32 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ February, 188(5. 



luted according to directions on the bottle, twice 

 daily. The floor of the cage was well covered 

 with dry eaud, gravel and broken lime plaster, and 

 a very small qu:mtity of copperas dropped info the 

 water can. They were fed on wheat, and out of 

 four cases, only one died. The most remarkable 

 recovery was that of a very fine yoiint: cock, 

 which had just mated with a young hen, and they 

 were sitting for the first time when he was attacked. 

 His case was so severe that his head and beak 

 swelled enormously, and an angry looking ulcer 

 covered Oue side of his head and moulli, and pie- 

 vented his closing his beak by nearly half an inch. 

 He could neither eat nor drink for several days, 

 forsook Ills nest, and seemed about t(j die. He 

 was taken from the loft at this stage, and placed 

 under the treatment above described, and in about 

 two weeks had so far recovered as to be able to 

 return to the loft and resume breeding. Apparently 

 he is now perfectly well. As I have never seen 

 the bromo chloralum recommended for pigeons, and 

 have found it very efficacious as a wash for mouth 

 and throat affections, particularly with fantails, I 

 consider it worthy of introduction to the notice of 

 fanciers. — Fancier k^ Jonrital. 



Rearing and Value of Ducks. 



A great deal of skill is invested in the raising of 

 the duck-crop. The writer's earliest experience in 

 trying to raise young ducks taught me that the 

 young should not be allowed to go near a pond or 

 creek or in wet grass; they should be kept in a warm, 

 dry place, and have no more water than sufficient to 

 dip their bills in. When about fifteen days old give 

 them a larger supply of water, and their "frolics will 

 not only prove very amusing to you, but harmless to 

 themselves. Soft food is necessry for the young. 

 For the first few days after hatching, hard-boiled 

 eggs and cooked meat chopped fine should be given 

 every other day; but the chief supply used iu ray 

 yard is indian-meal and "ships " in equal quanti- 

 ties, well-mixed and thoroughly scalded. Use this 

 until the ducklings are two-thirds grown, the main 

 article of lood afterwards being grain. Ground 

 worms and small fish are tidbits, with young ducks: 

 they are not only very fond of such food, but thrive 

 well on it. 



There are said to be over a hundred varieties of 

 ducks. In this country the best varieties are the Rouen, 

 Alsbury and the Aesthetic. The Rouen attain the 

 greater weight, and is superior in the quality of its 

 flesh, as well as iu their laying properties. They are 

 very domestic and can be raised without much water. 

 Clear water every day in a trough will meet all their 

 wants. There is an old saying that ducks eat more 

 than they are worth, which we consider very unjust. 

 Several years ago we were speaking with a woman 

 residing near Indianapolis, Ind., who raised yearly 

 large numbers of ducks and chickens. She stated 

 that "ducks eat less in proportion to their growth 

 than chickens." Readers of the Telegraph may be 

 surprised at this, but upon a little reflection they 

 will understand the reason. It is because the 

 ducklings reach maturity sooner than chickens; 

 and the longer it takes to bring a creature to ma- 

 turity the greater the expense. Experiment has 

 taught us that with the same quantity of food, 

 the ducklings in ninety days from the shell may 

 be made to weigh from eleven to twelve pounds 

 per pair, while chickens in the same length of time 

 five or six pounds per pair. Hence the remarks 

 that ducks eat more than they are worth, does 

 not apply when ducklings are properly and intelli- 

 gently managed. For home use, many consider 

 that ducks are more valuable than hens, taking 

 into account the number and size of their egss. 

 The solid matter and oil in a duck's egg exceed 

 that of a hen's fully one-fourth. — Oermantoimi. Tel- 

 egraph. 



.*►■ 



Mt hcn-liouse is not a model,, but has nests and 

 roosts all in one apartment. I was always troubled 

 iu having the fowls roost upon the front of the nests 

 instead of going on the poles, until I made the top 

 of the front board semi-circular instead of straight. 

 It had no hindrance for the hens going on to lay, 

 but as they are not so apt to be standing long on 

 the edge, they are less liable to learn to eat eggs. 

 To keep poultry free from lice, and their legs free 

 from scab, I think it is a good plan to paiut the 

 roosts a few times during winter (before the time for 

 saving eggs for setting commences) with a mixture 

 of sulphur and grease. Dry sulphur may be sifted 

 into a sitting hen's feathers with good elfect. 



Literary and Personal. 



Catalogue and price list of Santa Rosa Nursery, 

 Park street near main, east of the "laza, Santa Rosa, 

 Sonoma county, California. Luther Burbank, pro- 

 prietor, 1880. Specialties — trees, plants and seeds. 



Report of the " Pennsylvania Fruit Growers' 

 Society" for 1879. Prepared by its otticers ; 70 pp. 

 royal octavo, with five beautiiul full-page colored 

 illustrations of fruit, lawns, >S:c. 



E. P. Roe's new descriptive catalogue and price 

 list of strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, black- 

 berries, currants and grapes for the spring of ISHO. 

