388 Transactions of the American Institute. 



Mr. Mason C. Weld — In order to be successful with poultry, farm- 

 ers must adopt the same practices which obtain in the successful keeping 

 of other stock. Select thoroughbred males, and select these with a 

 view to the end desired. If eggs are wanted, take the male of a 

 breed which is known to be a laying breed, and so for table use. The 

 grades thus produced .possess these qualities to a very great degree. 



In one of the letters an allusion was made to gapes. This disease 

 is occasioned by little red worms in the throat. If the worms are 

 numerous they choke the chick to death. They can often be killed 

 by brushing out the throat with a feather dipped in kerosense or some 

 other oil, as melted butter ; but there is danger of injuring the 

 chick in this way. The most effectual prevention is to sprinkle the 

 yard with carbolic acid and water and give a little of this acid in the 

 water they drink. "When the disease is bad, the yard should be changed 

 and the hens put on ground entirely fresh. 



Gypsum and Farming in Yirginia. 



Prof. Henry E. Colton presented several masses of rock-plaster 

 brought by him from the south-western corner of the Old Dominion. 

 The samples came from the mines of the Holston Salt Company. 

 They sell it there in lump at four dollars per ton, ground at eight dol- 

 lars, and make a fertilizer of one-half salt, one-half plaster, at fourteen 

 dollars per ton ; and another, one-half plaster, one-fourth salt, one- 

 fourth wood-ashes, at twelve dollars per ton. 10,000 tons of plaster 

 were sold from the mines of this neighborhood this year. Three years 

 ago the trade was unknown. The vein or bed of plaster exists along 

 a section of a country many miles in extent. It is sent south and 

 east by the East Tennessee and Virginia railroad, a branch of that 

 road running parallel with the bed for several miles. The farm on 

 which this plaster is found is owned Mr. G. W. Palmer, formerly of 

 Syracuse, N. Y. Mr. Palmer has 11,000 acres of land, about one- 

 half of which is cleared. The peculiarity of the soil of this section 

 is, when the trees are deadened or cut down, blue grass immediately 

 commences to grow, showing that it is indigenous to the soil. Mr. 

 Palmer has 2,400 sheep, Southdown, and that crossed on common ; 

 160 cows, 120 calves, 130 yearlings, and 140 horses and mules. He 

 has seventy of the cows in a dairy-farm attended by a man he 

 brought from New York. They make butter the greater part of the 

 year, only making cheese in midsummer. This year he made 21,000 

 pounds of cheese, which netted him fifteen cents a pound. He fur- 

 nishes the cows, land and all buildings, etc., and gives the dairyman 



