Toii. xvra. tio. ^'i. 



le, if wo continue to buy mucli and sell little, is 

 >eginniiig to be a serious iiuestion. We are in a 

 air way to have a national debt accumulated upon 

 ,s equal to tliat of Great Britain ; a debt, to pav 

 he interest of which is now weighing her agticul- 

 ;urists and manufactures to the dust. The -only 

 lifference will be, her indebtedness is to her own 

 citizens : ours will be to foreigners, and a fearful 

 jowcr it will be for them to wield over us. 



How shall this alarming evil be remedied ? It 

 ,vould be easy to say, retrench, buy less and sell 

 nore. But such is not usually the course of indi- 

 viduals or nations. We have gratified our wants 

 antil they have become so interwoven with ^ our 

 lystem, that retrenchment in the means of satisfy- 

 ing them is not likely to be a favorite doctrine, 

 However just and feasible it may be. The only 

 way, then, for us, if we will have just so much,^ is 

 lUher to produce the things themselves, or something 

 'hat will pay for them. We can raise our own 

 mad. and have a krje s-r-'-f to se". Wo can 

 nake a^i Ine sxigar aemanaefl in the country, and 

 we must do it. We can make the silU wanted in 

 ■Jie United States, and if we are wise, we shall 

 50on do it, and put a stop to the largest item in the 

 balance against us ; an item of from fifteen to twen- 

 ty millions annually. Supply ourselves with these 

 three itsms, and we turn the balance of trade 

 in our favor, and bring the world in debt to us. In 

 that case we should become a debt-receiving in- 

 stead of a " debt-paying nation," and the difference 

 there is between the actual pleasure of these two 

 operations, (to say nothing of the profit,) will be 

 appreciated by most. — Genesee Farmer. 



WHEAT ON CLOVER, AND LIMING. 

 To the Editor of the Farmer's Register : 



Xorfolk county, (Va.) JwA/ 23rf, 183it. 

 I am now getting out my little crop of wheat, 

 and have already cleaned out 118 bushels, and feel 

 confident of 30 to 40 more, which, by the way, is a 

 great crop for this section of country, especially 

 from seven acres of land. Last year I produced 

 from a small piece of land not exceeding four and 

 a half acres, sown with five and a half bushels of 

 seed exactly, ninetytwo and a half bushels of good 

 clean wheat. In sheer justice, -however, to you 

 and your works, I must say that the most credit (if 

 there be any,) is due to you and them, especially to 

 your work on calcareous manures. After reading 

 and studying that and some of your first numbers 

 of the Register, I was satisfied that by lime I cnuld 

 make c\o\tT, with a little farm-pen manure in ad- 

 dition ; and from information derived from various 

 sources, I learned that the practice of the best 

 wheat farmers in this country and Europe was, to 

 sow wheat on a clover ley ; I have pursued it so 

 far on a small scale, with complete success. For 

 I am confident from some few previous trials, with- 

 out the aid of lime and clover, the two crop.^ I have 

 mentioned would not have turned out more than 

 one-third or one-fourth as much as they have now 

 done, ail other things being equal. So much for 

 my little wheat crops, which I have not detailed in 

 minutia;. Our prospect of a good corn crop thus 

 far is promising. In conclusion I do conscientious- 

 ly and f rally believe that the easiest, cheapest and 

 best manner or method of improving our lands, is 

 by the aid of calcareous manures, when done judi- 

 ciously. R. W. Silvester. 



The Practical Farmer names 118 cocooneries in 

 •operation in the United States. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER, 



193 



TO FATTEN POULTRY 



An experiment has lately been tried of feeding 

 geese with turnips cut in small pieces like dice, 

 but less in size, and put into a trouiih of water ; 

 with this food alone, the effect was that six geese, 

 eacli when lean weighing only nine lbs., actually 

 o-ained twenty lbs. each in about three weeks fatten- 

 ing. 



Malt is an excellent food for geese and turkeys : 

 grains are preferred for the sake of economy, un- 

 less for immediate and rapid fattening: the grains 

 should be boiled afresh. 



Other cheap articles for fattening are oatmeal 

 and treacle ; barley-meal and milk ; boiled oats and 

 ground malt. 



Corn before being given to fowls, should always 

 be crushed and soaked in water. The food will 

 thus go further, and it will help digestion. Hens 

 fed tlius have been known to lay during the whole 

 of the winter months. — Maine Farmer. 



POULTRY. 



