1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



569 



4. The droppings of poultry may be saved in 

 excellent condition, by covering them every morn- 

 ing with meadow muck, coal ashes, loam, or even 

 sand. They will then be in convenient form to 

 apply to the hills of corn or other plants in the 

 spring. Care must be observed that they are not 

 too strong. 



5. The Farmei-'s and Planter's Encyclopedia, 

 and Johnston's Elements of Agricultural Chemis- 

 try and Geology, are both excellent works. The 

 back volumes of the Monthly Farmer contaiu nu- 

 merous articles on the points you specify, and on 

 almost all other topics of a kindred nature. The 

 price of them is only $1,25 per volume, or for 

 some second-hand volumes, fifty cents per volume. 



BKAHMA POOTRA FOWLS. 



You will oblige me, as well as some of my 

 friends, if you will state in the next paper where 

 we can get the Bramwall fowls. 



I have heard that there was an advertisement 

 or description of these fowls in the paper for 2d 

 March, 1861. Thomas Barxes. 



Paiotucket, Nov. 4, 1862. 



Remarks. — In tlie paper to which you refer 

 there is an article from the pen of Mr. John S. 

 Ives, of Salem, describing the Brahma Pootra 

 fowls, which is as follows : 



I have kept upwards of thirty different breeds 

 of fowls, but have never, until this winter, found 

 the breed that comes up to my idea of a perfect 

 farm fowl, viz.: the pure Brahma Pootra, which 

 seems to possess all the good qualities requisite to 

 a perfect breed of fowls. They are very large, 

 yet well proportioned, the hens weighing from 8 

 to 12 pounds; legs yellov,-, flesh fine, yellow and 

 tender ; very domestic ; cannot fiy upwards of 

 three feet, therefore are not troublesome by roost- 

 ing about the premises to the great annoyance of 

 the animals, and all who may visit the barn. 



FOE.ETELLING STORMS. 

 The American liailroad Journal, in an article 

 referring to the late disastrous rain storm and 

 freshets in Pennsylvania and New York, says : 



The science of meteorology has now ai-rived at 

 such a pitch that every general violent storm, such 

 as that of Wednesday week, can be predicted with 

 almost absolute certainty twenty-four hours in ad- 

 vance. By means of the telegraph, this informa- 

 tion might be communicated to all parts of the 

 country in a few minutes, so that signals could be 

 displayed along the coast, while in the interior, 

 works could be put in a state of readiness to re- 

 ceive the expected visitor. Every reservoir could 

 thus be run dry ; every canal lowered ; even the 

 boatmen could be forewarned. A large number 

 of valuable lives were lost during the late freshet, 

 every one of which might have been saved to their 

 own families and the community at large. 



AVe are here making use of no reckless asser- 

 tions. The experiment of "forecasting" the 

 weather has been tried in England. It is con- 

 ducted on strict scientific principles by a Depart- 



ment under the suj)crvision of Admiral Fitzroy. 

 To defray the necessary expenses in connection 

 with it, the British Government makes a small ap- 

 propriation annually. A leading English journal 

 remarks that this invention has already been the 

 means of saving hundreds of lives annually. It 

 is admitted on all hands that though Fitzroy has 

 made frequent mistakes as to the local gales, yet 

 that no great general storm has visited the coun- 

 try during the past year without being heralded 

 for several hours in advance by the display of sig- 

 nals along the coast, warning seamen to keep off 

 shore or not to venture out for the time being. 

 In this country, owing to uniformity of our gen- 

 eral coast lines, the laws of the storm Avill doubt- 

 less be found more simple than in any part of Eu- 

 rope. 



AMERICA— THE GRANARY OF THE 

 WORLD. 



In his book of travels in the United States, re- 

 cently published, Mr. Trollope says : I was at 

 Chicago and at Buff;ilo in October, 1861. I went 

 down to the granaries, and climbed up into the 

 elevators. I saw the wheat running in rivers 

 from one vessel to another, and from railroad vans 

 up into huge bins on the top stories of the ware- 

 houses ; for there rivers of food run up hill as 

 easily as they do down. I saw corn measured by 

 the forty bushel measure with as much ease as 

 we measure an ounce of cheese, and with greater 

 rapidity. I ascertained that the work went on, 

 through the week and Sunday, day and night in- 

 cessantly ; rivers of wheat and rivers of maize 

 ever running. I saw men bathed in corn as they 

 distributed it in its flow. I saw bins by the score 

 laden with wheat, in each of which bins there was 

 space for a comfortable residence. I breathed the 

 flour, and drank the flour, and felt myself to be 

 enveloped in a world of breadstuff's. And then I 

 believed, understood, and brought it home to my- 

 self as a fact, that here in the corn lands of Mich- 

 igan, and amid the bluffs of Wisconsin, and on 

 the high table plains of Minnesota, and the prai- 

 ries of Illinois, God had prepared the food for the 

 increasing millions of the Eastern World, as also 

 for the coming millions of the Western. 1 began 

 to know what it was for a country to overflow 

 with milk and honey, to burst with its fruits, and 

 be smothered by its own riches. From St. Paul 

 down the Mississippi, by the shores of Wisconsin 

 and Iowa, by the ports on Lake Pepin, by La 

 Crosse, from which one railway runs eastward, by 

 Prairie du Chien, the terminus of a second, by 

 Dunleith, Fulton and Rock Island, from which 

 thi-ee other lines run eastward, all through that 

 wonderful State of Illinois — the farmer's glory — 

 along the ports of the great lakes, through Micli- 

 igan, Illinois, Ohio, and further Pennsylvania, up 

 to Buffalo, the great gate of the Western Ceres, 

 the loud cry was this — "How shall we rid our- 

 selves of our corn and wheat ?" The result has 

 been the passage of 60,000,000 bushels of bread- 

 stuffs through that gate in one year ! Let those 

 who are susceptible of statistics ponder that. 

 For those who are not, I can only give this ad- 

 vice : Let them go to Buffalo in October and 

 look for themselves. 



Science must be combined with practice to 

 make a good farmer. 



