PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' ClUB. 661 



of whom are better protectors of fruit trees than the English sparrow. 

 Our ends can be as well gained by cultivating and protecting the birds 

 we have as by importations. 



Mr. D. B. Bruen, Newark, IST. J. — I have these sparrows about my 

 place, and I cherish them. They h'ave eaten about two bushels of 

 cracked corn this winter, but Englishmen tell me that in their country 

 they are quite destructive to small fruits, and are specially fond of 

 nipping off the tender buds of cherries. They liave proved very 

 useful in tliis city, because we have shade trees only to defend from 

 worms ; but in the country, where fruit and shade trees are blended, 

 and the former are quite as important, it is doubtful whether the 

 sparrow would not do as much harm as good. The robin is a useful 

 bird, and eats our enemies, but the moment we catch him biting a 

 cherry or hovering over a currant bush how quick we blaze at him. 

 The truth is, most of the feathered tribes work us a little ill as well as 

 much good, but the benefit exceeds the harm. 



Profit from Hens. 

 Mr. A. F. Hitchcock, of Erie county, N. Y., wishes to compare his 

 poultry record with the showing made by Mr. Bruen. From eight' 

 hens, he took, in a year, twenty-six dollars and eighty-one cents 

 worth of eggs. The estimated cost of their food was ten dollars and 

 eighty-nine cents. Net profit, fifteen dollars and eighty -nine cents, a 

 few cents short of two dollars per hen, no account being made of the 

 value of the droppings as manure. John A. Dickie, of Constance, 

 New York, asks the club why 1,000 hens may not be kept with one 

 hundred times as much profit as from ten. 



Dr. J. V. C. Smith. — Some years ago a man in Boston asked him- 

 self that question, and took a small island in the harbor to try the 

 poultry business on a broad scale. A thousand hens were bought. 

 He fed liberally, and looked well to their comfort. But presently 

 they began to look shabby, then fell sick and dropped, ate each other's 

 eggs, pulled out each other's feathers, then died by dozens. The 

 poor fellow who made the venture became alarmed, could not pay 

 some debts he had conti-acted for chicken dough, and finally ran away 

 from the sheriff. I refer to his case, not as a proof, but as a warning 

 that few persons have found profit in j)Oultry when over two or three 

 score are kept in one flock. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble. — Yet some there are who keep many hun- 

 dred hens without having diseases. Warren Leland, for instance, at 

 Rye Station, has great success with poultry. 



