1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



317 



BILVEB-SPANQLED POLAND. 



These fowls, says Mr. Bement, are in all 

 respects similar to the Golden-Spangled in 

 shape and markings, except that white, black 

 and gray are exchanged for ochre or yellow, 

 and various shades of brown. He says they 

 may certainly be ranked among the very 

 choicest and most beautiful of fowls. They 

 lay medium sized white eggs, much pointed at 

 one end, in tolerable abundance, and when 

 they sit, they acquit themselves respectably. 



The newly-hatched chickens are very pretty, 

 creamy-white, interspersed with slaty dun on 

 the back, head and neck, marked with longi- 

 tudinal stripes down the back, with black eyes, 

 light lead-colored legs, and a swelling of down 

 on the head, indicative of the future top-knot, 

 which is exactly the color of an old-fashioned 

 powdered wig ; and, indeed, gives the chick 

 the appearance of wearing one. The Polish 

 fowls are better suited for limited enclosures 

 and for keeping in a small way than for being 

 reared in large numbers. 



PKUIT GARDEN". 



We think we have the best soil and climate 

 for fruit culture in the world, yet probably get 

 less returns for the money invested than any 

 people on earth, simply because we do not fully 

 appreciate labor as an essential element of suc- 

 cess. The amount of practical skill and in- 



cessant care given to fruit culture in Europe 

 before the innumerable fruit enemies are over- 

 come, would astonish Americans. The writer 

 of this has spent, every year, months of time 

 when a boy, in simply training plums, apricots, 

 cherries, pears, and peaches to walls built for 

 their protection ; in capturing moths, wasps 

 -and insects, during summer ; in keeping birds 

 from the buds ; in pinching back and directing 

 the course of summer shoots, and, in innumer- 

 able ways, watching the progress and maturity 

 of fruits which would have "come to nothing" 

 but for such care. It is curious to read the 

 learned essays in the "secular" papers about' 

 the decline of fruit growing. "Elements are 

 exhausted," "systems are wrong," "varieties 

 run out," and so on. "The soil and climate 

 once grew fruit well here, but it will do so no 

 more." The truth is, in new localities insects 

 and fungi, inimical to fruit, do not exist; can- 

 not until their natural food first comes. After 

 a few years they find out your orchards ; and 

 to succeed after that you must JigM them. 

 Insects and blights reproduce themselves, and 

 we must gather them together and destroy 

 them before they transcend their adolescent 

 state. This is the only remedy. Washes, oils, 

 preparations, &c., do much good; but much 

 more may be done by manual labor than is 

 generally supposed. 



We may say, then, look sharp after insects. 

 Last year we introduced petroleum as an in- 

 sect destroyer. It is the most valuable dis- 

 covery of modern times to the fruit-grower. 

 In over-doses it is, like tobacco, sulphur and 

 others, fatal to the life of the trees. We have 



