112 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ July, 1880. 



Scalded meal made into a mush and cooked an 

 hour or two, and fed warm with grated horseradish, 

 stimulates the hens to "shell out." 



The spurs of lai-ge turkey gobblers should be trim- 

 med and blunted during the breeding season, lest 

 they lacerate the backs and sides of the turkey hens. 



Set your hens in the evening if you have to move 

 them from the laying nests; they will be more sure 

 to stick to their new nests afterward. 



Piaster scattered over the floors of the fowl houses 

 is a powci-ful absorbent, preventing the smell which 

 arises from the droppings. 



Fowls are very Ibnd of milk and will thrive won- 

 derously upon it. If the meal mush is mixed with 

 milk in lieu of water a great beneflt is derived there- 

 from. 



The dust heap is absolutely necessary lor fowls. It 

 cleanses thsir feathers and skin from vermin and 

 impurities, promotes the cuticular or skin secretions 

 and is materially instrumental in preset viug their 

 health. 



A shallow tub kept well tilled with water and sunk 

 on a level with the ground, will afford plenty of 

 bathing room for the ducklings until they are two or 

 three months old, or perhaps longer. 



A correspondent says he mixes hog's lard in the 

 dough he gives his hens, and asserts that a piece as 

 large as a hickory nut will, if divided up and mixed 

 with their soft feed, set a hen to laying immediately 

 after she is broken up.— Poultry Monthly. 



Remedies for Gapes in Fowls. 



An effective remedy for thistliinner of the poultry 

 yard is that described by General Noble. He slaked 

 a barrel of lime w ash to about the thickness of 

 paint, and into this stirred from ten to twelve pounds 

 of sulphur flour. Into each pailful used, he mixed a 

 tablespoonful of carbolic acid, and with a brush 

 sloshed every part of the hennery, roosts, floor and 

 walls with the mixture. This was repeated several 

 times, especially with each new brood, to the entire 

 disappearance of gapes from among his poultry. Of 

 course, a smaller quantity of all the ingredients 

 would suffice for smaller quarters for fowls. As re- 

 lated in a Mural brevity, a friend of ours has found 

 an eflective remedy in dry caustic lime. A pinch of 

 it was dropped into the bird's tliroat, which was 

 then let go, and by next day it had recovered. That's 

 about the easiest cure we know. A trifle more 

 troublesome is that found out by an Englishman. 

 Taking two parts of sulphur and one of salt, he 

 mixed with water to the consistency of thick cream 

 — using the flnger to mix the sulphur, as it doesn't 

 readily mix with water. Then having dipped a 

 feather into the mixture he thrust it about three 

 inches down the bird's throat, working it up and 

 down a few times, and repeated the operation three 

 or four times at intervals of a couple of days. A still 

 easier remedy is one given by a correspondent who 

 got rid of the pests by simply removing the chickens 

 and their coops away from the house, and placing 

 them under a tree in the orchard or meadow, having 

 mowed the grass where there was any. Colonel 

 Curtis tells how he cured a chick of gapes by making 

 it inhale tobacco smoke until it was stupefied. This 

 he did by placing the little wretch in a coop with a 

 vessel by its side, containing burning tobacco, the 

 smoke of which was prevented from escaping by 

 means of a covering over the coop. — liural New 

 Yorker. 



voured so greedily from our too lavish hand, proved 

 too much for thfe innocents, and when biddy roused 

 from her night's repose, and called the roll of her 

 fledgelings, not one answered to the call. 



We do not record this little episode of our juvenile 

 experience as detracting at all from the value of meat 

 diet for chickens, but simply to ''point a moral," 

 which is this : feed judiciously always, never to re- 

 pletion, of auj thing. Two or three little scraps of 

 meat for each chick, once or twice a day, is probably 

 all they will need, and for these they will amply re- 

 pay you in increased growth and \igot.— American 

 Foultry Yard. 



Literary and Personal. 



Care of Early Broods. 



More care is required for early chickens than for 

 late ones ; but they are so much more valuable — 

 both for market and esrgs— that one is well repaid 

 for this extra labor. The newly-hatched brood need 

 no food whatever for at least twenty-four hours 

 after leaving the shell ; the remains of the yolk of 

 the egg being the natural provision for their suste 

 nance till they become strong enough to follow the 

 mother to fresher fields. jm 



It is well to take the hint that nature gives, and 

 continue for a day or two a little hard-boiled egg, 

 mashed fine and mixed with Indian meal which has 

 been scalded and left so dry that each particle sepa- 

 rates from its fellows. The natural food of all young 

 things of the feathered tribe is mostly composed 

 of some sort of animal or insect. One who 

 who has watched the growth of a nest of infant 

 robins is astounded at the rapidity with which the 

 fledglings assume the size of half grown birds. If 

 he has watched the parent birds, as well, at their 

 . ceaseless labors, and seen the multitudes of worms 

 and insects with which they have filled the ever-open 

 beaks of their brood, the wonder is explained. It is 

 worth while to adopt a similar plan with our chick- 

 ens, and give them bits of fresh meat, to promote 

 rapid growth and development. It has been tried 

 in some cases with happiest results , and in one, to 

 our own knowledge, with disastrous consequences. 

