Vol. IX.— No. 3: 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



298 



ArA 



1', where, as the late learned Professor Peels, 

 ul, ' tliishiseet does not exist.' It was culti- 

 111 old times for various reasons. Planted on 

 Iv anil sterile lands, where it grows freely, it 

 iiul greatly to fertilize the ground. It was 

 red valnalde for its great dnraliillty wheji 

 • r posts and as tiinlier. It was nscd for 

 als in shi[)-linildiii^', not only for its strength 

 lability, Imt from its not shrinking like other 

 It was esteemed for quiekness of growth, 

 ity as an ornamental tree, and its aptitude 

 ' tiiate itself hy its roots, which run near 

 lace of the ground, — and if wanted for no 

 purpose, conid he used as a most pleasant 

 icie of fuel, as much so as walnut. At the pre- 

 t time, nothing but the worm prevents our hold- 

 the locust in the same estimation our ances- 

 did, and shall this discourage us so much as 

 only to prevent our planting, but incline us to 

 rpate the few trees that remain ? Rather let 

 encourage the tree and endeavor to eitiipate 

 worm. This would be a much wiser as well 

 a more manly course. — There are parts of the 

 intry, the more southern parts, it is said, where 

 i insect does not abound, or is not known and 

 y may we not hope, ere long, to be freed from 

 At worst, the locust will do for fire-wood, 

 ugh liable at iiresent to be blown down before 

 ttains much size, and for this purpose alone, 

 isidering that our forests are disappearing, — it is 

 I worthy of public attention. Bad as the case is 

 lay be much doubted, whether, as it can be so 

 ly done, so good a use can be made of our 

 vel knolls and barren spots as to plant them 

 b the yellow locust. 



he Trustees of the Massachusetls AgriciiUural Society. 

 lENTi-EME.N- — I liave bccu induced by the pre- 

 im offered by you, to plant out an acre of Ye!- 

 Locust trees. In the spring of 1828, I pro- 

 ed at the seed store of Mr Russell, in Boston, a 

 ntity of seed, and poured into it boiling water, 

 suffered it to soak therein three or four days. 

 ;n I sowed it in the garden, and carefully weed- 

 he plants; many of them grew to the height 

 bur and a half feet that season. In the spring 

 •jwing I transplanted them on to about two thirds 

 .m acre of poor, worn-out land, placing them 

 ows 8 feet apart, and at 4 feet distance in the 

 s. On one side of this plat in 1829, I sowed 

 e seed, with the view of making a hedge fence 

 1 them, and of supplying more trees to make 

 the acre. I have this season covered over an 

 J with the trees of the two seasons, and there 

 more than 1000 trees on the acre. On two 

 OS of tliis acre, therefore, the trees are now of 

 !e years' growth — on the other third, of two 

 rs' growth. On the be.st of the land some of 

 trees are four and a half inches in circumfer- 

 e, and seven feet high. I chose a poor soil 

 the trees that tliey might enrich it. 

 notice that wherever Yellow Locust trees grow, 

 grass under them is not only much increased 

 [uantity, but that the cattle eat it in jireference 

 ■ther grass — always biting it close to the ground, 

 lerefore prefer it for hedges to any other live 

 wth — for, so far from injuring our pastures, 

 y are a positive benefit to them. 

 Respectfully yours, 



William Buckminster. 

 Framingham, Nov. lalh, 1830. 



Large Ox. — An Ox six years old, belonging to 

 us Lothrop, Esq. of Easton, was slaughtered 

 ly weighing 1826 pounds. 



olisl•;Rv,\TIO.^'s on the teeth. 



An object very subservient to health, and which 

 merits ihn> attention, is tho preservation of the 

 teeth : the care of which, considering their im- 

 portanco in preparing the food for digestion, is, in 

 giMieral, fir from being sufficiently cultivated. 

 Very few persons, comparatively wash their iiioulli 

 in the morning, which ought always to be jira 

 tised at the conclusion of every meal, where eith 

 animal food or vegetables are eaten ;. for tho for- 

 mer is apt to leave behind it a rancid acrimony, 

 and the latter an acidily, both of them hurtful to 

 the teeth. Washing the mouth frequently wilh 

 cold water, is not only serviceable in keejiing the 

 teeth clean, but it strengthens the gums, the firm 

 adhesion of which to the teeth, is of great impor- 

 tance in preserving them sound and secure. 



Picking the Teeth — Picking teeth i)roporly is 

 also greatly conducive to their preservation ; but 

 the usual manner of doing this is by no means 

 favorable to the |)urpose. When it is necessary 

 to pick the teeth, the operation ought to be per- 

 formed with due care, so as not to hurt the gums ; 

 but the safest and best way of doing it is always 

 before a looking-glass. 



