SUPPLEMENT TO THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



3 



't, a rotation of crops is desirable, and on almost 

 every farm a portion of tlie land can be profitably 

 occupied in this way ; but much of the land through 

 the central parts of our state is much better adapted 

 to growinsj wrass than grain ; and on such land it 

 would be improper to make the raising of corn and 

 fattening of hogs the main business. Here the 

 raising and keeping of cattle will be more profita- 

 ble. Again on the dry and rich soil of the river 

 bottoms, corn is the most appropriate crop with a 

 rotation of other grains. By a little observation, a 

 farmer will discover the most profitable course of 

 culture, and on lands adapted to the purpose he 

 ought not to remain contented with smaller crops 

 tlian are obtained in older settlements on inferior 

 soil. " What has been done can be done again" 

 is k remark frequently made, and we see no reason 

 why a farmer who has good corn land should be 

 satisfied with fitly bushels to tlie acre when one 

 hundred can be obtained. We have seen the land 

 and the stalks, from which one hundred and twen- 

 tyseven and a half bushels of shelled corn were 

 taken from the acre, and in several instances over 

 one hundred and fifty have been obtained, in the 

 state of New York. It was by manuring and su- 

 perior cultivation that it was done. Let us bestow 

 the same care and much larger crops tlian we now 

 get, will be the result. Just so with stock, and 

 every production of the farm. 



Much land tliat is now unfit for grain by proper 

 draining may be made excellent for the purpose. 

 When a farmer is fully resolved to make every 

 improvement in his power, he will find many %vays 

 of doing it he had not before thought of. One of 

 the most important considerations will be Die sav- 

 ing of manual labor, for which purpose machines 

 of various kinds are in use in the east ; some of 

 which will soon be introduced among us." 



When one or more individuals in a neighborhood 

 are fully impressed with the necessity, and a desire 

 for improving their farms, their example will have 

 a very beneficial influence. The standard of ex- 

 cellence will be raised, and others will follow their 

 example. Many who are trudging along in their half 

 measures, would not rest satisfied with tlieir imper- 

 fect and unprofitable system, when they saw their 

 neighbors enjoying superior comfort, and realizing 

 greater profits, in consequence of the improvements 

 tliey have adopted. Much good will result from 

 the spirit of improvement when it becomes general. 

 Roads will be viistly improved. Schools will be 

 better supported, and the minds of the people bet- 

 ter informed ; and may we not reasonably suppose 

 their morals will be improved. 



EGGS AND POULTRY. 



Among all nations, and throughout all grades of 

 society, eggs have been a favorite food. But in all 

 our cities and particularly in winter, they are held 

 at such prices that few families can afford to use 

 them at all ; and even those who are in easy cir- 

 cumstances, consider tliem too expensive for com- 

 mon food. 



There is no need of this. Every family or 

 nearly every family, can, with very little trouble, 

 have eggs in plenty during the whole year ; and of 

 ail the animals domesticated for the use of man, 

 the common dungliill fowl is capable of yielding 

 the greatest possible profit to the owner. 



In the month ot November, I put apart eleven 

 hens and cock, gave them a small chamber in a 

 ■wood-house, defended from storms, and with an 



opening to the south. Their food, water and lime 

 were placed on shelves convenient for them, with 

 warm nests and chalk nest-eggs in plenty. These 

 hens continued to lay eggs through the winter. 

 From these eleven hens I received an average of 

 six eggs daily during the winter ; and whenever 

 any of theta was disposed to set, viz. as soon as 

 slie began to cluck, she was separated from the 

 others by a grated partition, and her apartment 

 darkened ; these cluckers were well attended and 

 well fed ; they could see and partially associate 

 through their grates with the other fowls, and as 

 soon as any one of these prisoners began to sing, 

 she was liberated, and would very soon lay eggs. 

 It is a pleasant recreation to feed and tend a bevy 

 of laying hens ; they may be tamed so as to follow 

 tlie children, and will lay in any bo.x. 



Egg shells contain lime, and in winter, when the 

 earth is bound with frost or covered with snow, if 

 lime is not provided for them, they will not lay, or, 

 if they do, the eggs must of necessity be without 

 shells. Old rubbish lime, from old chimneys and 

 old buildings, is proper, and only needs to be brok- 

 en for them. They will often attempt to swallow 

 pieces of lime plaster as large as walnuts. 



I have often heard it said that wheat is the best 

 grain for them, but I doubt it; they will sing over 

 Indian corn with more animation tlian over any 

 otlier grain. The singing hen will certainly lay 

 eggs, if she finds all things agreeable to her; but 

 the hen is mucli a prude, as watchful as a weasel, 

 and as fastidious as a hypocrite ; she must, she 

 will have secrecy and mystery about her nest ; all 

 _-^G3 but her own must be averted ; follow her or 

 watch her, and she will forsake her nest, and stop 

 laying ; she is best pleased witli a box covered at 

 top, with a backside aperture for light, and a side 

 door by which she can escape unseen. 



