242 



Chickens — The Dairy. 



Vol. III. 



be taken up root and branch and cast into the 

 fire. 



How would it do for the constables or su- 

 pervisors of the roads to be authorized by law, 

 at the expense of the respective townships, to 

 remove such nuisances from our borders? I 

 merely make these suggestions, hoping some 

 of your ingenious correspondents will turn 

 their thoughts to a subject of so much inter- 

 est to the agricultural community, and let us 

 hear from them. Agricola. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Chickens. 



An observing boy will make an intelligent mat?. 



I was pleased with the communication of 

 " M," on the " ' Gap' in Chickens," and not the 

 less so on the account of his " little son" hav- 

 ing made the investigation alluded to. If boys 

 keep their attention alive to making such dis- 

 coveries, and their parents are careful to for- 

 ward them to the Cabinet, we shall soon have 

 recorded numerous very important facts ; for 

 I have long observed that intelligent, observ- 

 ing children are more likely to make original 

 discoveries and remarks than those who are 

 farther advanced in life. But there is one 

 word, or term, used in the communication, 

 which I suspect is not the right one, and I 

 therefore take the liberty of directing the at- 

 tention of the youth to it, that he may exam- 

 ine again and see which of us is correct. He 

 states " that numerous long worms, about the 

 thickness of a common pin, were found in the 

 wind -pipe." Now the wind-pipe is the pas- 

 sage to the lungs, through which only air or 

 wind passes when the animal breathes ; it is 

 called by doctors the trachea; the upper end 

 of it is covered by a little trap-door or flap 

 that rises and lets the air in when breathing, 

 but whenever food or drink is passing into the 

 stomach or crop of the fowl, this trap-door is 

 closed, and it passes over it like a bridge, and 

 goes down the gullet, throat, or esophagus, (as 

 the meat-pipe is called by men of science) into 

 the crop, whence it passes on to the gizzard, 

 which I suspect is the proper stomach, where 

 it is thoroughly ground, as between " the up- 

 per and the nether mill stone," till the nutri- 

 cious portions of it are in a fit state to be ta- 

 ken up and converted into blood, to repair any 

 casual damage, and to nourish the system; 

 and the parts which are not suitable tor nu- 

 trition are cast off into the draught. Now it 

 is probable the worms, or the eggs out of 

 which they were hatched, were swallowed 

 by the chickens without being sufficiently 

 crushed or chewed, as is too common with 

 young people as well as young chickens with 

 thei.' food, and vitality not being destroyed, 

 tliey grew, and were nourished by the heat 

 and contents of the crop, till they began to 



be uneasy in their confined situation, and 

 were seeking a way out, when they produced 

 pain and suffering, by passing or attempting 

 to pass over the little bridge before mentioned, 

 which impeded the respiration of the chick, 

 and by this means would have suffocated it, 

 had not a remedy been applied in due season. 

 The feather with the turpentine, I think must 

 have passed into the gullet, and not into the 

 icind-pipe, otherwise it would have been more 

 certainly and speedily fatal than the worms. 

 It is said that the common red pepper broken 

 up and mixed occasionally with the food of 

 chickens is beneficial to them, furnishing a 

 stimulus to the organs of digestion, and ena- 

 bling them the better to perform their func- 

 tions. A Father. 



2d mo. 18, 1839. 



TIIE DAIRY. 

 Wo. I. 



On the Itlnnagement of tlie Dairy, partlctia 

 larly ^vitli respect to the making and 

 curing of Batter. 



BY DR. JAMES ANDERSON. 



When a dairy is established, the underta- 

 ker may sometimes think it his interest to 

 obtain the greatest possible quantity of pro- 

 duce, sometimes it may be more beneficial 

 for him to have it o^ X\\q finest quality, and at 

 other times it may be necessary to have both 

 these objects in view, the one or the other in 

 a greater or less proportion ; it is therefore 

 of importance he should know how he may 

 accomplish the one or the other of these pur- 

 poses, in the easiest and most direct manner. 



To be able to convert his milk lo the high- 

 est possible profit in every case, he ought to 

 be fully acquainted with every circumstance 

 respecting the manufacture both of butter and 

 of cheese; as it may in some cases happen 

 that a certain portion of that milk may be 

 more advantageously converted into butter 

 than into cheese, while another portion of it 

 would return more profit if made into cheese. 

 It is not, however, intended in the present 

 essay to enter into this wide di.=cussion. Here, 

 it is only proposed to treat of the manufac- 

 ture of butter, leaving the subject of cheese- 

 making to some other person to treat of, who 

 is more conversant in that department than the 

 author of this essay. 



The first thing to be adverted to in an un- 

 dertaking of this nature is, to choose cows of 

 a proper sort. Among this class of animals, 

 it is found by experience, that some kinds 

 give milk of a much thicker consistence, and 

 richer quality than others ; nor is this richness 

 of quality necessarily connected with the 

 smallness of the quantity yielded by cows of 

 nearly an equal size; it therefore behoves the 



