No. 1. Birds — Eggs. — Treatment of animals token young. 



33 



a double yolk in them, and others have been 

 found with a double shell. It is a curious 

 and interesting fact, that the spot on the 

 upper surface of the yolk of an egg, being 

 that in which the future chick is placed, is 

 so much lighter than the opposite side, that 

 in whatever position the egg is placed, this 

 part is always opposite to the belly of the 

 incubating bird.* 



Another wonderful fact respecting eggs, 

 is that some birds have tlie property of either 

 retaining their egg after it has arrived at 

 maturity, or of suppressing altogether the 

 further progress of those eggs which had 

 arrived at a certain size in the ovarium. I 

 have on several occasions purchased pullets 

 for my farm-yard, which had just begun to 

 lay. Perhaps on their way to their new 

 home, they would drop one egg in the ba.s- 

 ket in which they were confined; but I have 

 invariably found, that on arriving at a strange 

 place, they have altogether ceased to lay any 

 more eggs till they had become habituated 

 to their companions, and had made them- 

 selves acquainted with the localities of their 

 new situation. We know, on opening a 

 pullet which has just begun to lay, that 

 there is a regular succession of eggs of dif- 

 ferent sizes in the ovarium. Some are 

 nearly complete, others are as large as a 

 marble, and others of the size of a pea. 

 The circumstance of birds being endowed 

 with the extraordinary property of prevent- 

 ing the eggs from arriving at maturity when 

 their usual habits or place of abode have 

 been changed, is one of those facts in natu- 

 ral history on which little light has yet been 

 thrown. If the leg of a pullet is broken 

 afler she has laid two or tiiree eggs, and she 

 is thus prevented from seeking enough of 

 tliat substance which is necessary to be 

 taken into the stomach with her food, for 

 the purpose of encrusting the egg, she will 

 perhaps drop one without a shell, and then 

 cease altogether from laying any more till 

 the bones of her leg are knit, and she is 

 able to go about as usual. She then begins 

 to lay again, but the number is regulated by 

 those she had previously laid. Suppose, for 

 instance, she had laid four eggs before her 

 leg was broken, and that the quantity in her 

 ovarium when she first began, was sixteen, 

 she would, when she resumed her laying, 

 only produce the remaining twelve. From 

 this it is clear that a certain quantity of 

 some material — lime and chalk probably — is 

 necessary to enable a hen to produce a per- 

 fect egg, and that the want of it retards the 

 process going on in the ovarium, without 

 producing any immediate injury to those 



eggs which were in a gradual process to- 

 wards maturity. In the instance already 

 mentioned, of hens ceasing to lay on being 

 brought to a strange place, it was probably 

 occasioned by their restlessness, and not 

 knowing at first where to go in search of 

 what was necessary to bring their eggs to 

 perfection. It is much to be wished that 

 this curious subject should engage the atten- 

 tion of naturalists more than it appears to 

 have done. — Jesse''s Gleanings, vol. 1. 



* Blumenbach. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Prudent treatment of animals Avhen 

 young. 



The subjoined article met with in the 

 Maine Farmer, I take the liberty to send 

 tor the Cabinet, concluding that the good, 

 sound, practical sense, running through it, 

 and communicated in so animated a style, 

 should not be confined to the paper in which 

 it originated. " Train them while young !" 

 Aye, what a volume of advice is expressed 

 in these four words ! and well would it be, 

 if we would extend their application beyond 

 the subjects directly before us, to the nurs- 

 lings around our hearths. X. 



Solomon says, " Train up a child in the way 

 he should go, and when he is old he will not 

 depart from it." This is true in regard to 

 children as a general thing, but it is, if pos- 

 sible, more true in regard to animals of the 

 lower orders, for they, not having so much 

 scope of intellect, are not led about by pro- 

 pensities which so often overcome all the 

 dictates of reason and the salutary trainings 

 of youth. 



Every domestic animal, from the hog up- 

 ward, is susceptible of education, more or 

 less, and should receive it when young. The 

 little pig, if subject to being handled and 

 rubbed while with its dam, is always much 

 more manageable when it becomes a hog, 

 and may even become amiable, in a hoggish 

 way, and very susceptible to the " Mesmeric 

 influences of a rubbing stick," when applied 

 in a proper manner to the tickling ot his 

 sides, to make him " shoulder over" and go 

 into a state of " clairvoyance." If farmers 

 or farmers' sons, would take a little more 

 pains to familiarize young animals, such as 

 calves, we should not have so many vicious, 

 kicking cows, or headstrong, crowding, run- 

 away oxen. But this system would be siiU 

 more productive of good among horses than 

 any other class. The Arab horses are sup- 

 posed to possess more natural docility than 

 any other breed. Perhaps they do, but we 

 doubt if they are endowed by nature with 



