THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[April, 1881, 



eat a larger quantity than his stomach is capable of 

 digesting. The same applies to hay and straw. The 

 horse has a small stomacli in proportion to his size, 

 and therefore requires his food in concentrated form. 

 He can liTe on grass or hay, but he cannot work on 

 them, for as already stated it would require a larger 

 quantity of grass or hay than the horse is capable of 

 digesting to give him that amount of nourishment 

 necessary to repair the waste of tissue occasioned by 

 active exersise, hence the reason of our making the 

 oats the staple, and liay the adjunct. 



It is a fact, however, that his food must noi be in 

 too concentrated a condition, as experience teaches 

 that when so administered, it is passed undigested. 

 Oats, when given alone, are extremely difficult of 

 digestion by the horse. He seems incapable of di 

 gesting sufficient for his wants, unless he has a small 

 quantity of some material of a bulkier nature along 

 with them. This may be explained by the need there 

 is for some material sufficiently bulky to excite the 

 reaction of the gastric juice and stimulate the tritu- 

 ration of the contents of the stomach. For hard- 

 working horses, I am convinced hay' and straw are 

 less useful for their nutritive than for their mechani- 

 cal properties, and as such should be given in small 

 quantity, from twelve to eighteen pounds per diem, 

 according to the size of the horse, and not in that 

 lavish way too often observed in the stables of even 

 experienced farmers and breeders. 



Poultry. 



Feeding for Eggs. 

 Hens are the most valuable stock of the farm. 

 They require little care and yield large dividends. 

 The writer has kept three horses, one cow, a brood 

 of turkeys, and about 12.5 hens during the present 

 winter, and he thinks the hens have paid the whole 

 bill, without attempting to obtain the best retail 

 pricts The eggs were sold at wholesale the buyer 

 making a profit of ten cents per dozen. Perhaps I 

 may add a word which other writer? omit. First, 

 kill in the fall nearly everything biit .early Spring 

 pullets ; these can be made to lay all winter. The 

 older the hens the fewer the eggs. S'econd, warm 

 the food for the first meal especially. Let there be 

 a variety of food— buckwheat and wheat screenings 

 are the best grains; corn and oats come next. The 

 best animal food in my experience is a beef's head. 

 They will consume everything except the eyes. It 

 costs twenty-five cents and will last a week. When 

 they have eaten the outside meat, crack it open for 

 the brains; next split in two, and with an ax pound 

 up a portion of the bone daily. Next stop and listen 

 —hear them sing, and see them run for the nest. A 

 beefs head is more profitable than lard scraps, as 

 the latter has been pressed until the substance is 

 nearly gone. Keep an iron pot near the kitchen, 

 into which order all the scraps from dining room. 

 This usually goes to the pig; hereafter let it go to 

 the Bramahs toward evenings. Buy your pork if 

 you think it is fit to eat.— W. L. T. in Cvuntry Gen- 

 tleman . 



Salt for Poultry. 



Hens often have a habit of biting and pulling tlieir 

 feathers and greedily eating them until their bodies 

 are bare. This practice, it is believed, is occasioned 

 by a want of salt, as when salted food is given them 

 they make no attempt to continue the habit. Salt 

 pork chooped fine and fed twice a week has been 

 adopted with success, while others put a teaspoonful 

 of salt with two quarts of meal shorts moistened, 

 well mixed, and fed tivice a week. Fowls, like hu- 

 man beings, to be healthy, must have a certain al- 

 lowance of salt. 



So long as the American people prize sugar sweet 

 cakes, and the N. Y. hotels consume 1,800,000 chick- 

 ens and poultry and .5,.500,000 of eggs every week, 

 the poultry business in this country will remaia-a 

 good one. Give warm, clean houses and dry, grassy 

 runs, if you would have them clear of roup and 

 canker. And feed them regularly with good, nourish- 



ing food if you would have them free from disease, 

 lay more eggs, and be more profitable every way. 



