22 



NEW ENGLAND FARME-R 



JIIL,T 2r, 1836. 



IIOSTON. WEDNESDAY EVENlNfi.JULY 27, I83C. 



RASSING CHICKENS. 



The following is a valuiible article, and relaies to a 

 branch of rural economy, which deserves mure altention 

 than it has received in this country. Turlher fuvors ol 

 a similar nature from the same hand are respectfully so- 

 licited. 

 Mb Fessenden, 



Sir In one of your late papers I saw mentioned a 



successful way of raising chickens,- — I have been in the 

 liabit of raising them for some years, and if you think 

 favorably of the mode I have adopted, you can insert it 

 in your valuable paper. 



I keep my hens warm under cover during the winter, 

 and feed them on " Brewers' Grains " placed in an open 

 box or tub, that they may eat when they please, occa- 

 sionally giving tlieni oats, corn, and oyster shells pound- 

 ed fine, and plenty of water — by keeping them warm 

 and v\ellfed, they begin laying earlier in the season. 1 

 prefer spring chickens, as they lay earlier than old liens 

 — and the old hens to set, as they make the best mothers. 

 I late care the eggs do not get chilled with cold, and 

 keep them in a warm place in my house. When three 

 or four hens v\ant to set I put from thirteen to fifteep 

 eggs under each ol them, according to size — the day of 

 the month marked on each egg — and after the hen has 

 set a week or ten days I examine them by holding the 

 eggs to a crack or knot hole in a board when the sun 

 shines thiough, and if I discover any rotten ones, I take 

 them away and replace them with fresh ones marked as 

 before mentioned. When the chickens are all hatched 

 I put two or three of the broods to one hen, in a coop 

 «vilh an opening against an empty barrel placed on the 

 bilge, and with a little care, when put in the coop, the 

 hen may be made to brood them at the further end of 

 • the barrel. In that way the chickens that are not cov- 

 ered by the hen huddle together around her, and keep 

 each other warm. The hens from which the chickens 

 are taken I put into another coop, and in about a fort- 

 night Ihey will begin to lay again. The hen being con- 

 fined in the coop, will leave her chickens much earlier 

 than if left to run al large with them, and the chickens 

 will become so accustomed to going into the barrel and 

 huddling together, as to be quite contented to give up the 

 hen's brooding them. After the chickens are two or 

 three weeks old I remove them with the coops into my 

 garden, where they feed upon insects, so as to require 

 but little food — but do not keep them there until they 

 are large enough to injure the garden, 



I feel persuaded that in the way I have proceeded, our 

 market could be supplied with an abundance of poultry, 

 and 1 recommend it with confidence, if managed with 

 care and attention, as profitable to those who may engage 

 in such business. 

 Chatlestown, July, 1836. 



cially when they purchase their seeds of Tom, Dick and 

 Harry and then sell them as genuine. We only say at 

 present that the seeds were not purchased at the Agri- 

 cultural Ware House of Mr Harlow. But unless some 

 satisfactory e.\planation shall be given, we shall caution 

 our readers against purchasing seed at the establishment 

 where these were obtained. — Bangor Far. 



03= The following is only one of many cases we have 

 heard, of farmers purchasing seeds, when the venders 

 know nothing about what they were selling. 



Se£d. — VVe have heard that for a year or two past, 

 some of our fanning friends have been horridly imposed 

 upon in their seed. Cabbage and English Turnip seed 

 having been sold them for Ruta Baga. One of our 

 friends will this year lose from two to three hundred dol- 

 lars in his crop, as he intended to have three acres of 

 Ruta Bnga, but they have proved to be English Turnips ! 

 Men who deal in seeds should be held responsible, espe- 



(Forthe New England Farmer.) 



NORTHERN EXPOSURE TO FRUIT,— TARRING 

 TREES INJURIOUS. 



Thos. G. Fessenden, Esq. 



Dear Sir — My own garden is an inclined plane, fac- 

 ing, as we say, to the Northwest ; 1 have found from ob- 

 servation, during five successive years, that vegetables 

 on land of a southerly aspect have been affected by frost, 

 when those of the same kind in my garden, were un- 

 touched. Ifthefactbe true, I would ask, what philo- 

 sophic.Tl principle must be summoned to give an expla- 

 nation." 



I would slate a fact, showing, as I suppose the effect 

 of Tar upon fruit trees. My neighbor and I owned two 

 adjoining orchards, the canker worms have visited them 

 without mercy for eight successive years — my neighbor 

 tarred his trees in the usual way, mine were many of 

 them large, and taking into the account the expense and 

 trouble and chance of injury from the tar itself — I 

 suff"ered the insidious invaders to range unmolested. — 

 The last season the worms were few compared with pre- 

 ceding years, and many trees were permitted to produce 

 as they were wont. My neighbor's trees abreast of mine, 

 of the same ago and kind bore but sparingly, while mine 

 produced in greatabundar.ee — the tar must have been 

 thecause.t This matter ia, no doubt, well understood, 

 but as it came under my' own eye, I pass it to you ; it 

 may not be useful to publish. 

