FANCIERS' JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 



tree, which they seldom do, but they cut off the lower limbs 

 to the height of two feet, and sometimes even as high as 

 three, which last they probably do by jumping up. The 

 limbs are cut off as smooth as if done by a sharp knife, and 

 what is rather singular, all are cut at about an angle of forty- 

 five degrees. At first we did not know who had been cut- 

 ting off the limbs of our trees, but we soon discovered the 

 authors of the mischief. Previous to that we had been their 

 friends, and permitted them to go unharmed about the place, 

 and even stay under the house, hut when we saw the injury 

 they had done our dwarf pear and dwarf apple trees, our 

 friendship w.is turned to deadly hatred. We wished every 

 rabbit in the neighborhood was dead, and since then we have 

 killed all we could. At first we killed a good many by rub- 

 bing strychnine on large slices of sweet potatoes ; but some 

 only ate enough of the poison to make themselves very sick, 

 and they told others to shun potatoes, until, finally, the rab- 

 bits would not eat the sweet potatoes which we had prepared 

 for them. 



Fortunately, we obtained a good cat, which began to catch 

 the young growing rabbits for her kittens. After a little 

 time, she caught those which were nearly full grown, and 

 sometimes she has even caught full-grown rabbits. "We now 

 have two such cats, and have seen but one rabbit on the place 

 during the last six months. 



The rabbits cut off the limbs to get the buds, of which they 

 are very fond. In the spring, when the leaves are partly 

 grown, or just unfolding from the bud, rabbits consider them 

 as a great delicacy. We have had more than one hundred 

 dwarf pear trees killed by the rascals, beside much damage 

 done to apple trees and young rose hushes. The buds and 

 young leaves of these they seem to prefer, but for a change 

 they sometimes eat those of the apricot and peach. — S. B. 

 Buckley, in Country Gentleman. 



CANARY AND GOLDFINCH CROSS. 



The age is immaterial, the main object being to get a hen 

 from a strain which, from some inexplicable cause, has a 

 tendency to throw birds more nearly allied to the canary in 

 plumage than to the finch. By far the greater proportion 

 of goldfinch mules are dark, self-colored birds, not half so 

 bright in plumage as the finch himself; but where the canary 

 shows itself, either by giving brilliancy of color to the nat- 

 urally dark feathers of the self-colored bird, or by causing 

 it to break into a beautifully variegated specimen, the mule 

 becomes valuable according to the amount of brilliancy so 

 bestowed, or the exactness of the markings ; or if the mule 

 be perfectly clear, a cock of good color — if it have a bright 

 blaze on its face — the breeder may write himself down among 

 the lucky men of the nineteenth century. I can give no 

 opinion as to the best age for pairing canaries. Breeders 

 never wait for breeding stock to reach any particular age. 

 You cannot go far wrong by following nature, but put your 

 birds up in the spring, about the time when they are begin- 

 ning to make love out of doors. Young birds of last season 

 will breed this year, and breeders are only too glad to get 

 nests from them while in the heyday of their strength. I 

 have read somewhere, I do not know where, that certain 

 disparities in the ages of the sexes have a tendency to pro- 

 duce more cocks or more hens in a nest, as the case may be, 

 but I have never recorded any statistics, and seldom relate 

 any experience but my own. — W. A. Blakston, in Journal 

 of Horticulture. 



GOLD FISH IN AN AQUARIUM. 



" I have kept gold fish for two years or more. The first 

 six months, or thereabouts, I lost eight fish by following the 

 instructions of parties from whom I purchased. I then 

 thought I would use my own judgment in the matter, and 

 see if feeding would kill them, as I had been informed by 

 the aforesaid dealer. I now have five gold fish, three min- 

 nows, one crawfish or crab, and four turtles, in an aquarium 

 30 by 16 inches, and 12 inches deep. I have on the bottom 

 about two inches of fine lake sand, and scattered here and 

 there stones built up or piled so as to form run-ways. I feed 

 them about twice a week with fresh beef, cut into small pieces 

 and dropped on the water, when, quick as a trout after a fly, 

 they will seize the pieces until satisfied. 1 have often seen 

 them jump three inches above the water trying to catch a 

 fly on the side of the glass. I keep a small plant of Calla 

 in a pot standing in the water all the time. Some say it 

 helps to keep the water pure. I change and renew the water 

 twice a week during the winter, and three times during the 

 summer." 



BUILDING UP A RACE. 



Frazkr's Magazine communicates a plan, from the pen of 

 Mr. Galton, the author of " Hereditary Genius," for scien- 

 tifically transmitting certain desirable qualities of mind and 

 body combined, and afterwards accumulating them in the 

 form of a distinct class or caste ; so that, after a given time, 

 a superior race of men and women will be secured for the 

 world's direction and government, and matters on the earth 

 be made to go at a better pace, and with far more profitable 

 results to confiding humanity. The theory is simply the one 

 of stirpicultnre, which undeniably contains a living idea 

 that is susceptible of being successfully developed. The 

 writer in Frazer wants merely to make the rule of the best 

 the rule of the earth. This would be a real aristocracy, the 

 meaning of that much-abused word being only the rule of 

 the best. Now we are ruled by those who, to say the least, 

 are not wholly of the superior class. The majority of those 

 who are at the top belong rightfully at the bottom. The 

 writer wants to base the new experiment on facts that are 

 well attested in regard to ancestry and virtuous character, 

 and then to promote a strict intermarriage among such, 

 none to go outside of the rank, or class, to which their ac- 

 quired or inherited superiority entitles them. 



The plan proposed has some points so ingenious that they 

 deserve more particular consideration. To begin with, it 

 would have proper persons, in different localities, to pursue 

 a thorough inquiry into the facts relative to human heredity, 

 to be compared with facts in regard to heredity in lower 

 animals, and even in plains; this merely to demonstrate, 

 beyond the shadow of a question, that man is subject strictly 

 to the same laws which govern the growth and improvement 

 of the lower order of beings. Then would follow, by way 

 of a convincing illustration, statistics of families that have 

 long shown signs of improvement, and in consequence, have 

 naturally come to set upon themselves a higher estimate 

 than upon the average humans around them. It would be 

 made to appear, from these facts, that such families cherish 

 a higher and more consistent pride than others, so as to 

 make them inclined of themselves to intermarry only within 

 their own class. Upon such a plan, perfectly simple and 

 natural as it is, and entirely regulated by a scientific law, 

 the world could secure a race of poets, of orators, of states- 

 men, and philosophers ; or it could continually supply itself 

 with wise and noble rulers, unselfish public servants, and a 

 band of benevolent men and women whose united power in 

 the state would be irresistible. 