 Address E. P. Roe, Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, New 

 York. 



Those old and familiar journals, the Gardener's 

 Monthly and the Maryland Farmer for February, 

 IS'^O, havejalso been laid on our table. They are 

 marching along, fully up to the spirit of the timei, 

 in all that relates to their callings. 



The Amerkan Bee Journal. — The February 

 number for 1880 of this excellent publication is on 

 our table, and is freighted with a valuabe cargo of 

 bee and honey intelligence from "stem to stern," 

 which needs no eulogy from us. Thos. G. Newman 

 & Sons, 97'J and 974 West Madison street, Chicago, 

 111. ?1..50 a year, 48 pp., 8 vo. 



Circular of Apiarian Supplies. — Francis 

 Dunham, De Pere, Brown county. Wis., inventor 

 and author of Dunham's Foundatiou Machine. This 

 is an 8vo. pamphlet of eight pages, addressed to the 

 bee-keepers of the United States, and relates to all 

 kinds of supplies necessary to advancing bee culture. 



The American Rural Home. — A beautifully 

 printed and illustrated double-folio at $1.00 a year, 

 devoted to the farm, garden, household and stock, 

 including, also, healthy general literature. Its 

 clubbing list possesses peculiar attractions. Pub- 

 lished by Rural Home Company, Rochester, New 

 York. 



Destruction of Obnoxiou.s Insects. — Phyl- 

 loxera, potato beetles, cotton worm, Colorado 

 grasshopper and green-house pests, by application 

 of the yeast fungux. By Dr. H. A. Hagen, Professor 

 of Entomology at Harvard University, Cambridge, 

 Mass., 12 pages royal octavo, in paper covers. See 

 editorial on page 1 of this number of The Faruer. 



Fanciers' Journal. — A serai-monthly quarto of 

 28 pages devoted to the interests of plain and fancy 

 poultry — "Not for itself, but for all." Springfield, 

 Mass., January 1, 1880. This handsome and very 

 ably conducted journal reached us too late to notice 

 in our January number. This is No. I of vol. 7 

 "enlarged and improved." 



Kansas and Colorado Illustrated News- 

 paper. — Kansas City, Mo., and Denver, Col., Janu- 

 ary, 1880. An eight page folio, illustrated with 

 many landscape views of those new and progrestive 

 States. This number is largely occupied by a de- 

 tailed recital of what the Great West proposes to do 

 next summer in the matter of getting up a great 

 national fair, at Bismark Grove, Kansas. Vol.1. 

 No. 11. .5 cents a single number, from which we 

 infer that it is only published at irregular or occa- 

 sional periods. 



Borpee's Farm Annual- — Garden, farm and 

 flower seeds, and blooded stock, for 18S0. W. Atlee 

 Burpee & Co., office and warehouse '211 Church 

 street, Philadelphia, 44 pages octavo with 120 illus- 

 trations of vegetables, flowers, fruits, stock, poultry, 

 implements, &c., interspersed with interesting and 

 useful descriptive matter. A hand-book of agricul- 

 tural, horticultural, floricultural and domestic sup- 

 plies, and instructions in their cultivation and use. 

 Copyrighted. Send for pamphlet, and labor intelli- 

 gently. 



National Live Stock Journal.— The February 

 number of this most excellent and reliable royal 

 quarto has been duly received, and is freighted with 

 such a cargo of live stock literature as is found in 

 no other similar journal in the Union, if in the entire 

 civilized world. But, alas, the January number for 

 1880 we have not yet seen. Perhaps it passed us 

 .and is eastward bound — gone and going yet, with a 

 view of circumnavigating the world. We are con- 

 soling ourself with the thought that it probably will 

 stop here when it "swings around the circle," if it 

 does'nttake a notion to "repeat." 



PsTCHE — Organ of the Cnmbridijc Entomological 

 Club. — Edited by George Dimmock, B. P. Mann, A. 

 J. Cook and C. C. Eaton. Publishod by George 

 Dimmock, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Yearly 

 subscriptions, ?1.00; monthly numbers, 15 cents. 

 Jani)ary, 1880 — being the first number of volume 3 — 

 has beeu received, and its improvement on previous 

 issues is very appreciable. This is a royal octavo of 

 12 pages on clear, white calendered paper, and 

 beautiful imprint. True, as its object implies, its 

 patronage, it may be naturally supposed, will be 

 limited to entomologists — but not necessarily so— 

 and if it were, the name of that class of specialists 

 in the United States and Canada is becoming 

 "legion." At this time there are recorded in the 

 registry of the " Cambridge Entomological Blub" 

 tiifht hundred and thirty-Jive names, all of whom 

 make entomology either a specialty or a collateral 

 study. But otlicrs will also be interested iu the 

 publication of J'syche, if for no other reason, at 

 least for its interesting and useful bibliographical 

 record. Although the Chib that publishes it, and of 

 which it is the otlicial organ, bears a local name, 

 yet the papei's aim is to represent the interests of 



scientific entoraology throughout the civilized world, 

 and especially wherever the English language can 

 be read and understood. This journal, reflecting 

 a phase of entomological literature that is in con- 

 flict with no other similar interest, should receive the 

 undivided support of entomologists throughout our 

 wide extended country. 



