66 



&f)e farmer's lHontl)l tj Visitor. 



pounds-while the yield from the Merinos is nn 

 average of nearly four and a Salt pounds. The 

 superior fineness of Saxon wool is conceded, but 

 the excess of quantity in Merino wool exceeds 

 the excess of price in the other. His flock now 

 consists of aou-of which one-hall are pure 

 blood Paular Merinos, the other hall a high cross 

 of the common Merino on the Native and SsaXO- 

 ny , which makes their wool about .he same 

 quality as that of full blooded Paulars. Mr. 

 Burritt also states that in raising lambs his loss 

 with Merinos was in the .alio of one to every 

 three Saxons, or five per cent ol his Merino lambs 

 and fifteen per cent of his Saxons. His clip for 

 1647, sold at thirty-seven and a halt cents pel 

 pound, cash, amounting, accordingly, to near 

 Ihree hundred and fifty dollars, or more than one 

 dollar and sixty-two and a half cents each. His 

 lightest fleece was three pounds six ounces, the 

 heaviest seven pounds fourteen ounces. 



At sheep shearing, in the spring of 1846, on 

 our School Farm, there was weighed, 111 our 

 presence, the fleece of a Paular Merino ran, just 

 thirteen months old, which gave nine pounds or 

 washed wool.— Southern Cultivator. 



Rearing Poultry. 



Poultry houses should be thrice a year whitewash- 

 ed, at alt' tunes kept clean, ice// ventilated, and have 

 freshly slaked lime occasionally spread over their 

 floors: there should he constantly kept conve- 

 nient to the hen-house, accessible to the chick- 

 ens, deposits of old plaster or lime and heaps ol 

 ashes and sand. The plaster and lime being es- 

 sential to enable the hens to form the shell ol 

 their eggs, and the ashes and sand necessary for 

 them to dust in, as protection against the chicken 

 lice, which so annoy all fowls, both old and 

 young, and which so often kill the hitler. 



Young Chickens.— As these are hatched they 

 should be taken from the hens and kept m a 

 basket lined with wool or cotton, until the hen 

 completes hatching out her brood. While the 

 mother is engaged in this work, the chicks should 

 be fed with corn meal dough, moistened with 

 boiled milk or the crumbs of pone or wheal 

 bread, similarly moistened, every few hours 

 through .he day. At night, until the mother has 

 finished her labors, let the chickens be restored 

 to the nest, unless there be reason to apprehend 

 ihat the nest is lousy i '»> that case, it will be best 

 to keep the chickens in the basket, protected 

 from cold. When the chickens are all batched, 

 the mother and her brood should be placed un- 

 der a coop, which should be so made as to pro- 

 tect her and them alike from sun and ram, the 

 slats to be so arranged as to admit ol the passage 

 of a free current of air. The coop should be 

 occasionally removed, as it is at all times neces- 

 sary t! at the young should be kept dry and 

 clean While the chickens are young it would 

 be better that their food should he cooked, to pre- 

 vent their being scoured; and therefore, for 

 some weeks, we would confine lhem to the 

 crumbs of pone or wheat bread, moistened with 

 boiled milk. They should be fed thrice a day; 

 water should be given them in a very shallow 

 vessel, which should have slats across it to pre- 

 vent the chickens from gelling in and wetting 

 themselves ; they are extremely tender until they 

 become fledged, and should he kept dry. In 

 rainy weather it would he best fur the mother 

 and her voting to be removed to the shelter ol a 

 room where the chickens could be protected 

 from the weather, for we are satisfied that more 

 chickens are killed by getting wet than from any 

 other cause. Chives should be cut fine and mix- 

 ed with their food ihrire a week. Young chick- 

 ens are subject to dinrrhaa : to correct this, a tea- 

 spoonful of pulverized chalk or charcoal sh d 



be mixed with every cnp-lull of meal or other 

 food \lh\ out to them. While the mother is con- 

 fined in the coop, she should be as far remove, 

 as possible from the dung heap. A handlul ol 

 gravel should he placed within her reach; she 

 should have fond and water regularly given her 

 thrice a day, and care must he taken to grease 

 or ,,il the back part of her head, down her neck, 

 ami under each wing, to destroy any lice with 

 which she may have become infested while sel- 

 ling. A small piece of assafailida, if kept in the 

 Vessel in which the chickens are civen their wa- 

 ter, may prove both preventive [and curative ol 



the gapes, a disease which we believe to be the 

 result of worms. In chilly days we have found 

 it "serviceable to mix up a little pulverized black 

 pepper with the young chickens' food. We 

 have found boiled millet seed ail excellent food 

 for the young, while we have given it uncooked 

 to ihe old with excellent effect. Hens, while 

 laying, should have their food alternated, some- 

 times" Indian meal dough, then corn or buck- 

 wheat and again oats. 



