178 
POULTRY RAISING. — NO. 2. 
such as require it, (as sands, clays, and peat,) 
or that are useful as absorbents of ammonia, 
and other fertilising gases abounding in the air. 
Each of these, and some others,, when incor- 
porated in the soil, act in this way, and draw 
large quantities of vegetable food from the air 
and rains. 
In enumerating the various kinds of mineral, 
vegetable, animal, liquid and gaseous manures 
and their application, we shall go over a wide 
circle of practical information, but in a some- 
what discursive way ; for it will matter little to 
the farmer, what may be the order of his infor- 
mation, if he but secure it. 
Manures, when judiciously applied, are the 
great sources of agricultural wealth. They 
beautify our fields with their rich harvests ; they 
. fill our barns and granaries with food, and our 
yards and stalls, with well-fattened flocks and 
herds ; they load our tables with every substan- 
tial viand and grateful delicacy ; they clothe us 
and our children with the healthful and graceful 
fabrics we derive from our wool, flax, and hemp, 
our cotton, or our cocoons ; they yield us a 
sheltering roof and walls from the summer's 
heat and winter's cold ; and they aid us, finally, 
by their remunerating returns^ in providing 
every requisite for rational pleasure and en- 
joyment. Homely, or otherwise uninviting as 
the subject may appear to the novice or super- 
ficial observer, the reflecting and intelligent 
will not only regard it with the deepest interest, 
but will aid us, also, by every means within their 
own observation or experience, in fully setting 
forth this foundation for the farmer's hopes and 
success.- 
Marsh Mud. — In .commencing this' subject, 
we shall most appropriately begin with the fer- 
tilising materials, which lie in such profusion at 
our docks and pier heads, and wherever there is 
a salt-water eddy in the neighborhood of this 
great metropolis. The amount of fertilising 
matter carried away from this city by drains, or 
washed down the gutters into the adjacent wa- 
ters, is sufficient to fertilise 200,000 acres annu- 
ally. This is spurted into the docks, where the 
soluble matters are speedily dissolved, and with 
the floating particles wafted into the wide ocean. 
The heavier portions alone subside, and these 
furnish a rich bed for the support of innumera- 
ble forms of minute insects, worms, muscles, and 
animalculse. Here they find stores of rich food. 
Here they propogate and perish; and these 
vast accumulations of matter, that might have 
clothed the fields with verdure, serve only to 
m nister to a comparatively worthless, or super- 
fluous, subaqueous vegetable and animal life. 
A small part, only, comes back to the land as 
seaweed, and kelp, oysters, and other shell fish, or 
from a few of the countless variety of the fin- 
ny tribes.. All else is carried hopelessly be- 
yond the reach of man, and distributed wherev- 
er the tides ebb and flow. 
Besides the accumulations of marsh mud from 
the waste of man, there are large deposites 
wherever the outlets of fresh-water l'ivers meet 
the ocean level. These water courses carry 
with them, during the periods of freshets, large 
quantities of vegetable and other manures, 
which are deposited when the current subsides. 
These deposites are sometimes so extensive, as 
to form large islands, and wide-spread deltas at 
the mouths of the rivers, such as the Ganges, 
the Nile, and the Mississippi. Where the rivers 
are not of sufficient size to furnish large accu- 
mulations of alluvion, or it is washed into some 
of the great ocean currents that float past them, 
these deposites may be found in the bays or 
eddys adjacent to the confluent waters, or re- 
mote from them, and may there be frequently 
secured at low tides, for the farmer's use. 
There is scarcely any manure better fitted 
for general crops, than this sea mud. Besides 
the original manure which formed so large a 
portion of them, they contain large quantities 
of the remains of animal life, since reared and 
deposited in them ; and the salt they have ab- 
sorbed, is an additional and most valuable in- 
gredient for the muck heap. We shall continue 
this subject in our next. 
POULTRY RAISING— No. 2. 
Of the numerous varieties of barnyard fowls 
now existing in this country, it is difficult to say 
positively, what breed is the best, as a matter of 
profit in eggs and chickens. There are almost 
as many opinions as there are varieties. I think 
the crosses of the Poland cock with the pure 
Dominique hens, as I stated in the March num- 
ber, are the best for laying, if not for breeding 
for market. 
The great question is, How many eggs can 
be obtained from a given number of hens ? I 
mean, by the best possible management, of 
course. I answer not over seventy-five or eighty 
per fowl, at most, during the year. It matters 
not what has been done in . certain peculiar 
cases. I say, as a " fixed fact," that no man will 
ever succeed in obtaining a larger number from 
any breed, taking a series of years together. I 
would say that one hundred hens will produce 
7,500 eggs in a year, as the maximum of laying 
with large numbers. These are worth $75, or 
one cent each. It will cost from $40 to $50 to 
feed them, to say nothing of the expense of 
about ten cocks. A fowl will consume one gill 
per day of grain, at least. I estimate one bushel 
a-year for each fowl. Corn and oats are as 
good and as cheap food as can be given them, if 
you purchase their food ; and this estimate is 
based upon such a supposition. Therefore, we 
must have 110 bushels for one hundred hens 
and ten cocks— say half of each. Corn is worth 
60 cents a bushel, and oats 40 cents in the vicin-. 
ity of New York, at which place I consider the 
eggs worth one cent each. How will the ac* 
count stand? The expense is $50. 
The next point is, how many of these one 
hundred and ten fowls will probably die during 
the season? If I say ten per cent., you will 
think I am beside myself; but I do say ten per 
cent, will be the mortality among them. When 
one fowl dies out of ten in a season, and no 
more than ten are kept, we consider it a small 
loss, and hardly notice it. Who does not lose 
one in ten on an average 1 This is practice, not 
