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FARMERS' REGISTER— FUEL— POULTRY. 



is extended towards it, it recoils, and retires like a 

 snail in the water. It is supposed to live on the 

 spawn of fish. 



In Java grows a plant, the Nepenthes distillato- 

 ria, remarkable for having a small vegetable bag 

 attached to the base of its leaves. This bag is 

 covered with a lid which moves on a strong fibre, 

 answering the purpose of a hinge. When dews 

 rise, or rains descend, the lid opens; when the bag 

 is saturated, the lid falls and closes so tightly, that 

 no evaporation can take place. The moisture thus 

 imbibed, cherishes the seed, and is gradually ab- 

 sorbed into the body of the plant. 



Fuel. 



By experiments made in Philadelphia, under 

 the direction of the American Philosophical So- 

 ciety, it has been satisfactorily ascertained, that by 

 burning wood or other fuel, in our common open 

 fire-places, we avail ourselves of only one-tenth 

 part of the heat produced: the remaining nine- 

 tenths being drawn up chimney with the current 

 of air, or being otherwise expended and lost. 

 While at the same time, by burning the same fuel 

 in a common cast iron stove, with five and a half 

 feet of pipe, forty-five hundredths, or- nearly one- 

 half of the heat produced, is rendered availalile. 

 And agreeably to this calculation, one cord of 

 wood burnt in a stove, will produce as much avail- 

 able heat as four and a half cords burnt in an open 

 fire-place. The same experiments prove, that a 

 sheet-iron stove, saves, with the same length of 



Eipe, about twenty-two hundredths more of the 

 eat produced, than a cast iron stove. With this 

 difference, the gain of heat is proportioned to the 

 length of the pipe, until the pipe reaches the lengtli 

 of forty-two feet, at which length the entire amount 

 of heat appears to be expended. This theory too, 

 in its general principles is too plain to be miscon- 

 ceived by any one. Who does not know that if 

 the whole amount of that which is continually 

 pouring up the chimney, and heating it to the very 

 top, were thrown out into tlic room,the difference 

 would be very great. 



Tlie inhabitants of high northern latitudes ini- 

 derstand this matter very well, and accordingly 

 carry their stove-pipes sometimes around the en- 

 tire circumfei'ence of their rooms. — llbid. 



Poultry. 



Fowls of every sort may be profitably fed on 

 boiled potatoes and meal mixed. Hens which do 

 not lay in winter, sh»uld have access to poiuided 

 bones, oyster shells, or some other matter which 

 contains lime, in some of its compounds, because 

 something of the kind is necessary to form the 

 shells of the eggs, which are composed of the 

 phosphate of lime. 



Cobbett's Cottage Economy observes that pul- 

 lets, that is, birds hatched the foregoing spring, 

 are the best laying hens in winter. " At any rate 

 let them not be more than two or three years old. 

 They should be kept in a warm place, and not let 

 out even in the day time in Avet weather; for one 

 good sound wetting will keep tliem back a fort- 

 night. The dry cold, even the severest cold, if 

 dry, is less injurious than even a little wet in win- 

 ter time. If the feathers get wet, in our cliinate 

 in winter, or in short days they do not get dry for 



a long time; and this it is that spoils and kills ma- 

 ny of our fowls. 



" The French, who are great egg eaters, take 

 great pains as to the food of laying hens in winter. 

 They let them out but very little, even in their 

 fine climate, and give them very stimulating food ; 

 barley boiled and given tliem warm ; curds, buck- 

 wheat, (which I believe is tlie best thing of all, 

 excepting curds,) parsley, and other herbs chop- 

 ped fine; oats and wlieat sifted; and sometimes 

 they give them hemp seed, and the seed of nettles ; 

 or dried nettles, harvested in summer and boiled 

 in winter. Some give them ordinary food, and 

 once a day toasted bread sopped in wine. White 

 cabbages chopped up are very good for all sorts of 

 poultry." 



It has been said by other writers, that poultry, 

 as well as pigs, are much benefitted by placing 

 charcoal, broken into small pieces, in situations to 

 which they have access. This substance, it is 

 said, adds to the appetites, and helps the digestion 

 of these animals; and, as it is cheap, and cannot 

 be possibly injurious, it may be advisable to" use 

 it as a constituent for their diet. 



A proportion of animal food, mixed with vege- 

 table food, is said to cause poultry to thrive much 

 faster'than they would otherwise. If they have 

 space to range in, where they can pick up grass- 

 hoppers and other insects, they will thrive faster. 

 But they should for sometime before they are killed 

 for eating, be fed exclusively, on food which will 

 not have a tendency to give a bad relish to their 

 flesh.— [/6id 



Oil Ilay-Makisig-. 



To the Editor of the (London) Farmers' Journal. 



June 16, 1824. 



Sir, — As tlie season of hay-time is approaching, 

 nay, perhaps, is actually arrived in some places, I 

 wish, through the medium of your paper, to suggest 

 to experimental agriculturists the making some ex- 

 periments on the heating of hay, and the best modes 

 of regulating it. I have myself made very few ex- 

 periments in the matter, but the mention of tliose, 

 however trifling and inconclusive, may suggest to 

 other persons the making of such as shall be more 

 scientific and useful. One disadvantage in the mat- 

 ter is, that the apparatus is bulky and expensive, 

 and to be had only at one season of the year, and 

 that for an uncertain, and, at any rate, a short and 

 busy period. 



In the year 1820, it being a very backward sea- 

 son, we did not begin mowing hay till July 12th, 

 and finislied on the 15th. We got up two loads of 

 the first mowed that day. Rain came, and we got 

 up no more till the 20th, when we got up two loads. 

 Tliere was rain on the 21st, and we got up two loads 

 more on the 22d, four on the 24th, and two on the 

 25th, which was the whole. The hay was made in- 

 to a round stack, or cock. On the 29th, I put the 

 thermometer into the stack, down a hole in which 

 a long pole had been put for the purpose of giving 

 some vent to the heat. It stood at 70" in the open 

 air, and was put down 2 feet 5^- inches, when it rose 

 to 114". I then put it in 3 feet 8| inclies, and it 

 rose to 122'\ The hole was so hot I could not bear 

 my hand in it; and, when I took it out, it had a 

 sweet hay smell, and was sticky, as if with sugar 

 or syrup. This hay, in the following winter, 

 proved perfectly good, except a vein about the 



