202 071 the Top-Dressing of Wheat 



Diseases of Poultry. — Judging^ from the many diseases and 

 recipes for the cure of them, enumerated in works on pouUry, 

 it may be inferred that fowls are very liable to diseases, and that 

 I should enumerate them also : but mine having suffered very 

 little, I willingly acknowledge my ignorance in the science 

 belonging to the diseases of poultry. I may state that I look 

 upon disease in a great measure as unnatural, brought on by 

 artificial living, and without attending to the simple wants of 

 nature. Domestic fowls, in their native land, the climate of 

 which, of many of them, is much warmer than that of these 

 islands, roost in the open, and consequently pure, air. In conse- 

 quence of their instincts not being impaired by domestication, 

 they are more cautious in the selection of their food. They drink 

 of the water of the crystal brook. The weak are driven back 

 by the strong. We, therefore, beg to bring this essay to a con- 

 clusion by adding that beautiful maxim, which ought to be written 

 in letters of gold above the threshold of every dwelling, that 

 " PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE," and that diseases may 

 be expected amongst the poultry — 



1st. If their houses be damp, cold, unclean, or badly ven- 

 tilated. 



2nd. If the food they eat do not closely approximate to that 

 which they obtain in nature. 



3rd. If the water they drink be stagnant, the drainage of the 

 manure heaps, &c. 



4th. If the strongest and handsomest be not bred from. 



Healey Mill, Hexham. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



At the request of the Author, application was made to Mr. Nolan, of Dublin, for 

 leave to make use of the wood-engravings contained in his work on Domestic ;Fowl 

 and Game Birds, for the illustration of this Essay ; wlien that gentleman, with great 

 kindness and liberality, at once placed them at the disposal of the Society. The two 

 additional engravings of the Cochin-China fowls were made expressly for this Essay, 

 from original drawings furnished by the Author. 



XII. — On Nitrate of Soda as a Top-Dressing of Wheat. By 

 Ph. Pusey, M.P., Member of Royal Academy of Agriculture 

 at Stockholm. 



Having read* that some very good farmers in Norfolk make a 

 practice of top-dressing their wheat in spring with nitrate of soda, 

 I determined once more to try this salt, which, as the older mem- 

 bers of our Society will remember, was once a very fashionable 

 manure, but the use of which was discontinued by its advocates 

 in consequence of its tendency to lay the corn and to produce 



* Report of " Times Commissioner." 