Cabbage is best given to poultry whole, hung up 

 by the stalk. At first it may not be touched, but 

 when one fowl begins to peck at it the rest will be 

 tempted to keep on until little remains. Being sus- 

 pended, it does not waste or become polluted, and it 

 will remain in good condition to be eaten at will. 



Literary and Personal. 



Second REPORT of the United States Entomologi- 

 cal Commission, on the Rocky Mountain Locust, 

 187.S-79, by Profs. Riley, Packard and Thomas. 

 Through the courtesy of Prof. Riley a copy of this 

 work syas sent us from the Department of the In- 

 terior, at Washington, D. 0. It is a royal octavo of 

 •S33 pasres, with 80 additional pages of appendices 

 and an index. The typography and the quality of 

 the material employed, are rather an improvement 

 on former similar publications of the Government, 

 although this may not be saying very much. It is 

 very copiously illustrated, and its literaryaud scien- 

 tific contents are able, elaborate, interesting and 

 useful. It contains six colored maps illustrating 

 the permanent, sub-permanent and temporary locust 

 regions, and the limits of their eastern, western and 

 southern range, their original breeding grounds and 

 their occasional migrations. Also, three uncolored 

 maps, showing their migrations in 1S79, where the 

 young were hatched, and the course of their flight 

 and return flight. Also, seventeen full-page colored 

 anatomical plates, and a large number of wood cuts, 

 besides scores of' statistical tables on meteorology 

 and other allied subjects, showing an immense 

 amount of hard and persevering labor devoted to the 

 interests of the agriculturists of the country ; and 

 yet, there is no small amount of grumbling about 

 the great outlay, and the little accomplished, by 

 those who are not competent to render an intelligent 

 opinion on the subject. If the ravages of the Rocky 

 Mountain Locusts cannot now be circumvented, it will 

 not be because there is no literary and scientific know- 

 ledge on the subject extant, but simply because the 

 proper means will not be brought into practical use, 

 or because the whole matter is beyond human con- 

 trol. The main drawback will be in getting the 

 volumes of the commission into the hands of those 

 who are most interested in the subject, and who 

 will read them. Still, the facts and the recommenda- 

 tions they contain are now on permanent record, and 

 can be drawn upon and diffused through the public 

 press, as contingencies arise and necessity demands. 

 Ot;B Home and Science Gossip, a four- 

 columned, sixteen-paged demifolio " magazine," 

 published by Andrus & lUingworth, Rockford, Illi- 

 nois, monthly, at one dollar a year in advance. No. 

 5, Vol. .5 for April, 1881, is on our table, and it cer- 

 tainly is one of the most readable publications that 

 we have seen for " mauy a day," especially to those 

 who have the least leaning towards " popular 

 science." The material and mechanical execution 

 are equal to any $1.00 publication in the country, 

 and having but one page of advertisements, it has 

 room for a large amount of gossip on Geology, 

 Mineralogy, Paleontology, Gonchology, Ichthyology, 

 Anthropology, Numismatics, Philately, Astronomy, 

 Museums and Collections, Art Decorations, Zoology, 

 including Ornithology, Entomology, &c.. Micro- 

 scopy, Chemistry and Miscellaneous Science ; also. 

 Poetry and General Literature, Anatomy, Physics, 

 Health and Hygiene, Household Hints, Fruit and 

 Fruit-Growiug, Farm and Stock, Apiaria, and Puz- 

 zling Pastimes ; also. Flowers and Plants, Flashes of 

 Fashion, and Wit and Humor. Surelv this is a 

 "Home Journal'' to those who are able to realize 

 " 'Tis home where tlie heart is wherever that be, 



In city, in desert, in moimtain, in deli ; 

 Not the grandeur, the number, the objects we see, 



But that which we /we is the magical spell." 

 We should heartily welcome the Home to our list 

 of exchanges, and cheerfully commend it to the pub- 

 lic. Address Lock Drawer 3605, Rockford, Illi- 



nois—publishers above named— and secure one of the 

 many valuable book premiums ofifered to every sub- 

 scriber. 