 A pretty brood of chickens in the back-yard were so 

 delighted with bits of fresh, cooked veal, shredded 

 like short worms, that We fed and fed, till every little 

 crop stuck out like a pouter pigeon's and they retired 

 in undisguised content beneath their feathery cover- 

 let. Alas ! they never left that friendly shelter alive. 

 The mass of strange and unaccustomed matter, de- 



RtJLES AND PREMinM LiST OP THE EIGHTH ClN- 



riNNATi Industbial EXPOSITION, of Manufac- 

 tures, Products and Arts, under the direction of 

 the Board of Commissioners appointed by the Cham- 

 ber of Commerce, Board of Trade, and Ohio Me 

 chanics' Institute, to be opened to the public on 

 Wednesday, September 8, and continue until Satur- 

 day, October 9, 1880. This is a splendid royal oc- 

 tavo pamphlet of sixty-four pages, in ornamental 

 paper covers, with index, impressions of medals, 

 and two folding plates, illustrating the plans of the 

 first, second and third floors of the machinery, horti- 

 cultural, art, and grand central halls, these being 

 side by side and iutercommunicable through spacious 

 side avenues. The premiums are the most liberal 

 that we have ever specially noticed in this country, 

 there being 1,168 medals, 9-11 of which are specific, 

 namely : til gold, 555 silver, and o25 bronze— and '227 

 discretionary, special and complimentary. Of money 

 premiums there are six of ?100, two of 875, two of 

 $150, twenty of $50, four of $40, six of |oO, twenty- 

 one of $'i5, seventeen of f'-'O, twenty-one of 815, 

 forty one of $10, one of ^7, twenty-five of 85, six of 

 go, four of 2, and only one of $1, unless thereshould 

 be discretionary premiums of that denomination. 

 This foots up one hundred and seventy-seven money 

 premiums, amounting to P,959 specifically named, 

 besides a large number not yet determined, or ruled 

 by circumstances. Our readers will observe that 

 this is not the Ohio State Agricultural Exhibition, 

 and does not include stock and general farm pro- 

 ducts, but merely a combination of three of Cincin- 

 nati's local institutions, including, machinery and 

 manufactures generally, together with metals and 

 metal works, textiles, arts, sciences, apparatus of 

 various kinds, fruits and fioral displays— such a com- 

 bination as we advocated some years ago for our 

 Board of Trade, Horticultural and Linnaean Socie- 

 ties, including the various manufactures, and me- 

 chanical productions, and which so effectually ended 

 in mere "smoke." We then had these Cincinnati 

 institutions in our mind as a model, they having be- 

 come the model institutions of the "Buckeye State,' 

 and going forward "conquering and to conquor." 



Premium List of the Twenty-eighth Indiana 

 State Fair, to be held at Indi.anapolis, September 

 27th to October 2d, 1880. Forty-eight pages royal 

 octavo, containing lists of officers and committees, 

 rules, regulations, &c., &c. This exhibition is di- 

 vided into fourteen departments, one of which is 

 exclusively under the control of women, distributing 

 premiums amounting to more tlian $1,000. Each 

 department has a separate superintendent ; and the 

 objects and articles are included in over ftfiy sepa- 

 rate "books" or minor divisions. This facilitates 

 and simplifies the labors of the judges. There is 

 also a Children's Department, open to boys and 

 girls under sixteen years of age, in which, among 

 many other things, premiums are offered for the 

 best display of "old patched garments," "old darned 

 garments, (stockings, perhaps,) and collections of 

 stamps and other curiosities, which may include 

 business eards AiidbiMuns . We confess we like this 

 stimulant to industry in the young, even if their 

 efforts should culminate in nothing higher than 

 stringing Canada thistle seeds endwise. 



There are ten silver medals, 73 diplomas, and 

 1,0.50 money premiums offered, from $1 up to $50, 

 besides 25 undetermined or discretionary, and 25 

 offered by outside citizens, from $5 to $13.50. There 

 are to be five days races, (they do not call them 

 "trials of speed" but races) for thirty-four purses, 

 from ^20 up to $a00. The Indiana State Agricul- 

 tural Society owns a fine hall, grounds and side 

 buildings, and is able to make a fine display without 

 the aid of a "Centennial Kelic." 



Intehnational Exhibition of sheep, wool and 

 wool products, to be held in the Main Exhibition 

 Building, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pa., Sep- 

 tember, 1880, under the auspices of the Pennsylvania 

 State Agricultural Society. A royal octavo pamph- 

 let of lli pages, giving history, preliminary proceed- 

 ings, rules, regulations, act of Congress and pre- 

 mium lists, divided into ten divisions and several 

 minor subdivisions ; one hundred and twenty pre- 

 miums from $5 to 8350, most of them, however, 

 from 820 to «100, besides ten diplomas. This is an 

 exceedingly liberal list, and ought to bring out the 

 wool-growers of the country. 



