218 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



the same quantity of plaster, either mixed with the 

 guano, or sown at the same time. If the land did 

 not admit of plowing, I should apply as large a 

 quantity with plaster, as a top dressing, and which 

 ought to be applied as early in the season as the 

 state of the land will permit. I have never ap- 

 plied the American guano to wet land. My im- 

 pression is that it will not pay to spend manure of 

 any kind on wet or moist land, until under-drain- 

 ing has relieved it of its surplus water. So long 

 as the soil or subsoil is kept cold by undue moist- 

 ure from above or beneath, no amount of manure 

 will coax a generous vegetation from its bosom. 



No fear need be entertained of injuring seed of 

 any kind by coming in contact with the American 

 guano. Some persons have supposed it almost 

 valueless because it gives off no pungent odor, but 

 it must be remembered that this guano contains 

 very little ammonia, which alone gives the peculiar 

 pungency to Peruvian guano. In purchasing, be 

 careful to get the "American Company's Guano." 



T. A. Smith. 



We^thoro\ March 20th, 1862. 



For the New England Farmer. 



PROTECT THE BIRDS. 



The following thoughts, written as a school 

 composition by a young lady under my instruc- 

 tion, breathe so much kindness for the feathered 

 tribes, and are expressed so familiarly, that I 

 thought them worthy of publication ; and knowing 

 that the Editor of the Farmer is an able advocate 

 of the rights of "our mutual pets," I will entrust 

 it to his care. L. v. 



Birds. — I have for a long time wished to com- 

 municate with my young friends, and bespeak their 

 aid in protection of our mutual pets, the birds, 

 that are inviting our attention and kindness by 

 their sweet songs, and lively, coquettish ways. 

 They flock around our dwellings, and, if properly 

 invited and noticed, accept our hospitality, and re- 

 pay us a thousand fold for all we bestoAv upon 

 them. When we take the trouble to provide a 

 few houses for them, how readily are they taken 

 possession of, and how fiercely are they guarded, 

 should any intruder dare attempt to rob them of 

 their home, showing how dear the possession is. 

 This also shows us that nothing is required, but 

 shelter and protection, to enable us to have flocks 

 around us suiRciently tame to be our household 

 friends and companions. But especial care should 

 be taken to guard them against the thousand dan- 

 gers that beset them in the shape of rude boys, 

 and cats, their mortal enemies. Worse than use- 

 less will have been all our trouble, if these deadly 

 foes are sufl'ered to molest them. Let us all pro- 

 tect the birds. s. E. c. 



Bloomfield, C. W., 1862. 



RvRLY Annual Flowers. — Of annuals that 

 may be sown early there are some that are so very 

 beautiful, and which do so well generally, that they 

 at least should be grown. These are a few of 

 them : Caccali coccinea. Coreopsis Drummondii, 

 Erysimum Perofi'skianum, Escholtzia Californica, 

 Malope grandiflora, jSIarvcl of Peru, Nemophila 

 insignis, Phlox Drummondii, Mignionctte, Whit- 

 lavia grandiflora, Clarkia pulchella, Gaillardia picta, 



Palafoxia texana, Linum grandiflorum rubrum, 

 Lobelia gracilis, White and purple candy-tuft, and 

 Phacelia congesta. Where a hotbed can be com- 

 manded, many of the tender kinds can be forward- 

 ed under glass. — Gardener's Monthly. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 DECLINE OP THE HEN FEVER. 



It has, in fact, disappeared entirely from my 

 neighborhood, and hens are voted a nuisance. 

 The old gilt weathercock that surmounts our vil- 

 lage spire, is the only rooster in sight, and he owes 

 his continued existence to the exalted position he 

 has occupied for more than a half-century, as indi- 

 cating for everybody which way the wind blows, 

 and warning all not to deny their Master as Peter 

 did. Yet this is a farming community, where 

 every barn-yard used to be vocal with crowing 

 chanticleers, and cackling biddies, emerging from 

 some hidden nook where they had just deposited 

 a fresh treasure, innocently supposing it safe. 



Only here and there will you now detect the 

 once familiar notes, and keeping poultry here- 

 abouts has come to be the exception, rather than 

 the general rule, because, say my neighbors, it 

 don't pay ; and Avorst of all, tends to scratch out 

 the rules of a good neighborhood. But in face of 

 these objections, I, for one, have persisted in main- 

 taining a hennery, without being conscious as yet 

 of any such foivl result as has constrained others 

 to dispense with it entirely. Every farmer, to be 

 sure, has his pets, and chickens have been mine ; 

 never, however, caring to be classed with "poultry 

 fanciers" that used to kindle so with enthusiasm 

 at sight of a shanghai rooster. To the mere mat- 

 ter of economy, therefore, my attention has not 

 been so closely directed as it might have been oth- 

 erwise — only I ami satisfied it has not been a Zo5- 

 ing business. Week after week, when eggs could 

 hardly be obtained by my neighbors for love or 

 money, my own larder has been supplied with the 

 genuine article warm from the nest, in midwinter, 

 and all through a season when folks usually imag- 

 ine laying hens to have suspended operations till 

 spring. In fact, the wonder is that so many of 

 them survive the cold snaps at all, Avhen you see 

 them skulking, chilled, away to roost, hopping 

 from pillar to post, and gleaning a scanty subsist- 

 ence in spite of wind and weather. 



Nothing, after all, will so disarm the prejudice 

 against keeping hens, as to have them keying at a 

 time when, considering the high price, they may 

 be almost said to lay "golden eggs." And all 

 that is needed to secure this result, is some sort 

 of a hen-house where the sun conies in through a 

 good sized south window, and the cold is kept 

 out by what simple weather-boarding will answer 

 the purpose. Then, as the Farmer has often re- 

 minded its readers before, hens thus confined must 

 be supplied by their keeper Avith such variety of 

 material as when at large they provide themselves 

 with, to form the egg. Of course, every intelli- 

 gent reader understands what — a chunk of meat 

 that any butcher will give away, thrown in among 

 the biddies where they can pick it at their leisure, 

 and if frozen, lasting all the longer. Then pound- 

 ed bones and shells, or simply a box of air-slaked 

 lime at hand, to guard against the contingency of 

 an egg without a shell, or a mere abortion, for 