A farmer may keep an hundred fowls in his barn, 

 may suffer them to trample upon and destroy his 

 mows of wheat and other grains, and still have 

 fewer eggs than the cottager who keeps a single 

 dozen, who provides secret nests, chalk eggs, 

 pounded brick, plenty of Indian corn, lime, water 

 and gravel, for them ; and who takes care that his 

 hens are not disturbed about their nests. Three 

 chalk eggs in a nest are better than a single nest 

 egg, and large eggs please them ; I have often 

 smiled to see them fondle round and lay into a 

 nest of geese eggs. Pullets will commence laying 

 earlier in life where nests and eggs are plenty, and 

 where other hens are cackling around them. 



A dozen dunghill fowls, shut up away from other 

 means of obtaining food, will require something 

 more than a quart of Indian corn a day ; I think 

 fifteen bushels a year a fair provision for them. 

 But more or less, let them always have enough by 

 them ; and after they have become habituated to 

 find enough at all times a plenty in "their little 

 manger, they take but a few kernels at a time, 

 except just before retiring to roo.'t, when they will 

 take nearly a spoon-full into their crops ; but just 

 so sure as their provision comes to thorn scanted or 

 irregularly, so surely tliey will raven up a whole 

 crop full at a time, and will stop laying. 



A single dozen fowls, properly attended, will 

 furnish a family with more than 2,000 eggs in a 

 year, and 100 full grown chickens for fall and win- 

 ter stores. The expense of feeding the dozen 

 fowls will not amount to eighteen bushels of Indian 

 corn. They may be kept in cities as well as in 

 the country, and will do as well shut up 'the year 

 round as to run at large ; and a grated room, well 



lighted, ten feet by five, partitioned from any stable 

 or other out-house, is sufficient for the dozen fowls, 

 with their roosting place, nests and feeding troughs. 



At the proper season, viz. in the spring of the 

 year, five or six hens will hatch at the same time, 

 and the fifty or sixty chickens given to one lien. 

 Two hens will take care of 100 chickens well 

 enough, until they begin to climb their little stick 

 roosts ; they should tlien be separated from the 

 hens entirely ; they will wander less, and do better 

 away from the fowls. I have often kept the chick- 

 ens in my garden ; they keep the May bugs and 

 other insects away from the vines, &c. 



In cases of confining fowls in summer, it should 

 be remembered that a ground room should be chos- 

 en : or it will do just as well to set into their pen 

 boxes of dried sand or kilndried, well pulverized 

 earth, for them to wallow in, in warm weather. — 

 Con. Courant. 



APPROVED METHOD OF MAKING GOOD 

 CIDER. 



i\Ir Anderson, a gentleman in England, famed 

 for good cider, gives the following account of his 

 method of making it: 



" I should first tell yon that my orchards are 

 upon a clay soil, which I think conduces much to 

 the goodness of my cider. I will be short in my 

 practical account, making but few observations, and 

 leave the curious to draw speculative reflections on 

 it. I permit my fruit to remain on the trees till a 

 great part falls by ripeness ; then gently shaking 

 the trees, take in the apples in dry weather, laying 

 them in heaps of equal ripeness in a loft over my 

 press. There *'■->,' icmain until they have perspired, 

 and that perspiration ceases. As soon as conveni- 

 ent afterward, I grind my apples and press out the 

 juice ; if it casts a pale color, I suffer the pulp to 

 stand twelve or twentyfour hours, which will height- 

 en the color of the juice. As soon as it is ex- 

 pressed, I pour it into va'ts through a sieve, where 

 it remains about two days according to the state of 

 the weather and the nature of the apple — the long- 

 est when frosty or cool weather — till a thick head 

 of scum rises upon it. Then I draw off a little 

 into a glass to see if it is fine, and as soon as I catch 

 it so, I rack it off without delay into open vats, or 

 into hogsheads. If the juice is racked into vessels 

 larger at top than the bottom, and I rack it off as 

 soon as fine, I need not take off the head or scum, 

 as it will not mix with the cider; but if the cask 

 is straight, or I have neglected to draw it off until 

 it begins to come foul again, I find I do best to 

 take off the head with a wooden skimmer and then 

 draw off as soon as possible. Whenever the brown 

 head begins to open in the middle, or elsewhere, 

 and a witness appears at the openings, I am certain 

 it is time to draw off; but I find from experience, 

 that the surest token is to observe its state by 

 what is drawn off in a glass, and this method should 

 be closely attended to. I have drawn a glass of 

 cider out of a vat at eight o'clock, foul ; another at 

 ten, fine, almost candle bright, with(^ut any appear- 

 ance of the heads openinj, as above observed ; at 

 eleven, it was growing foul fast, without high winds, 

 or any extraordinary event that I could perceive, to 

 occasion it. !f then drawn off into open vessels, a 

 fresh head may arise in twentyfour hours, then it 

 may be racked into a close hogshead, or other re- 

 ceiver, where it will begin to ferment after a day 

 or two, according to circumstances ; I then permit 

 it to ferment three or four days, (never exceeding 

 a week for the hardest fruit,) then I fumigate a 



