170 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



TURKEYS. 



Turkeys intended for breeders must bo kept well 

 during the -winter. If put in good condition, how- 

 ever, during December, it takes but little feed to 

 keep tlicin so. Their nests for laying must be made 

 with hay or oat straw, under cover, and be well 

 protected from the weather, and from vermin. When 

 incubation commences, turkeys must not be dis- 

 turbed ; and if she docs not come from her nest for 

 food and water, she must have both placed by her on 

 the nest. When the young turkeys are hatched, 

 they may be allowed to remain one day in the nest ; 

 or, if removed, let them be sheltered in a warm 

 place, and plenty of straw for them to sit upon be 

 provided, for they are now extremely liable to take 

 cold. The second day, feed them with crumbs, or 

 warm clabbered milk, mixed with a little Indian or 

 barley meal. They must be kept iip and fed in this 

 way for two or three days, and longer, if the weather 

 should be cold and rainy; but as soon as a warm and 

 pleasant day comes, let them out at nine or ten 

 o'clock, and shut them up at four ; and this practice 

 of letting them out and shutting them up must be 

 followed for five or six weeks ; and on no accoinit 

 let them get v.'et. When a young turkey begins to 

 droop, there is but little hope for it. There is no 

 danger of keejjing them too warm. When they are 

 five or six weeks old, put a little grease on their 

 heads, to preserve them from vermin. 



In an article published in the American Agricul- 

 turist, from the pen of ^Ir. Charles Starr, Jr., that 

 gentleman remarks as follows : — 



"Heretofore I have had so much difficulty in 

 raising turkeys, as to be almost discouraged, but, of 

 late, have been very successful, in consequence of 

 pursuing the following mode recommended to me by 

 a lady, who said that she had no trouble with them. 



" When first hatched, give no food for twenty-four 

 hours ; then give a little curd made from butter- 

 milk, increasing the quantity as they grow older. 

 They should then be protected from the wet, and 

 by no means have Indian meal. But with the curd, 

 they may have, in moderate quantities, wheat bread 

 soaked in buttermilk. 



" I believe that Indian meal is fatal to the greater 

 part of young turkeys, that die in the attempt to 

 raise them." — Gcrmantoion Telegraph. 



Remarks by Editor New England Farmer. 



It is a common error to feed young fowls immedi- 

 ately after being hatched. Any person who has 

 examined eggs in the various stages of incubation, 

 sees at once the foUj' of this practice ; for the last 

 process, before leaving the shell, is the absorption of 

 a good portion of matter by the almost perfect fowl, 

 which serves as nutriment ; so that the young fowls, 

 like bees which leave the hive in swarming, have full 

 stomachs to sustain them a clay or two ; hence, in 

 both cases, that quietness and good humor that 

 generally prevails. 



From this wise provision of nature, the chick 

 that first hatches is supported until the last of the 

 brood is ready to leave the shell, which is frequently 

 twenty-four hours later. 



CLEANSING THE BARK OF FRUIT 

 TREES. 



This operation should be performed in early spring, 

 as well as in midsummer. The rough, loose parts 

 of the bark should be scraped off, as well as moss and 

 other parasites. The bark should then be covered 



with the following mixture, as high as the operator 

 can reach, with an ordinary long-handled whitewash 

 brush : five pounds whale oil soap, one pound fine 

 salt, one pound fine sand, two pounds potash, two 

 ounces nitrate of soda, dissolved or mixed with water 

 to the consistency of cream, and thoroughly rubbed 

 upon the bark. 



Many kinds of insects are kept from trees by a 

 solution of whale oil soap alone, and many such as 

 are resident in the crevices of the bark are destroyed 

 by salt. The fine sand is intended, during the rub- 

 bing, to scratch the outer coating of the bark, and 

 thus assist the other ingredients for more perfect 

 action. The potash and nitrate of soda will decom- 

 pose or soften the dead parts of the bark, so that 

 during the summer they will bo thrown off by the 

 healthy action of the growing bark. If the above 

 mixture be aj^plied in dry weather, it will become so 

 hard as to remain during several showers, and thus 

 have time to perform its office. Trees with smooth 

 bark, such as the plum, many of the cherries, &c., 

 should be rubbed with a wet, rough, woollen cloth, in 

 a few houi-s after applying the mixture : this rubbing 

 will cause the sand to clean the surface so perfectly 

 as to give the bark an improved and more healthy 

 surface. Trees so cleansed are not as likely to be 

 revisited by insects as those left with their natural 

 surfaces, nor are they as likely to become bark- 

 bound. Indeed, we have never known a tree to ex- 

 hibit the disease called bark-boumi, the surface of 

 the trunk of which had been softened by a soap 

 wash in early spring. The cherry, apricot, peach, 

 and nectarine are subject, when left to their natural 

 state, to this disease, and it has usually been attrib- 

 uted to too rich or too moist a soil ; and under- 

 draining and slitting the bark lengthwise with the 

 knife are the usual remedies. The one is expensive, 

 and often impossible where choice trees are planted, 

 and the other is barbarous and unslightly, causing 

 exhalation of gum and consequent canker. In any 

 case, a few applications of soap to the surface of the 

 part hide-bound will remove the difficulty, and the 

 mixture before recommended may be appUed, slightly 

 warmed, when required to soften the bark of a hide- 

 bound tree. — Wurkinrj Farmei\ 



Remarks by the Editor New England Farmer. 

 In scraping trees in spring, there should be 

 unusual care, as any injury to the live bark, at this 

 season, is more liable to be permanent in its effects 

 than at a later period. The bark and tree are full of 

 sap in the spring; and when trees arc injured, they 

 are liable to turn black and become seriously affected, 

 from the same wounds that would have no unfavor- 

 able effect after the tree is growing vigorously, and 

 the sap has been measurably spent in the production 

 of foliage and a new growth of wood. For these 

 reasons, we object to pruning trees in spring, espe- 

 cially when large limbs are to be cut off, which often 

 produces premature decay of the whole tree. 



HYBRIDIZATION AND CROSS FECUNDA- 

 TION OF PLANTS. 



Hybridization, strictly speaking, is the art or act of 

 obtaining an offspring or progeny between two dif- 

 ferent species of animals or plants ; and cross fecun- 

 dation, or cross breeding, is the production of a pro- 

 geny or race between varieties of the same species. It 

 was maintained by Buffon, Hunter, and other natu- 

 ralists of the last century, and is yet assumed by 

 many scientific men of the present day, that the 

 hybrid offspring or progeny of two distinct species 



