Proceedings of the Faiuiees^ Club. C97 



Large Ckop of Coen. 

 An interesting communiciition was forwarded by Mr. P. C. Wood, 

 of Hillsboro, 111., givinj^ an account of the practice of a neighbor of 

 liis, Amos Coltfelter, who, last season, raised six acres of corn " which 

 yielded, by actual weight, 116 bushels and fifty pounds of good, sound, 

 merchantable corn to the acre." The field was in corn in 1868, and 

 in the spring of '69 was plowed and let lie until the weeds had got a 

 pretty fair start ; then it was plowed again and the corn was planted 

 in drillri, a little more than a peck of seed to the acre being used. 

 While the corn was growing it was plow^ed three times, and that was 

 all the cultivation it received. I^o manure of any kind was used or 

 ever had been used on the land. 



DoRKUTG Fowls. 

 Mr. O. S. Bliss, Georgia, Yt., having noticed that a committee of 

 the Club recently reported the breed as not hardy, begged permission 

 to disagree. lie said : I have a flock of tvrenty pure, gray Dorkings, 

 bred from the stock imported by M. H. Cochrane, Esq., of Montreal, 

 the most beatiful birds of the breed I ever saw, and there has not 

 been so cold a day this winter that they have not been out, while the 

 Brahinas, of which I have a flock of twenty, bred from what is known 

 among ns as the Ives importation, have hardly ventured out at all. 

 So far this w:inter the Brahmas have laid tlie most eggs, but last 

 winter the Dorkings did the best. The Brahmas are kept in a close 

 basement, where it has not frozen this winter, with a shed to run in, 

 and the Dorkings in an open and exposed stable. The Brahmas con- 

 sume at least ten per cent more food than the Dorkings. I kept them 

 last summer in portable coops, that were moved every day, uisuallj 

 letting the hens out a little while just at night to forage, varying the 

 arrangement by letting out all of one breed, including cocks, one 

 evening of each w-eek ; and we never had our hens do better. By this 

 arrangement all trouble with hens in the garden and among the grain 

 was saved, except the little while in the evening when the children 

 were set watcliing them. The Dorkings endured the confinement 

 better than the Brahmas, and consumed much less food. Dorkings 

 are as heavy as the Brahmas, and the flesh is as much superior as 

 South Down mutton is to Cotswold. The eggs are a quarter larger, 

 and equally nutritious, and the chicks much more lively and hardy. 

 I set botli kinds of eggs together, and kept the chicks together till 

 they were taken from the hen, and find the Dorkings the most tracta- 



