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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



eaten in the fall, and the late half-grown ones kept 

 to perpetuate the stock : it is a popular belief that 

 late chickens lay best in the spring. Well, our 

 chickens deteriorated sensibly ; they grew to be no 

 larger than pheasants, and many of the young chicks 

 were cripples, and unable to walk. We were al- 

 ways changing with our neighbors, not only crowers, 

 but hens and settings of eggs; all to no purpose. 

 Finally I begun to philosophize upon the subject. 

 I always preserve the earliest setting of peas, beans, 

 and other garden vegetables, for seed, and so im- 

 prove my varieties ; and I now resolved to try the 



same with my fowls. I observed that half-grown 

 chickens in the fall were only half-grown chickens 

 the next spring. So I commenced by " setting " 

 my hens as early as they showed an inclination to 

 hatch, and then selecting the largest and finest of 

 the chickens, for my next summer's stock. (I also 

 keep one crower for every five hens, and have no 

 lame chicks.) Now I have as large, fine, hardy 

 and prolific foAvls as any reasonable woman can 

 desire to possess, without the extra care and nurs- 

 ing which is required by the imported breeds. 



Lydia Jane Peirson. 



THE MORGAN HUNTER. 



We take pleasure in publishing the following 

 notice, accompanied by the portrait of the noble 

 little stallion Morgan Hunter, little at least, if the 

 term is applicable to a horse, which though only 

 fourteen hands an inch and a quarter high, yet 

 weighs about eleven hundred pounds, and is in his 

 form the model of a road horse. We have seen 

 this animal, and can truly say that his portrait does 

 not do him justice. He does not " mount" perhaps 

 quite as well as that represents him, but his head 

 and neck are both finer than they appear here. 

 Coming up in form and action, spirit and docility 

 to all the characteristics which we have seen attri- 

 buted to the Morgan horse, we have no doubt that 

 he is of that strain, and the only thing that induces 

 us to suspect-him, is that we cannot imagine what 



could make the yankees send a specimen appa- 

 rently so perfect, so far from home. 



This horse is now spending the spring and early 

 summer in Charlottesville, and will make a full 

 season in Augusta. 



THE CURRYCOMB. 



The free use of the currycomb is equal to many 

 a quart of oats in the course of the winter, but it 

 should be used judiciously. Having tied the horse 

 up pretty close, take hold of the left cheek of the 

 halter in jour left hand, and curry him along his 

 neck to his shoulders, and so go all over his body to 

 the buttocks, down to his hocks— then change your 

 hands, and curry him before on his breast, and lay- 

 ing your right arm over his back, join your right 

 side to his left, and curry him all under his belly 



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