The Shepherd's National Journal, devoted 

 to Sheep Husbandry in the United States. Publish- 

 ed by E. J. Hiatt, Chester Hill, Ohio, Editor .and 

 Proprietor. Terms, $2,00 a year, in advance. 



No. 1, Vol. 1, of this capital publication, is now 

 before us,, from which it will be perceived that it is a 

 newly initiated enterprise, and one that deserves to 

 be amply sustained, because the wool interest imme- 

 diately affects every man, woman and child in the 

 Repiiblic, especially since the question "Is it all 

 wool ?" enters so largely into the discussion of the 

 textile fabrics of the nation. 



The Shepherd's National Journal is a royal quarto 

 of 32 pages, and it is proposed to issue it quarterly. 

 There will be added a weekly supplement during the 

 woolselling season, embodying the wool market and 

 price current in city and country, including also the 

 prices of mutton sheep throughout the union. The 

 present number contains thirty-two difl'ereul articles, 

 all.more or less relating to sheep-husbandry, and mat 

 ters pertaining to this branch of human industry. 

 The material and typography are of a superior or- 

 der and the literature is of a more than ordinary 

 practical character. In short we deem it essential to 

 the vast interest of the wool trade, and cannot see 

 how those engaged in the trade can possibly aflbrd to 

 do without it. The editor in his "announcement" 

 truly remarks: " It will mutually benefit all to be- 

 come better acquainted with each other, and with 

 the wants of manufacturers, whose interests are 

 so closely allied to wool growing, that one cannot 

 prosper without the other, and if one fails it brings 

 sure destruction upon the other." In politics it will 

 insist upon the maintenance of a tarifi' that will dis- 

 criminate in favor of American labor. Sensible of 

 the vast responsibility it necessarily aasumes in occu- 

 pying its present position, it invokes the hearty co- 

 operation of the many public spirited, earnest and 

 practical breeders, and wool growers throughout the 

 entire country and we sincerely hope it may receive 

 the desired aid. Will our woolgrowing "patrons 

 stick a pin in here." 



Wisconsin Central Railroad Lands.— An 

 octavo pamphlet of sixty pages and an index, 

 thoroughly advertising the resources of the State, 

 and especially its railroad interests, and moit espe- 

 cially gotten up in that behalf. To those who can • 

 make the subject also their interest, these publica- 

 tions are very useful, even if they sometimes do mis- 

 lead the overly sanguine. This pamphlet contains 

 seven full-page maps of the whole State and parts of 

 the State, besides twelve pages of illustrations of 

 scenery, stations, landscape views, farms, &c., Ac. 

 The efl'orts now made to populate and civilize the 

 new States, and bring them under settlement and 

 cultivation, are truly wonderful. ■ The subjects 

 treated of include lands, sub-divisions, timber, soil, 

 mineS', climate, health, educational facilities, per- 

 sonal rights, rapid development, wages, prices, gov- 

 ernment lands, homestead laws, woodland and 

 prairie, how it looks in Dakota, besides a description 

 of all the towns, villages and stations through which 

 the Wisconsin Central Railroad passes. All who de- 

 sire full particulars are admonished to address Chas. 

 L. Colby, Land Commissioner, Milwaukee, Wis. 



Hand-Book for Inventors.— Prepared and pre- 

 sented by Haupt Brothers, attorneys and solicitors 

 in patent cases, 209 South Fourth street, Philadel- 

 phia, Pa., containing the law in regard to the pro- 

 curing of letters patent, caveats, copyrights, trade- 

 marks, and many useful hints as to how to proceed. 

 A 12mo. pamplilet of 32 pages with a list of refer- 

 ences, <fec. The "very thing," one should think, 

 that ought to be in the hands of that busy, patient. 

 Ingenious and persevering craft who are every day 

 adding to the great list of patentables of our restless 

 countrymen. 



Get your Job Printing done at the Daily 

 Examinee oflBce. 