Tooth Powder. — Many persons, while laudably 

 attentive to the preservation of their teeth, do 

 them hurt by too much officiousness. They daily 

 apply to them some dentifrice jiowder, which they 

 rub so hard as not only to injure the enamel by 

 excessive friction, but to hurt the gumseveu more 

 than by the abuse of the picktooth. — The quality 

 of some dentifrice powder, advertised in news- 

 papers, is extremely suspicious ; and there is rea- 

 son to think that they are not altogether free 

 from a corrosive ingredient. — One of the safest 

 and best compositions for the purpose, is a mix- 

 ture of two parts of oysteishell, and one of Peru- 

 vian bark, both finely powdered; which is calcu- 

 lated not only to clean the teeth without hurting 

 them, but to preserve the firmness of the gums. 



Beside the advantage of sound teeth from 

 their use in mastication, a jiroper attention to 

 their treatment condui'es not a little to the sweet- 

 ness of the breath. This is, indeed, often effect- 

 ed by other causes, existing in the lungs, the 

 stomach, and sometimes in the bowels ; but a rot- 

 ten state of the teeth, both from the putrid smell 

 emitted by carious bones, and the impm-ities lodged 

 in their cavities, never fails of aggravating an 

 uniilsasaut breath wherever there is a tendency of 

 that kind. 



Foul Teeth The teeth sometiines become yel- 

 low or black without any adventitious matter 

 being observed on them; at other times they be- 

 come foul, and give a taint to the breath, in con- 

 sequence of the mouth, or part of the food remain- 

 ing too long about them. The most frequent 

 cause of foul teeth is the substance called tartar, 

 which seems to be a deposition from the saliva, 

 and with which the teeth are often almost entirely 

 incrusted. When this substance is allowed to 

 remain, it iiisinnates itself between the gums and 

 the teeth, and then gets down upon the jaw in 

 such a manner as to loosen the teeth. This, in- 

 deed is by far the most common cause of loose 

 teeth ; and when they have been long covered 

 with this or any other matter, it is seldom they 

 can be cleaned without the assistance of instru- 

 ments. But when once they are cleaned, they 

 may generally be kept so, by rubbing them with 

 a thin piece of soft wood made into a kind of 

 brush and dipped into disilled vinegar; after 



which the mouth is to be washed with common 

 water. 



The teeth aro sometimes covered over with a 

 thin dark colored scurf, which has by some been 

 mistaken lor a wasting of the enamel, but which 

 is only an extraneous matter covering it. By per- 

 severance this may be cleaned off as completely 

 as when teeth are covered with tartar ; but it is 

 apt after some time to appear again. When it is 

 observed, the same opeuation must be re|)eato(l. 



For the purpose of applying powders or washes 

 to the teeth, a brush or a s()onge is commonly 

 employed ; the latter is supposed preferable, as 

 being in least danger of wearing down the ena- 

 mel, or of separating the teeth. — Jour, of Health. 



iim'w i2sr(aai\sriD ^iiojsaiasa 



BOSTON, WED.NESDAY EVENING, MARCH 30,1831. 



POULTRY. 



Continued from page 278. 



Feeding and fattening Fowls. — Fowls will be- 

 come fat on the common run of the farm-yard 

 where they tlirive on the offals of the stable, and 

 other refuse, with perhaps some small regular daily 

 feeds; but at threshing time they become partic- 

 ularly fat, and are thence styled barn-door fowls, 

 probably the most delicate and highly flavored of 

 all others, both from their full allowance of the 

 finest grain, and the constant health in which 

 they are kept by living in a natural state, and hav- 

 ing the full enjoyment of air and exercise. It is a 

 common |)ractice wilh some housewives to coop 

 thbir barn door fowls for a week or two, under 

 the notion of improving them for the table, and 

 increasing their fatness ; a practice, however, whicli 

 .seldom succeeds, since the fowls generally pine 

 for their loss of liberty, slighting their food, lose 

 instead of gaining additional flesh, the period be- 

 ing too short foV them to become accustomed to 

 confinement. 



Sandy gravel and a little lime rubbish should 

 be placed where they can be accessible at all times 

 to fowls, and ol'ten changed. •Small bits of char- 

 coal, it is also said, will be swallowed by poultry, 

 and prove beueficial to them. A sufficient num- 

 ber of troughs, for both water and food should be 

 placed around, that the stock may feed with as 

 little interruption as possible from each other, and 

 perches for roosting on in the same proportion 

 should be furnished for those birds, which are in- 

 clined to roost aloft, which few of them will de- 

 sire after they have begun to fatten, but which 

 helps to keep them easy and contented till that 

 period. By tills mode fowls may be fattened to 

 the highest pitch, and yet preserved in a healthy 

 state, their flesh being equal in quality to that of 

 the barn-door fowl. 



The privation of light, by inclining fowls to a 

 constant state of rejiose, excepting when moved 

 by the appetite for food, promotes and quickens 

 their fattening ; but a state of obesity, obtained in 

 this way cannot be a state of health ; nor can the 

 flesh of animals so fed, equal in flavor, nutriment, 

 and salubrity that of the same species fed in a 

 more natural way. Economy and market inter- 

 est may, perhaps, be best answered by the plan of 

 darkness and close confinement, but a feeder for 

 his own table, of delicate taste and ambitious of 

 furnishing his board with the clioicest and most 

 saliilirious viands, will declare for the natural mode 

 of feeding; and in that view a feeding yard grav- 

 elled and turfed, the room being open all day, for 