In raising your chickens, care must be taken 

 to keep them dry, feed them regularly, and give 

 them fresh water, which should be renewed 

 whenever it may be rendered dirty. 



The nests of the laying as well as the setting 

 hens, should be preserved from lice. This may 

 be effected by making them of clean straw, pla- 

 cing a few tobacco stems at Ihe bottom, dusting 

 a little ashes through the nest, and greasing the 

 under part of the wings of the bens, where they 

 join the body, as also the back of their heads and 

 necks. It may be done also, by using snuff and 

 grease, instead of grease alone — this last plan 

 we do not approve, though effective, as it is apt 

 to sicken the bens for a lime. 



Garlic, Chives and Shallots, chopped up very 

 line and mixed ill small quantities with the 

 chickens' Ibod occasionally, exert nn excellent 

 influence upon their health. Young chickens, 

 while feeding, should always be protected from 

 the large fowls. 



Ducks.— The old ducks, if they have not ac- 

 cess to creeks or rivers, where they will find food 

 adapted to their nature, should have animal food 

 mixed wiih their grain or meal, and if it be ex- 

 pected of them to lay well, attention must he 

 paid to their being regularly fed night and morn- 

 ing. This attention not only insures plenty of 

 eggs, but attaches them to their homes. 



It is best to set the duck eggs under hens, as 

 docks are but indifferent sellers and nurses. — 

 Thirteen duck eggs are as many as a hen can 

 conveniently cover. One drake to five ducks is 

 about Ihe rieht number for breeding purposes. 



As ihe ducks are being balched they should 

 he taken from the hen and placed in a basket, as 

 recommended for young chickens. Boil a piece 

 of fresh meat of some kind, chop it very fine and 

 mix it up with corn meal dough, made with boil- 

 ed milk, as for the chickens, and feed the young 

 ducks. When the hen has hatched all out, place 

 her and her young brood under a coop, where 

 ihey must be regularly fed ihree limes a day as 

 above directed. They should be kept with the 

 hen until they begin to get feathers on the sides 

 of their bodies, when they may be turned into 

 the poultry yard with the other fowls, but you 

 should always recollect if you expect them to 

 become fine large fowls, you must feed them 

 well, not omitting to give them occasional meals 

 in which animal food is mixed, and that they 

 should be kept dry. Jf'aler is ihe propeiy clement 

 of wild ducks; nature has provided them with 

 oleaginous substance that nearly renders them 

 impervious to water — not so with the tame or 

 domesticated duck when young. On being ex- 

 posed to wei, their feathers become ruffled ; per- 

 haps this is owing to their not being able in a 

 farm yard to obtain that kind of food which en- 

 ables "the wild duck to secrete that peculiar oil 

 which protects the leathers from wet. Be the 

 cause what it may, the act is obvious, that young 

 lame ducks in the early stages of their existence, 

 are injured by becoming wet, and that disease 

 and death is the consequence. Therefore they_ 

 should be kept in their coops for some weeks of 

 a morning, until the dew is exhaled by the sun — 

 and hence their coop.;, ivhile being mad.! water- 

 light, should he so arranged that they can be 

 kept in them whenever it may be necessary to 

 screen lhem from rain or dews. Fresh clean 

 water should always be before them lo drink, but 

 never to dabble in. " As they attain age, and be- 

 come feathered, they may have access to ponds 

 or running streams — not before. Their food 

 then may be advantageously made of boiled po- 

 tatoes and corn meal, hominy and corn. While 

 growing, they should at all times be plentifully 

 fed, as stintiue them while in that slate invariably 

 stunts their grow th. 



As tame ducks are promiscuous layers and 

 will drop their eggs anywhere, they should be 

 kept in the duck-house of a morning until they 

 shall have laid their eggs. 