The Laws of Life and Journal of Health. — 

 Managing editor Fanny B. Johnson, assistant editors 

 Harriet N . Austin, James C. and James H. Jackson, 

 Kat}' -J.J ackson, and a large corps of valuable con- 

 tributors. The January and February numbers for 

 ISHO have reached our table, and are filled with the 

 usual quantity and quality of siinitary literature 

 which has so long distinguished its columns, and 

 which is so little heeded by the masses of suflfering 

 humanity. Thie Is a royal octavo of 32 p.ages in 

 fine, tinted paper covers, and is pulilishcd by Austin, 

 Jackson A Co., Dansville, N. T., at ?1..50 per j'ear, 

 single copies 15 cents. 'The very appearance of this 

 journal suggests "Health and joy and peace," and 

 the fact that it has reached its 23rd volume evincee 

 that it is appreciated and liberally sustained. If it 

 is not, then it ought to be, and anything short of 

 that cannot be charged to its talented conductors. 



Bulletin No. 3, " United States Entomological 

 Commission, Department of the Interior, containing 

 "The Cotton Worm," summary of its natural his- 

 tory, with an account of its enemies, and the best 

 means of controling it ; being a report of progress of 

 ihe work of the commission. By Prof. Chae. V. 

 Riley, M. A., Ph. D., Washington, D. C, January 

 28, 1880; 144 pages 8vo., with a full page colored 

 plate, illustrating the eggs, larva, pupa and imago at 

 their various periods of development ; and nearly a 

 hundred excellent wood cuts, illustrating the trans- 

 formations of the cotton worm, (Aletia argillacea) 

 and allied species, its enemies, and the various im- 

 plements and remedies invented for its capture and 

 destruction. We are under obligations to Professor 

 Riley, the chief the commission, for an early copy of 

 this work, containing, as it does, a large amount of 

 much-needed information to cotton growers, who, 

 however, can only be benefited to the extent that 

 they read, observe intelligently, and make a practi- 

 cal application of the principles involved. 



The Lecturer. — A bi-mouthly journal — and sup- 

 plement to the above — devoted to the publication of 

 speeches and lectures on the laws of life and health, 

 lelivered by the medical faculty of "Our home hy- 

 gienic institute," 18 pp., royal 8 vo., published by 

 the foregoing at the same place, gratuitous to sub- 

 scribers. Vol. 1 No. 1. 



The Practical American. — An independent 

 monthly, especially devoted to manufacturing and 

 building : sent post-paid to any part of the world for 

 one dollar and a half per annum. P. H. Vander- 

 wede, M. D., editor and proprietor. A royal quarto 

 of twenty-four three-columned pages, handsomely 

 illustrated. It is printed in clear, sharp type, on 

 buff-tinted, calendered paper, and its literary con- 

 tents embraces a larger and more varied field of 

 topics than those usually included under " manu- 

 facturing and building" — scientific, mechanical, 

 philosophical and domestic. This is a new candi- 

 date for public patronage, the number before us 

 being the second of Vol. I., for February, 18sO, con- 

 taining eighteen separate papers on a variety of 

 different subjects of a practical and useful character. 

 If eleven years of editorial experience on a similar 

 paper, typographical execution, and ably-written 

 literary production are of any value in the "make 

 up" of a journal, then the Practical American 

 ought, and, no doubt, viU succeed, and fill a useful 

 "vacancy." 34 Park Row, New York. 



Science Advocate. — Issued quarterly by the 

 Natural Science Society of Ateo, New Jersey, Henry 

 Green editor. Vol.1. No. 1, January, 1880, .i. four 

 column demi-folio of four pages, at 15 cents per 

 annum, with reduced club rates. Its motto — "The 

 heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament 

 showeth his handiwork," appears, upon its very first 

 page, to indicate that it regards science as the 

 "handmaid of religion," and not antagonistic toil, 

 as so many of the would-be scientists do. An article 

 on the 2nd page entitled Science and t/ie'Bible, occu- 

 pies the most rational ground on that important 

 subject that has come under our observation for a 

 long time. It discountenances scientific anogance, 

 and inculcates scientific humility, through which 

 humanity is able to apprehend that any conflict 

 seemingly existing between science and the Bible is 

 only apparent, and results from an erroneous inter- 

 pretation of both nature and the Bible. The sub- 

 scription is so exceedingly low — hardly the price of a 

 good cigar — that it ought to meet with a favorable 

 reception everywhere, and especially among the 

 present generation of younsr farmers whose tastes 

 are turning in that direction, and who yet feel dis- 

 couraged at the volumiuousness of scientifle litera- 

 ture, and its technicalities. The leading articles on 

 mineralogy and botany are plain and practical, and 

 constitute such scientific aliment as an ordinarily 

 intelligent mind can appropriate and digest, and 

 only appearing quarterly there will be ample time to 

 assimilate its contents. 



