NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



181 



carrots, it will be found to contain no undigested 

 hay or oats, and therefore less quantities of those 

 materials are necessary than when half the amount 

 swallowed is parted with in an undigested stale. 

 For fattening animals the carrot is equally valu- 

 able, and for milch cows they surpass any other 

 food. The milk of a cow at mid-winter fed on car- 

 rots, is equal in flavor to that supplied from clover 

 in summer, while the butter made from the milk is 

 finely colored and highly flavored. 



In soils containing proper proportions of bone- 

 dust, sulphuric acid, potash, and common salt, BOO 

 bushels of long orange, or 1100 bushels of white 

 Belgian carrots, may be easily raised per acre, while 

 the same land will not jnxuluce one-tenth the quan- 

 tity of oats. We have sold our crop of carrots this 

 year to the livery stable keepers of Newark, at 50 

 cents per bushel, and we could have sold another 

 thousand bushels or more at the same price. — ^^ ork- 

 ing Farmer. 



FOOD FOR PLANTS. 



A specimen of a soil of good appearance was 

 given to Sir Humphrey Davy, from Lincolnshire, 

 in England, as remarkable for sterility. On ana- 

 lyzing it he found sulphate of iron. He recom- 

 mended a top dressing of lime; and the sulphate oi 

 iron was forthwith converted into the sulphate of 

 lime; a noxious substance was at once changed in- 

 to an object of feitility. It was the boast of Frank- 

 lin that he had stripped lightning of its perils and 

 chained the thunderbolt. Chemistry does more. 

 Poisons are changed by its alchemy into the means 

 of subsistence. 



The Hon. Reverdy. Johnson purchased, in 1849, 

 a small farm near Baltimore, in the last stage of 

 impoverishment. Such was its reduced condition 

 that the last crop of corn was not more than one 

 peck to the acre. He states that all the vegetable 

 matter grrowing on the two hundred acres of cleared 

 land, including briers, sassafras and other bushes, 

 if carefully collected, would have been insufficient 

 for the manufacture of one four-horse wagon-load 

 or manure. He applied to Dr. David Stewart, of 

 Baltimore, an able chemist, who rode out to the 

 farm and procured specimens of the soil, which he 

 carefully analyzed. He found that it contained an 

 abundance of lime, potash, magnesia, iron and or- 

 ganic matter, duly mixed with alumina and sand. 

 One element only of a fertile soil was wanting, 

 phosphoric acid; and of this there was no trace. 

 He recommended an application to the soil of the 

 bipbosphate of lime, a preparation of bones, as the 

 best mode of supplying the deficient element. The 

 remedy was given at the expense of ten dollars per 

 acre. It was the one thing needful. Health was 

 re.stored to the exhausted patient, and the grateful 

 soil yielded last year twenty-nine bushels of wheat 

 per acre to the proprietor. Nothing else was want- 

 mg. Here was a beautiful triumph of science. 

 There was no doubt about the facts; the experi- 

 ment came under our observation. It was detailed 

 to the writer by Mr. Johnson himself. 



li^" Major Amasa Stetson, of Stetson, the gieat 

 dairyman of this county, brought into market on the 

 20th fifteen slaughtered hogs of his own raising, 

 which averaged over four hundred pounds each. — 

 This is believed to be the largest quantity of pork 

 ever brought to market in one season, the product 



of a single farm. These hogs weie purchased by 

 our marketman, Mr. Rice, tor which he paid over 

 four hundred and forty-six dollars. 



We have otitained a brief statement of the in- 

 come from the farming operations of Major Stetson 

 for the past year, as follows : 



Received for butter sold, . . $1807 73 

 " for pork, . . . , 446 33 

 " for pigs sold, ... 207 15 



" for lambs and wool, . . 64 7.3 

 " poultry, 23 71 



82,549 67 

 The major has raised his own bread stuff" and 



aljout fifty dollars' worth of \\heat for the market. 



The amount paid out for labor has been about 



$600 00. 



We like to record these facts as specimens of 



Penobscot farming. — Bangor Courier. 



DISEASES OF POULTRY— ROUP. 



We find in the March number of the Genesee 

 Farmer a communication from R. H. Foster, of 

 Lyons, N. Y., in which he says — addressing the 

 editor — 



"I take the liberty of asking you a few ques- 

 tions respecting a disease in poultry which has pre- 

 vailed here this fall and winter to a considerable 

 extent among dung-hill fowls. In the first place 

 they appear stupid, their eyes heavy and almost 

 entirely blind. In the next place there is a swell- 

 ing of the neck and head, succeeded by a cough 

 peculiar to hens, and making a noise as if partially 

 choked. In this way they linger along two or 

 three weeks, and either die or become very poor. 

 During this time they discharge at the nose a vis- 

 cid matter, in some few instances quite offensive to 

 the smell. If you can tell us what the disease is, 

 or what will cure it, you will oblige many of your 

 friends." 



Reply. — To this the editor of the Farmer 

 makes the following reply ; — 



"The disease with which your fowls are affected, 

 we should judge to be the roup, though a very dif- 

 ferent disease is sometimes called by this name. 

 Fowls thus aflfected should be kept warm and have 

 plenty of water and light food, such as scalded 

 bran, Indian meal, &c. The English authors say 

 ijive calomel in grain doses, made into a jiill with 

 bread, but we never had much success in "physick- 

 ing" fowls. Washing the head in warm milk and 

 water sometimes gives great relief, and if it does 

 not effect, hastens the cure." 



In the April number of the Farmer, we find the 

 fi)llowing additional notice of this disease, from L. 

 Rogers, of Willow vale, N. Y., who gives the 

 same name for the disease, and ofl^ers a remedy. — 

 He says — 



"Having noticed a letter from R. H. Foster, in 

 the March number of the Fartacr asking you a 

 tew questions respecting a certain disease in poul- 

 try, with which his neiirhbors' fowls have been 

 troubled, 1 take the liberty of writing to you of 

 the experience I have had in the same disease, 

 which I called the roup. Last fall I purchased a 

 pair of fowls of one of my neighbors, which 

 showed symptoms of disease, which were the same 

 as Mr. Foster speaks of. It soon went throuj,'-!) my 

 flock of twenty fowls, and Air some time seemed 

 incurable; but as a last resort, 1 mixed with about 