. Young Turkies. — These are delicate and chilly 

 bodies and require the utmost attention lo raise, 

 them. For many weeks after being hatched they 

 require lo be kept dry and warm and to be fed 

 with stimulating, nutritious food. As soon as 

 hatched they must betaken from the mother and 

 given a grain of black pepper, then be put into 

 a basket with wool or cotton, and lightly covered 

 with the same material. If the weather be cold, 

 the basket shold be placed sufficiently near the 

 fire to keep them measurably warm. In a few 

 hours after being hatched and thus treated, they 

 must be fed with hard boiled eggs, chopped fine. 

 This food may be advantageously continued for 

 a few days. After ihe third day it might be well 

 to mix with the pg»s a litlle crumbs of pone 

 bread or stale wheat bread, moistened lo u proper 

 consistence with the cud of sour milk, oft' of 

 which the whey has been strained, and with 

 which ihe tops" of the wild onion or chives, 

 chopped fine, must be mixed. This kind of food, 

 with occasional messes of boiled wheat, millet or 

 rice, should be continued for about eight weeks, 

 never omitting to season them with the tops of 

 ihe wild onion or chives, as above directed. 



The ben turkey when first given her brood, 

 should be placed in a dry, wa' in apartment, be 

 regularly fed and watered thrice a day. The 

 young ones should be fetl oflener, be given water 

 regularly, which should be placed in a shallow 

 vessel, so that they cannot wet themselves, as 

 wet is fatal to them. In a few days, say ihree or 

 four, a pen should be prepared out of doors for 

 the old hen mrkey, which should be so made at 

 top as to turn rain ami afford shade, as both sun 

 and rain are injurious when the chicks are quite 

 young. It is best, too, to have a separate coop, 

 in which to feed the young ones, as, otherwise, 

 ihe old hen would be sure to appropriate the 

 largest share of food for herself al the expense 

 of her broo ' 





As ihe young turkeys get older and stronger, 

 and their digestive organs become strengthened, 

 say in about eigiit weeks, ihe old hen may he let 

 out of ihe coop and the young fed on cabbage 

 leaves or lettuce chopped fine, mixed with small 

 hominy or boiled potatoes ; but, even at this 

 stime of their growth, ihe chopped wild onions 

 and chives should not- he omitted, as they slid 

 require the stimulating effects of these herbs to 

 give lone to their stomach and diffuse a warmth 

 through their systems. 



Those who dtsire to have fine, well grown, 

 birds, must recollect that, lo insure ibis result, 

 the turkey must be well led during its entire 

 stage of "growing— they should recollect also, 

 that the turkey, though domesticated, is of a 

 wild, roving nature, and that, unless attached to 

 its home by kindness and care, will he apt to 

 take to the woods : to prevent which they should 

 be fed in the poultry yard night and morning, 

 and thus made to love their homes. They need 

 not he stuffed, but still they should be fed, gene- 

 rously fed. 



The Snuffles and Gajies\— Young turkies v. hen 

 about three or four weeks old, are sometimes 

 liable lo he attacked by these diseases: and we 

 are told that they may both be cured by mixing 

 a tea-spoonful of flour of sulphur in as much 

 corn as is usually fed to twenty young turkies.— 

 This must he given once a day until the disease, 

 whether shuffles or gapes, disappears, which it 

 will do in a few days. It is reasonable to pre- 

 sume, if sulphur will cure these diseases in the 

 turkey, that it would prove equally efficacious if 

 ad ministered to chickens— and as the remedy is 

 simple and inexpensive, it is certainly worthy 

 of trial. 



The Scours.— If the young turkeys should be 

 attacked with this disease, mix a lable-spoonful 

 of pulverized charcoal or chalk with every pint 

 of their lood. 



Geese.— As ihe goslings are hatched they must 

 be taken from ihe mother, and cared for as re- 

 commended for young ducks. When the goose 

 has hatched all the egss, the young must he giv- 

 en her, though it would he best to keep her con- 

 fined lor iwo or three days, when she and her 

 young brood may be turned out into the kitchen 

 yard or lane. The goslings should be fed with 

 crumbs of bread soaked in boiled milk, or with 

 corn dough, made \\\t with bonny clapper, fre- 

 quently through ihe day lor the first week. When 

 they gain strength enough lo follow their mother 