Premium List of the annual exhibition of Agri- 

 cultural and Horticultural Society, to be held on 

 Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Sept. 29, 30 and 

 Oct. 1st, 1880, in the Northern Market House, Lan- 

 caster, Pa. Over four hundred premiums from 25 

 cents up to SIO offered for best specimens of fruit, 

 flowers, plants, vegetables, melons, cereals, domes- 

 tic productions, bee products, tobacco, household 

 manufactures, embroidery, quilts, laces, braids, 

 crochet and tatting work, afghans, fancy goods and 

 furs, cabinetware, saddlery, miscellaneous articles, 

 or other object of art or invention of merit. The 

 managers also invite musical instruments,- sewing 

 machines, &c., to be placed on exhibition without 

 competition for premiums. See pamphlet, an octavo 

 of 32 pages, for further particulars, which can be 

 obtained from the managers or at 101 North Queen 

 street, Lancaster. 



Science — A Weekly Journal of Scientific 

 Progress. — This is a beautifully printed demi- 

 quarto of 12 pages, on fine tinted calendered paper, 

 at S4 a year. Edited by John Michels, P. O. Box 

 3838, and published at No. 229 Broadway, New 

 York. The editor is assisted by a brilliant corps of 

 the most able scientific professors and writers in the 

 Union, and starting out with the fact that "it occu- 

 pies a field of literature hitherto unoccupied, and is 

 the only flrst-class weekly journal in the United 

 States devoted to science, and recognized by scientists 

 as their medium of communication," it has every 

 prospect of success. A "sample copy," No. 1, Vol. 

 I, dated July 3, 1880, has found its way to our table, 

 and if the scope of the present number is a fair in- 

 dication of those that are to follow, it is worthy of a 

 liberal patronage, and doubless will be appreciated 

 by the soientiflc world— amateurs as well as profes 

 sionals. With each weekly number are four pages 

 of advertisements, useful to specialists and others, 

 in practical science. Twelve pages weekly will be 

 624 quarto pages a year, and is designed for two 

 volumes, with indexes to each. We wish it "God 

 speed," and that we can do no more at this time is 

 not from a want of mill, but a want of way. 



The Naturalist's Leisure Hour and Month- 

 ly Bulletin, by Dr. A. E. Foote, 1223 Belmonte 

 avenue, Philadelphia, Pa. We acknowledge the re- 

 ceipt of three numbers of this excellent little jour- 

 nal, so full of everything interesting to the practical 

 naturalist, in almost any specialty, but most especial- 

 ly in mineralogy, paleontology and conchology. The 

 work is interspersed with innumerable items of scien- 

 tific and domestic interest, and teaches the young 

 specialist how to acquire a cabinet, and what it will 

 cost, and also where to obtain it. 



Price List of emtomological publications, mainly 

 the publications of the Philadelphia and the Ameri- 

 can Entomological Societies. Here are catalogued 

 305 descriptive works on insects, varying in price 

 (according to quantity) from six cents up to 820, and 

 although not elemental works, such as a student 

 (unless a classically educated one) would desire as a 

 first book, yet it is an accumulation of entomologi- 

 cal literature that, perhaps, could never be secured 

 so cheaply again after this is out of print. Address 

 E. T. Cresson, P. 0. Box 31, Philadelphia, Pa. If 

 any of our young men desire to study entomology 

 thoroughly and scientifleally, they will find these 

 works a great aid in the identification, of its subjects 

 and especially as they relate to American insects. 



The July number of the American Entomologist 

 is more than usually full of interesting matter, not 

 alone to entomolog'ists, but to farmers and fruit- 

 growers and naturalists. A new foe to Cottonwood 

 trees (the Streaked Cottonwood Beetle,) that is 

 doing great injury to Cottonwoods in the West, is 

 illustrated and treated of in all its stages. There 

 are admirable and timely articles on the Colorado 

 Potato-beetle, the Army Worm, the Periodical Ci- 

 cada (misnamed 17-year Locust,) and other articles 

 of a popular and practical character, which the 

 ordinary farmer will find profit and pleasure in read- 

 ing. The scientific and philosophical reader will be 

 interested in the many valuable notes, and especially 

 in the articles on the embryology and development 

 of the Dragon-fly, and in the admirable exposition of 

 the mode of transformation in butterflies, wherein 

 the real philosophy of the change from caterpillar to 

 chrysalis is presented in a new light and previous 

 errors are exploded. 



There are notes on Fertilizers of Alpine Flowers ; 

 Economic Entomology in the Public Schools ; Car- 

 nivorous Habits of Caddis-flies ; Development of 

 Eves and Luminosity in the Fire-flies ; Grape Phyl- 

 loxera not at the Cape ; and other editorial matter. 

 The correspondence covets a wide range of subjects, 

 and gives, among other things, a new method of de- 

 stroying Grain-weevils, valuable experience with the 

 Imported Cabbage Worm from an extensive grower 

 at Chicago, notes from France, and interesting facts 

 regarding Cotton Culture and the Cotton Worm in 

 Mexico, wherein it is shown that Cotton was grown 

 and utilized in that country as early as the twelfth 

 century— a fact not generally known to historians. 

 In the " Answers to Correspondents " department 

 there is the usual variety of interesting queries and 

 replies . 