" The rearing of poultry, by which we here intend 

 the common domestic fowls, requires some care 

 and attention, but the increased profits are usually 

 an ample compensation for any extra expense the 

 farmer is put to on their account. Fowls, wherever 

 they are kept, require fresh air ; yards sufficiently 

 large to admit of the exercise af their active ram- 

 bling propensities to some extent; food in sufticient 

 quantities, and of good quality ; a supply of earth, 

 fine pebbles, &c., in which they can dust themselves, 

 and the pebbles of which they can swallow to aid 

 in digesting their food ; a roosting place several 

 feet from the ground, and carefully inclosed, so 

 that their nocturnal enemies, such as the owl, skunk, 

 weasel, i&c. oannot conveniently get at tJicai ; and 

 they should also be provided with a loft containing 

 boxes, straw, &c. for nests. Fowls love to be 

 tempted to lay, by having all the accommodations 

 present, and the more secure from disturbance the 

 better it will be for them. In making a roosting 

 place, it should be recollected that fowls never 

 choose a flat surface to roost upon, but one th.it is 

 round, and of such a size as to be conveniently em- 

 braced by the toe's of the foot. This is necessary 

 for their ease in sleeping, for- such is the peculiar 

 muscular construction of a bird's leg, that the more 

 the body presses upon it like a dead weight, as it 

 always does in sleeping, the firmer the foot grasps 

 the object it is placed upon. Some fowls cannot 

 be induced to roost under cover, as the peacock 

 and guinea hen, which prefer high trees or build- 

 ings ; and all prefer a greater or less elevation 

 from the earth. In the winter, fowls sufter much 

 from cold, and they should be furnished with a 

 house or roosting place made so tight as to prevent 

 the injurious efiects of cold as far as may be. They 

 should also be well fed at such seasons, and pre- 

 vented from rambling about in the snow. Fovis 

 fed well through the winter, and provided with 

 warm houses and roosting places, will not cease 

 laying eggs for any considerable time in the whole 

 year. They are also ready for the cook wiienever 

 desired; which is more than can be said of multi- 

 tudes of fiwlsthat find their way to our markets at 

 all seasons of the year. The eggs of a well fed 

 fowl are far better and richer than tJiose from a 

 half starved one, so tliat in every respect the far- 

 mer is benefited by giving to his fowls some of the 

 attention and food he is apt to reserve for his other 

 animals. — Genesee Farmer. 



[Comraunicnled,] 

 FOSSES INODORES. 

 From no motive but a desire to promote the gen- 

 eral health, comfort and convenience, I would call 

 attention to the enormous nuisance of vaults as now 

 constructed and managed. Tlie unwholesome ex- 

 halation, the daily annoyance, the occasional horrid 

 accident, are enough to suggest inquiry whether a 

 remedy of the evil cannot be devised. We can 

 sc?.rcply dig a well because our whole peninsula 

 has become' a great filter for that which is hateful 

 here, but capable of becoming precious elsewhere. 

 A complete remedy has been pr6vided to our 

 hand. The French have what they call the fosses 

 inodores. A strong and tight wooden butt is placed 

 in a corner or small cell of a cellar, with a conve- 

 nient access from without. A funnel or large tube 

 (common if desired to every floor of the dwelling,) 

 communicates between the closet and the butt, hav- 

 ing valves, wliich urevent the escape of gases. Pe- 

 riodically the butt is removed by a moveable win- 

 dlas, and carted into the country without offence to 

 any party and without danger or night work to the 

 laborers. Another butt takes the place of the one 

 removed. 



If there were no other advantage attending this 

 arrangement than the suppression of those odious 

 nigldly processions, it would be worth a while to 

 adopt it. The loss to the agricultural wealth of 

 the neighborhoods of large places by the' waste of 

 saline liquids, is incalculable. But this or any oth- 

 er result of our bad economy in this particular, is 

 not to be mentioned in the same month with the 

 severe and unhealthy labor, and [horrendxm dicta,) 

 occasional suffocation of the men engaged in the 

 service of depletion. Humanitas. 



VEGETATIVE POWERS OF SEA SAND. 



A few days since a quantity of sea sand was car- 

 ried out of Morecambe Bay, about a mile from the 

 Furness shore. It had been, less than an hour pre- 

 viously, covered a considerable depth by the tide, 

 and contained several cockles and other shell fish. 

 It was immediately placed in pits or beds fifteen 

 inches deep, and sown, without manure or admix- 

 ture nf any kind, with wheat, barley, peas, mustard 

 and radish seed. In five days the mustard and 

 radish seed had sprouted and begun to vegetate, 

 liaving thrown out a considerable length of root, 

 while"(what is most extraordinary.) the shell fish 

 were even then alive ! Should, any one be at all 

 incredulous as to the truth of this statement, he can 

 easily try the experiment himself: an ordinary 

 flower pot filled with sea sand, sown with almost 

 any kind of seeds, would at once put the matter to 

 the test. The farmers all around the bay of Mo- 

 recambe, in forming composts for their wheat and 

 barley crops, use of sea sand about 2G carts (small 

 one-horse carts,) lime, about four carts ; manure, 

 ten carts per statute acre. Why use so great a 

 quantity of sea sand if it does not possess very con- 

 siderable vegetative power? — English pap. 



When you have finished a job of ploughing and 

 your plough is to be idle a few days, or weeks, do 

 not leave it exposed to the weather, but put it under 

 shelter without delay. By doing this, you prevent 

 a covering of rust, which will require half a day's 

 work to w°earoft". The same may be said of other 

 implements, as hoes, scythes, axes, &e. TUcy 

 should always, when not in use, be under cover — 

 I Genesee Far. 



