e: 

 crcisc which labor gives, is as essential to the dd- 

 velopment and energy of the mind, as it is to thfe 

 health and muscular strength of the body. It 

 stimulates the head to plan and the hands to exe- 

 cute. Among those who tndy deserve the appel- 

 lation of the public benefactors, by their successr 

 ful exertions to render the arts and sciences benl 

 ficial to society, our country can boast of 

 Franklin, a Rittenhouse, a Fulton, a Whiti-.ey, 

 and others, who blended labor with .>study, and 

 who either followed the plough, or toiled in the 

 shop. 



Among the subjects submitted to the special in- 

 quiry of a committee, by the State Agricidtural 

 Society, was that of the propriety of establishing 

 an agricidtural school, to give instruction in the 

 theory and practice of luisbandi'y. In anticipatiai 

 of the report of this committee, I am desirous If 

 calling the public attention to the subject: aiil 

 I propose to point out, through the medium (|f 

 your paper, Mr. Editor, some of the bearinas 

 which such a school is calculated to have npop 

 the character, prosperity and happiness of the 

 State 1 



The bounties, like tlic burthens of tlie State,, 

 should be shared j)roportioually by all classes of 

 its population. This is not now our case in regard 

 to education. The benefits of the common siliool 

 system, it is true, are dispensed with an ri)Ual and 

 impartial han<l. But here the equality ceases. 

 Those destined to toil for a livelihood, to clothe, 

 to feed, and to enrich us by their labor, are turned 

 off to shift for themselves, like the younger sous 

 of an English Baron, without patrimony, wliile the 

 public purses continue open to those who seen) 

 destined, by chance rather than by merit, to enjoy 

 the peculiar distinctions in society. Our colleges 

 and academies, which share liberally of the public 

 bounty, are vestibides to the learned, not lo the 

 laborious employments, — to the fete, not to the 

 7nan>j. The studies which they offer are not adapt- 

 ed to the agricultural student j because he should 

 learn in youth that which he is to practice in man- 

 hood. These schools teach nothing practically in 

 husbandry; nor are their scientific instrui-tions 

 adequately adapted to its uses. The interests of 

 productive labor have but an incidental and [ireca 

 rious place among the studies of a college. Tlie 

 State has expended more than two millions of do 

 lars, upon what I term professional schools ; but 

 not a cent to advance, directly, the knowledge of 

 the agricidturist, the artizan, or the manufacturer, 

 beyond their common school instructions. Thus, 

 on the score of justice and impartiality, the labor- 

 ing classes have a right to claim, and the state are 

 bound to grant them, an equivalent for these pro- 

 fessional schools. 



The business of husbandry may be likened to 

 the healing art. The farmer, as well as the Jihy- 

 sieian, may plod on mechanicidly, without the aid 

 of study or science — happy, if you please, in his 



conceits and in his ignorance. Both may have 

 tolerable success, by adopting the example of en- 

 lightened neighbors, or following the impulse of 

 their own discriminating minds ; yet both would 

 do better were they to understand perfectly the 

 organization and properties of the subjects upon 

 which they are to operate, or are to employ, be 

 those subjects animals, plants or earths — medicine 

 or manure. Generations have been engaged in in- 

 vestigating the business of both professions, and 

 have handed down to us the result of iheir study 

 and experience. Tliese lessons of wisdom are 

 considered indispensable to the student of mcdi- 

 chie. They arc no less beneficial to the student 

 of agriculture. 



And what that is useful, it may be asked, is to 

 be learned in an agricultural school, which cannot 

 be acquired in our existing seminaries, or with u 

 good farmer.-' This question I propose to answer 

 in another number. B. 



Xov. 1832. 



From Slamrt's Planter's Guide. 

 TilKlKG CP AKD TRANSPORTIIVG TREES IK- 

 TENDED FOR TRANSPLANTIIVG. 



If there be any one thing more than another 

 in the remov.nl of trees that places the suiieriority 

 of the preservative system in a striking jioint of 

 view, ;t is the management of the roots. Few 

 planters in tho taking up of trees, make much 

 account of roots, provided that a large mass or 

 ball of earth only adhere to them. Marshall, one 

 of tiie most judicious writers who has treated the 

 sul),ect, in giving directions on this point, says, that 

 the length of the roots, properly speaking, should 

 nol be less than the fourth part of the whole 

 hoghth of the tree ; although probably for the 

 want of the means of extricating them from tlic 

 soil, he did not contemplate the possibility of ap- 

 jilying the rule to trees of any magnhude. Had 

 li^ been better acquainted whh vegetable physi- 

 ology, he would have seen that by the law of na- 

 tule, roots and branches must, in every case, be 

 rciitivo and correlative, and that the standard of 

 juifeing with respect to roots is not the hcighth of 

 thqplant, but the actual length of the side branch- 

 es, i If we mean that our sidjjccts should fully 

 pos(!ess the protecting ])roperties, in rcsi)ect to 

 thofe important conservative organs, they must 

 possess them relatively in such proportions, as 

 nat|ire coult?rs on all trees, which are found to 

 thrive in open exposures. 



, loots spread theniselves in the groimd in a wav 

 neirly analagous to that in which branches spread 

 thepiselvcs in the air, but with a (;ir greater niul- 

 tipicity of ramification. From the principal root 

 prqceed the buds, that give rise to the primary 

 rootlet!} ; and these again give off finer ramifica- 

 tions, which are the true absorbents of the root. 

 To lake up such nnnute and diminutive shoots on 

 the I preservative ])rinciple, in anything like an 

 entire state, is obviously impossible, with the 

 arborienltural implements now generally in use. 

 Hence it became necessary to liave sonietliing 

 mor« effective ; and the tree-picker was some 

 years since invented for tliis puqjose, and is now 

 used in Scotland by many persons, who have wit- 

 nessed its extraordinary utility in my practice. 

 This implement is of very simple structure, re- 

 sembling the pick used by miners, but with only 

 one point or prong, which forms an angle some- 

 what more acute with the handle than the miner's 

 pick. [See Plate, Fig. 4, N. E. Farmer, vol. xi. 

 p. 169.] The head, which is of iron, and fifteea 



