112 [Assembly 



Last spring I erected a good sized poultry bouse in aAvarm situation; 

 proper roosts were made, and boxes for the hens to lay in. The 

 ground floor was covered with muck, straw, &c., for them to scratch 

 in, and to absorb the gases emanating from their manure. Two glass 

 windows were put in, facing the south, and there was in one' corner 

 an enclosure, filled with ashes, lime and sand, for them to pick and 

 roll in. I had this house, its nests and roosts, whitewashed, and fur- 

 nished wdth a door, which I kept locked. I supplied them with fresh 

 water, and as much grain as they would eat daily ; also some scraps, 

 from which fat had been pressed at a soap manufactory. In this 

 manner I was certain of their eggs, for I kept only my choice fowls 

 in this house, and they were always confined except on pleasant af- 

 ternoon?, when I would let them out to roam over the fields for a 

 few hours, securing them every evening, after I had examined the 

 roosts to see that no intruder was present. A few days since I sent 

 several pair of these chickens to market, about six months old j they 

 weighed nine pounds and a half a pair. They had not had- any ex- 

 tra feed, only what they could pick up around the farm. 



HENRY A FIELD. 

 Poughkeepsie, December 17, 1849. 



CULTIVATION OF RYE. 



In compliance with your request, I furnish a statement respecting 

 the rye flour for which a premium was awarded by the American 

 Institute at their late Fair. I cannot write anything that is unusual 

 as regards the mode of cultivation. The seed was a variety of wliitc 

 rye raised by farmers in this vicinity, the flour from which , when care- 

 fully ground, makes bread almost as white as common wheat flour. 

 Indeed ihi' iiour which I exhibited, makes whiter bread than some 

 wheat flour we recently had ground from southern wheat. A neigh- 

 boring miili I informed rac that he furnished a baker with some flour 

 made of this variety of rye, who, when he sent his order for another 

 supply J requested it should be ground darker, as some of his customers 

 objected to the bread on account of its light color, believing it was 

 made of mixed flour. Upon a portion of the field, upon which this 