 Yours, truly, 



Joseph HARRrNSTON. 



* Bv THE EniTOR. — The following remarks originally 

 appeared in the Han pshire Gazette President Uwight 

 in his " Travels in New England," &c. says, the com- 

 mon opinion that tender plants and fruit trees ought to 

 be placed in a warm southern exposure, to preserve them 

 from frosts is erroneous. He adduces many facts to prove 

 that fruit trees should be planted on northwestern north 

 ern or western declivities, where they may be exposed 

 to tho northwestern, northern, or western winds. A 

 white frost being merely frozen dew, the great object 

 should be to keep the dew from resting on the plants. 

 This can be effectually done only by exposing them to 

 the free access of the northwestern wind,tbe source of 

 almost every white frost. Plants from which the dew is 

 swept away by this wind will escape ; while those 

 which, by being sheltered from its current, retain the 

 dew, will be destroyed. Major White, of South Hadley, 

 had an orchard on the northwestern declivity of a hill, 

 exposed to the s'trong winds that blow through the gap 

 of Mount Tom and Mount Holyoke. These winds 

 swept the dew from this orchard so effectually, that its 

 blossoms regularly escaped the injuries of such late frosts 

 in the spring as destroyed those of the surrounding coun- 

 try. The inhabitants of South Hadley styled such a 

 frost Major White's Harvest, because in such years his 

 cider commanded a very high price. A Mr Lyman in- 

 formed President Dwight that in liis garden, which was 

 exposed to the northwest winds, the white frosts had 

 never done any injury to the vegetables. See JV. E. 

 Farmer, vol. v. p 348. 



Another advantage in a northern expo.iure is obtained 

 by its keeping vegetation back till late in the spring. If 

 vegetation commences early, subsequent frosts con 



geal the sap in its pores, and kill the young plants by 

 bursting or tearing its fibres ; as a glass or earthen vessel 

 is bioken by water's being frozen ill it. See N. E. Far- 

 mer, Vol. V. p. 260. 



t The following process has been recommended for 

 defending trees against canker worms. A strip of linen 

 or canvas is put round the body of the tree, before the 

 females begin their ascent, and well smeared with tar, 

 &c. The design of the strip is to prevent the tar from 

 corring in contact with the tree which always injures it. 

 See New American Gardener, Art Insects. A gentle- 

 man informs us that in Plymouth, Mass. they make use 

 of the following mixture as a substitute for tar, in preserv- 

 ing fruit trees against canker worm, viz : White varnish, 

 softsoap and whale oil, one third of each, to be mixed 

 and applied at the times and manner of the usual appli- 

 cation of tar for the same purpose. The advantages of 

 the mixture, we understand, ar.=, that it is not so soon 

 hardened by the weather, and of course need not be so 

 often applied, and does not in the least injure the trees 

 to which the application is made. 



Those of our readers who intend visiting the city, on 

 business or otherwise will find at the Franklin House, 

 convenient accommodations, good beds, attentive wait- 

 ers and an obliging host. 



The House is within a stone's throw of Faneuil Hall 

 and Quincy Market, one side opening to the Market 

 square. See Advertisement. 



Mr Madison. — Theie can scarcely be a doubt that Mr 

 Madison has left a work of a political or historical cast 

 for publication by his executors. The frequent allu- 

 sions of Mr Jefferson in his correspondence with Mr 

 Madison, lead Irresistibly to such a conclusion. We trust 

 that it will prove a history of the United States from the 

 peace of 1783, to the close of his administration in 1812. 

 — JVorfolk Beacon. 



Two Oceans WITHIN fodreeen hours sail! — The 

 Atlantic and the Pacific are likely to be united by Yan- 

 kee enterprise. The Congress of New Grenada has 

 granted to Mr Charles Biddle and others, the exclusive 

 privilege for 50 years under the name of Transportation 

 Company of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, of navi- 

 g.:ti..g the river Otiagtews ..jiii oieain. A f.-rther exclu- 

 sive privilege for the same period is granted Mr Biddle, 

 for the transportation of goods and passengers, by the rail 

 way, Macadamized road from the head of the navigation 

 of the Chagress to the city of Panama, reserved to the 

 public a transportation road for horses and mules. 



Extensive concessions of land are made to Mr Biddle in 

 the same decree, in which colonies of natives and for- 

 eigners mry be settled, and be exempted from certain 

 contributions for 20 years. 



One of the last provisions of the decree ordains, thatif 

 two steamboats at least are not kept in operation, and 

 that the communications are not kept constantly, in such 

 a state, (excepting accidents,) as to admit the transpor- 

 tation between the Atlantic and Pacific being effected in 

 fourteen hou's, the exclusive privilege is to be forfeited. 

 — Daily Mv. 



A LITTLE LARGER. — We shall beat 'em yet. We have 

 received a cluster of strawberries from the garden of 

 Ebenezer Fuller, Esq. of this town, none of them less 

 than three inches in circumference, and one three inch- 

 es and a quarter, and all deliciously ripe Massachu- 

 setts is only an inch ahead of us. — Kennebec JoUj.. 



