520 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



I give them nothing ; after that, for the first three 

 or four weeks, their feed should be mostly boiled 

 eggs, boiled very hard. Then they may be fed 

 mostly on meal and corn. Once in a while they 

 should have tansy and onions mixed with their 

 dough. The best breed is the "Rhode Island 

 Turkey." They grow to a large size, and are 

 hardy. I sold last year two of them, a cock and 

 a hen, six and a half months old, half bloods, that 

 dressed 234 pounds. 



Some farmers may think it a trifling business 

 to keep a small stock of fowls. I propose to keep 

 200 hens, and see how the account will stand. 

 One hen will consume 45 quarts and 5 gills of 

 corn in a year, or that equivalent in other grain, 

 and will lay about 13.^ dozen eggs. To keep this 

 number of hens would require a house costing 

 $100, and half an acre of land, enclosed with a 

 picket fence which will cost about $50 more. 



Cost of grain for 200 hens one year $281,61 



For 20C0 pounds scraps 40,tO 



Interest on house and fence at 10 per cent 15,00 



Interest on land at 6 per cent 3,00 



$339,61 



They will produce in eggs at 20c per dozen $540,00 



In manure 40,00 



$580,00 

 Subtract as cost 339,61 



Leaving $240,39 



as profit. Nearly as much as there usually is in 

 several milch cows, with several times the amount 

 of capital invested ! I have made no estimate on 

 raising chickens, but with fair luck, the profit 

 would be proportionably larger than in producing 

 eggs. 



I commenced Jan. 1st with 18 fowls, valued at $9,00 



4 turkeys 4,75 



Cost for grain and meal 34,78 



$48,53 



And have sold in poultry and eggs $85,07 



24 fowls on hand 13,50 



8 turkeys 4,25 



$103 42 

 Subtract cost 48,53 



Leaving for profit $54,89 



I have given no credit for poultry or eggs used 

 in the family, or the manure made. 



CAUSES OF FERTILITY IN SOILS. 

 In a letter to the New York Farmers' Club, 

 Prof. S. W. Johnson, of Yale College, says : 



The labors of chemists to discover positively 

 all the causes of the fertility of soils, have not yet 

 met with conclusive success. The mechanical 

 structure of the soil is of primary importance. 

 Naked rock grows lichen — the same rock crushed 

 into coarse grains, grows a much higher order of 

 vegetable — pulverized fine, the cereals grow in it. 

 Geology, chemistry, botany, physiology, meteor- 

 ology, mechanics, hydrodynamics, heat, light and 

 electricity, are all intimately combined in the 

 grand process of vegetation. There are sandy 

 soils in our Eastern States, which, without ma- 

 nure, yield meagre crops of rye and buckwheat ; 

 but there are sandy soils in Ohio, which, without 

 manure, yield on an average eighty bushels Indian 

 corn an acre, and have yielded it for twenty to 

 fifty years in unbroken succession, the ingredients 



of these soils being, by chemical analysis the 

 same. At present no difference is known between 

 them, except the coarseness of the particles — the 

 first being coarse, while the Ohio sand is an ex- 

 ceedingly fine powder. The power of soils to at- 

 tract and imbibe moisture and oxygen, was well 

 shown by Schubler, of Hoffen, 40 years ago. Of 

 13 different soils, quartz sand absorbed in thirty 

 days, 1-1000 parts of oxygen and no moisture, 

 while humus absorbed 13 of oxygen and 120 of 

 moisture. 



PLYMOUTH COUNTY CATTLE SHOW. 



Bridgewater, Oct. 4, 1861. 



Gents : — The Phjmoutli County Agricultural 

 Society, held its Forty-Fourth Exhibition at 

 Bridgewater, October 3 and 4, 1861. The grounds 

 are opposite the village, near the railway station, 

 and are easily accessible. They contain about 

 thirty acres. The spacious building erected for 

 the accommodation of the society, stands upon a 

 beautifully rounded hill, in the midst of a charm- 

 ing amphitheatre whose outlines are the distant 

 hills gradually rising from the base of that upon 

 which the building stands. Between them is a 

 limpid stream, flowing gracefully around two 

 sides of the grounds, which is a tributary of the 

 Taunton River. From the building to the tribu- 

 tary, the grounds have a varied declivity, now 

 falling so rapidly as to prevent an easy passage 

 over them, and then sweeping gracefully away 

 over many acres to the margin of the stream. 



The internal arrangements of the grounds are 

 admirable, — being dotted with shade trees and 

 numerous seats for the comfort of those fatigued ; 

 ample shed room for those who wish to have their 

 horses under cover during the day, and the pens for 

 cattle, sheep and swine were well constructed and 

 arranged for the convenience of the spectator as 

 well as the comfort of the animals. An abundant 

 supply of water seemed to be at hand at every 

 point, and gentlemanly marshals and other offi- 

 cers were quietly moving every where to enlighten 

 or assist whenever appealed to. On the smooth, 

 velvety lawn, on the north-east side of the spa- 1 

 cious building, clean and comfortable seats were 

 provided, upon which hundreds of men, women 

 and children were accommodated, and they were 

 kept filled by ever-changing comers and goers 

 during the entire time of the show. No other 

 scene in the whole panorama, to my admiring eyes, 

 equalled this ! Here I often lingered, and while 

 my ears caught the harmonious tones of happy 

 voices of every age and sex, my eyes wandered to 

 the brilliant outline of hills in the distance. Their 

 sides were partly "arrayed" in forest, and partly 

 in "living green." No frost had been there, yet 

 the foliage was transcendently beautiful, the 

 bright sunlight glancing upon the scarlet, or gol- 

 den, or purple, or orange colors, presented by 



