212 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



the coops themselves, send forth an effluvia 

 which exerts its baneful, blighting influence 

 and in some form causes diseases and deaths. 

 These distempers and epidemics have always 

 been the gi-eat drawback to every attempt to 

 keep fowls upon an extensive scale. 



I would not say, that by constant sweeping, 

 cleansing and white-washing of small coops ; 

 by removing the old dirt and adding fresh to 

 yards or changing their location, together with 

 due attention to ventilation and proper food, 

 tolerable health might not be maintained ; but 

 all this, with a large number of fowls, would 

 require an amount of labor and care hardly 

 warranted by the proflts. One might almost 

 as well attempt to make the atmosphere of a 

 densely populated city as salubrious and invig- 

 orating as that of the country. 



These, then, are some of the reasons why 

 farmers who have increased their stock of 

 poultry have not found the profits to increase 

 in the same ratio. Where, then, are the antici- 

 pated profits of those who would make a large 

 business of keeping fowls ? 



The same general conclusion may perhaps 

 be deduced from all attempts to keep any oth- 

 er domestic animal upon an extensive scale. 

 Nor can we fail to see in all this the wisdom of 

 the Creator ; for if the profit of breeding in- 

 creased invariably with the increase of numbers, 

 the business would be monopolized by wealthy 

 individuals or rich and powerful corporations, 

 and the pleasure, comfort and income the far- 

 mer now derives from his small flocks and herds 

 would be swept away, and he would find him- 

 self totally unable to withstand such formida- 

 ble competition. N. 8. T. 



OLD SO"WS FOR BREEDJJfO. 



Some very successful hog-raisers use only 

 young sows to breed from, thinking this course 

 better than to keep them through the winter. 

 A correspondent of the Boston Advertiser 

 gives the following reasons for thinking the 

 contrary course the better way : — 



"In reai'ing swine and making pork there is 

 a universal mistake among American farmers 

 in breeding Irom young sows, before their 

 physical system is developed. Until this time 

 arrives, most of the food goes to the support of 

 the aniuiars gi-owth, therefore she cannot be as 

 good a milker, or impart the same vigor of 

 constitution to her oH'sprlng. We know by 

 accurate experiment tiuit an old sow's pigs are 

 wortli twenty-five per cent, more tlian a young 

 sow's. They have more vigor of constitution, 

 and make the larg(fst and most profitable hogs. 

 The reason why our breeds of hogs so soon 

 run out and disap})car, arises mainly from the 

 erroneous i)ractice of breeding I'rom young 

 sows. Therefore, instead of killing their best 

 sows this fall, farmers should keep them over 

 lor breeders, and make pork of their young 

 ones. In Europe, no farmer of any reputation 



thinks of raising pigs from young mothers, any 

 more than of keeping a dry cow for milk ; but 

 old sows are kept for breeders until they are 

 too old to be profitable in this respect." 



AQRICULTUBAL ITEMS. 



—The statement is made that 200,000 Vermont 

 sheep were killed for mutton last year. 



— There are now in the State of New York more 

 than five hundred cheese factories, using the milk 

 of over 200,000 cows. From Herkimer Co., alone, 

 18,172,913 lbs. of cheese, were shipped last year. 



— A correspondent of the Mirror aiid Farmer 

 says, cattle are very little over half wintered on 

 the first day of March, take the seasons as they 

 average. 



— The Agricultural College of Illinois, has been 

 located in Champaign County. Other counties 

 which bid liberally for the prize feel aggrieved by 

 the decision. 



— A State Fair of fine stock, mechanical, scien- 

 tific and agricultural machinery and inventions, is 

 to be opened on the first Monday of May, next, at 

 Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 



— Dr. Fitch, the State entomologist of New York, 

 repoi-ts that the canker worm has been discovered 

 in large numbers at Geneva and neighborhood. 

 He recommends tarring the trees ! 



—Mr. v. M. Hubbard, of Rochester, North Hol- 

 low, Vt., Avhose stock, particularly his Spanish 

 sheep, were mentioned recently by a correspon- 

 dent, informs us that one of his ewes has dropped 

 a lamb which weighed 13 1-4 ll)s. 



— A corrcspondetit of the Coimtry Gentleman 

 says that the yield of potatoes in Salem County, 

 N. J., has decreased in that section during the last 

 twenty years, from 200 or 300 bushels per acre, to 

 50 or 75. 



— Gardner B. Weeks, of Vernon, N. Y., Secre- 

 tary of the American Dairymen's Association, so- 

 licits the communication of the names of all the 

 cheese factories in the United States. 



— A bill has passed the Lower House of the Le- 

 gislature of Illinois, appointing a State Entomolo- 

 gist, with a salary of two thousand dollars per an- 

 num, and there is another before it providing for 

 an Ornithologist. 



— A correspondent of the Western Rural ui Law- 

 rence, Mich., says, "Most of the farmers here have 

 hop-yards, or are intending to put out yards in the 

 spring. They are busy getting out hop poles, which 

 are in good demand ; worth $4 to $5 per ton de- 

 livered." 



—Mr. R. Dart, of Ripon, "Wisconsin, says, 

 through the Coimtry Ge7xtle7nan, that a dry cellar 

 is the only place he considers perfectly safe for 

 wintering bees in his climate. His cellar is dry, 

 and 32 liy 26 feet, will hold 110 swarms, with room 

 for passage ways. He is wintering 81 swarms, and 

 docs not think the loss of bees would be over a 



