NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



357 



enough to lay. In addition, I have from time to 

 tim.e selected the best looking native breeds, having 

 regard to their laying propensities, to use for sitters : 

 these I consider the most hardy, and on the whole 

 the most profitable. Individuals of my flock have 

 been attacked with weakness of the back and limbs, 

 contraction of the cords of the feet, with a general 

 drooping ; and although removed from the flock, scarce 

 ever recover. I have several fine cocks, three quarters 

 grown, now suffering under this disease : they are now 

 sitting on their haunches, \vith their claws grasped 

 close together like a man's fist doubled up; if ap- 

 proached kindly, will commence walking on their 

 feet doubled up, and continiie so until they sit again ; 

 if aroused by a sudden fright, by great effort can 

 expand the claws, and walk on them, contracting 

 again when the fright subsides. Sometimes one 

 limb is attacked, but generally both : these are the 

 first symptoms, which are followed by general weak- 

 ness and loss of appetite and death. My medicine 

 has been first some cathartic, kernels of black pepper, 

 assaf(rtida, &c. The result thus far in all cases has 

 been death. Mr. Editor, forgive me for having been 

 thus particular, if not tedious, iji the hope that you 

 or some other reader of your sheet would prescribe 

 some known remedy for this disease. I come now 

 to the following conclusion — that, in order to keep 

 " everlasting layers " everlastinglj' laying, they must 

 be everlastingly rambling about where they choose ; 

 in other words, they want, and must have their lib- 

 erty. This wdth me they cannot, nor shall not have, 

 from the middle of April to the middle of October : 

 therefore to me they are unprofitable ; and I shall on 

 the 1st day of April next reduce my flock to twelve 

 hens and a protector, or abandon the whole, unless 

 some one of your contributors, in answer to the 

 inquiries of J. S. of Mansfield, shall introduce me to 

 a breed that love confinement, and that lay equally 

 ds well when restricted and in other respects well 

 provided for. 



Respectfully yours, 



■D o . Tcr. A FRIEND. 



Providbxce, Sept. 1849, 



Editorial Remarks. — Hens running at large are 

 generally more healthy, and lay better, than those 

 confined to a yard or house ; yet, under the best of 

 management, most hens will lay well when confined 

 to rather narrow limits. There are occasionally ex- 

 ceptions to this general law, which cannot always be 

 accounted for. 



Fresh earth, containing a good share of gravel, 

 should be furnished to hens, and old lime mortar, 

 founded or ground oyster shells or bones should be 

 kept by them. Hens that have been raised within 

 narrow limits will bear confinement much better than 

 those that have been accustomed to ramble. They 

 will be contented, having no disposition to enjoj' 

 that liberty which they never knew. 



We have raised hens in a small yard, and kept 

 them confined, and they have laid remarkably well, 

 showing no disposition to ramble ; but, on the con- 

 trary, when the gate was left open, and they had 

 leisurely strolled away a short distance, at the ring- 

 ing of a bell or other noise, they would run home 

 with aiTright. Some breeds of hens are more quiet 

 and better adapted, naturally, to confinement than 

 others ; yet much dej^ends on education. 



A friend once gave us an account of the produce 

 of six Poland Top Knot hens, for one year. It was 

 unusually large — over one hundred and fifty eggs to 

 each fowl. In the month of June, the average to 



each hen was twenty-three eggs. These hens were 

 limited to a very small yard. 



Hens arc liable to many diseases, when they are 

 confined ; and it is as much trouble to doctor a hen 

 as it is to doctor a cow or an ox, and in either case the 

 bill for medical aid would generally far exceed the 

 value of a hen. Again, the diseases of hens are diffi- 

 cult to describe, and to pi-escribe for. There should 

 be great care to prevent diseases, as they often prove 

 fatal. 



Hens generate diseases, and are liable to great 

 injury from lice, where they roost in close houses in 

 warm weather, while those running at large and 

 roosting in the open air are healthy. The better 

 way is to let them roost out door in summer, with 

 only a covering over them, to keep off the rain. 



GOOD FARMING. 



Mr. John Johnston, near Geneva, has on his farm 

 a cow, which probably gives more milk than any 

 cow in the United States. Through the month of 

 June, 1848, she gaVe fortj'-two quarts per day; and 

 for five days she gave forty- five quarts per day ; 

 which is probably without any parallel in this coun- 

 try. From the cream only, thej'' made fourteen and 

 a half pounds of butter per week. Had they churned 

 from the milk, they would have got more butter. 

 The cow was milked three times a day. The only 

 feed she got was grass in the pasture. She is of a 

 roan color, half Durham and half native breed, and 

 is seven 3-ears old. She is finely formed, and a hand- 

 some animal. She was raised by Mr. Johnston, who 

 says she will be a good cow at twelve years or more. 

 He has eight cows in his pasture of clover up to 

 their knees, all fine animals, which it is a pleasure 

 to look at. 



Mr. Johnston is a Scotch farmer and grazier of 

 great celebrity, and sells many fat cattle for New- 

 York. He has a farm of three hundred and six 

 acres, in one compact body of land, on the east side 

 of Seneca I/ake, about three miles from Geneva, in 

 fields of eight to eighteen acres, all in the best con- 

 dition. One field of eighteen acres of Indian corn, 

 last year, yielded eighty-three bushels of shelled corn 

 per acre. One field of eight acres yielded ninety- 

 one bushels and forty-five pounds of corn per acre ; 

 and a field of wheat, of sixteen acres, yielded forty- 

 five bushels per acre. Mr. Johnston drains his land 

 by underground draining, and has some miles of 

 earthen pipes, (made at Waterloo,) which he has 

 been laying the last eight years. From the rich feed 

 in his pastures, the cattle are all in the best condi- 

 tion. He docs not feed his grass down to the ground. 

 This he calls bad farming, as the roots get scorched 

 by the summer drought, and frozen in winter. But 

 a covering of grass protects the roots from both, and 

 also keeps the cattle in good condition. He has 

 large barns, and yards and sheds for the cattle. In 

 the yards, the cattle make large quantities of maniire 

 — from wheat straw. He carts no mud from mead- 

 ows into his barn-yard. He puts the manure on the 

 land in the fall, sjireading and ploughing it in at 

 once, and not letting it remain for the sun and wind 

 to dry up. 



He observed to the writer of this, that he never 

 saw land too highly manured, but he had seen much 

 land too little manured. Land will always give a 

 return for all that is put upon it. The best proof of 

 this is, that in the last twenty years, he has brought 

 his farm from what was called icorn-out land, to its 

 present superior condition, not by borrowed capital, 

 but solely by the proceeds of the farm itself, obtained 



