270 



T EI E SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



and the wheat drilled without any further pre- 

 paration. The drill worked delightful on all, 

 except the three acres referred to, and on 

 that the wheat was well drilled, but with some 

 extra labor in keeping the tines clean. We 

 drilled one and a quarter bushels Mediterra- 

 nean wheat per acre, and it was sufficiently 

 thick, and one and a half bushels of Etrurian 

 wheat, which was too thin; both came up re- 

 gularand stood the winter better than ploughed- 

 in wheat. The two lots of Mediterranean are 

 now threshed— one of twenty-six acres yielded 

 over eighteen bushels per acre (the best sam- 

 ple 1 have seen this year) — the other of nine 

 acres yielded nearly twenty-one bushels per 

 acre, which was a good yield, considering it 

 was in a neighborhood where the rust has 

 very seriousry injured the wheat crop, and I 

 think the yield must have been increased from 

 two to four bushels per acre by the use of the 

 drill, with a saving of one-third of a bushel 

 eft seed per acre. I am so well satisfied that 

 there is a gain of the cost of the drill (one 

 hundred dollars) for every one hundred acres 

 of wheat drilled on good, fair land, that I 

 would not be deprived of the use of one, if it 

 cost me that amount, but from my present 

 knowledge, I would think that the use of a 

 drill will not cost (interest included) over 

 twenty cents per acre. 



Yours, with much respect, 



R. N. Milburn. 



Baltimore, July 24, 1850. 



GAPES IN CHICKENS. 



About a year ago, a correspondent of the 

 Dollar Newspaper, published an article on the 

 above named disease, and tried to prove, (and 

 no doubt believed) it to be the dyspepsia. He 

 said that a brood of chickens, hatched and 

 reared about an old out-building, was all 

 healthy and free from gapes, while those raised 

 in the neighborhood of the dwelling or dung- 

 hill, were nearly all affected with that disease. 

 I have raised some thousands of chickens, and 

 in different places. My experience is that 

 they are not liable to gapes about a new build- 

 ing, especially on newly cleared land. There 

 is something about fresh land congenial to the 

 health of poultry. I have thought it might be 

 animal food in the shape of insects, &c. or that 

 it might be rotten wood. Be this as it may, I 

 am fully satisfied that the disease is not dys- 

 pepsia, from the fact that I have seen it cured 

 in five minutes, at the house of an acquain- 

 tance, in a village a short distance from my 

 residence, when a chicken, as nearly as large 

 as the robin was sent in from a neighbor, in the 

 last stage of the gapes. I asked the lady if 

 she could cure it. She said she had cured 

 many, but that looked like a hopeless case. — 

 However, she would try. She took the chick- 

 en in her lap, dr^w a feather from its wing, 

 stripped it to within about half an inch of the 



point, turned the chicken on its back, with a 

 portion of the bill in her thumb and finger, 

 while a little girl held the other; she then run 

 the featherdown its throat and gave it a quick 

 twist and jerk, and drew out a red wiry worm 

 about an inch long. The poor thing seemed 

 exhausted, but in less than a minute, it gave 

 a kind of cough or two, and discharged a small 

 quantity of blood, in five minutes was eating, 

 and to all appearance, perfectly restored. — 

 Several others of my acquintance, practice 

 the same method with success. 



This is the disease and one of its remedies; 

 but what should cause it in one locality and 

 not in another, is more than I can divine. — 

 Limewater and coarsely ground corn are con- 

 sidered by some persons, as a partial preven- 

 tive. — American Agriculturist. 



FENCING AND DITCHING. 



This letter is too good to keep in the dark, 

 so we have marked out "Private," run our 

 pen through the place, blotted out the name, 

 and give it to our readers, who will thank us 

 forit. The writer isoneof our dearest friends; 

 and long may he live to enjoy his beautiful 

 farm. 



Friend Peters, — The "Wool Grower" is a 

 good paper, and, I presume, it is to succeed 

 beyond your most sanguine expectations when 

 you siarted it. You have taken upon yourself 

 to perfect the wire fence, and you must do it; 

 and when you have done it, let me know, and 

 I will go to Buffalo to see a specimen, for up 

 to this lime I have seen none that would an- 

 swer for me. I am making stone fences, from 

 stone that I quarry and draw from fifty rods to 

 three-quarters of a mile, to the place where it 

 is required foroutside fences. I think I have hit 

 upon a very good plan as regards thickness, 

 height, &c. I put stone about forty inches 

 long, (or if you measure lengthwise of the 

 wall, wide,) and about three inches thick, on 

 the surface of the ground, and then on the 

 centre of this foundation commence my wall 

 thirty inches thick, and carry it up four feet 

 above this foundation, leaving it ten inches 

 thick on the top, and slanting the same on 

 each side. 



This wall requires 96 19-100 cubic feet for 

 a rod; or about two loads of a good team. 

 It cost about seven shillings a rod to quarry 

 and lay up, and from four to six shillings, or 

 perhaps, from three to six shillings a rod to 

 draw the stone, making the wall from ten shil- 

 lings to thirteen shillings a rod, according to 

 the distance from the quarry. The reason for 

 my flat stone under the wall, is that our ground 

 is so soft that walls settle into it, and for the 

 further reason that in this way 1 get a light 

 though wide wall, which will not be likely to 

 turn over. 



You will say that my fence costs too much, s 

 to which I must reply, it is durable, and if it 



