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ROUGH NOTES BY THE WAY. — NO. 8. 
ROUGH NOTES BY THE WAY.— No. 8. 
I last left my readers at Mount Airy, German- 
town, Pa., from whence I took a course homeward 
through New Jersey, diverging somewhat from the 
route usually travelled, in order to see what im- 
provements had been made in the easterly part of 
this industrious and frugal state. 
In that section nearest Philadelphia, considerable 
attention is paid to raising poultry, which is com- 
posed of a medley made up of crosses from the Java, 
Bucks county, Jersey Blues, large Malay &c, 
so much mixed from crossing, that it is difficult to 
obtain a puro breed. The object appears to have 
been to obtain the largest fowl possible, without 
regard to name or quality. For this purpose, a 
breeder will go twenty miles to get a superior 
" rooster," for which he will pay a very high price. 
From his progeny, large, fat capons are made and 
sold at extravagant rates in the New- York and Phi- 
ladelphia markets to supply the tables of rich fami- 
lies. But, in my humble opinion, the large Malay 
breed is not the most desirable kind for general 
use ; as the legs of these fowls are long and large ; 
their meat coarse ; and they are great eaters, and 
besides, they lay comparatively but few eggs, 
which they are very liable to tread upon and break, 
at the time of sitting. I have bred them in their 
purity, as well as with all the fore-named crosses, 
and I am fre'e to say, there is no way to make them 
profitable except by caponizing them, and after- 
wards fattening them for market. 
The Dorking is a fowl much to be preferred to 
all others for profit; but as their good qualities 
have been so minutely described in the back vol- 
umes of the Agriculturist, it is needless to recapit- 
ulate them here. Their scarcity, as well as the 
high prices at which they are held by those who 
breed them in their purity, will, for some years, pre- 
vent them from coming into general use. Even in 
England, where they still sell very high, they are 
by no means a common bird ; although they have 
been bred there, as a distinct variety, for more than 
half a century. A friend of mine, some time since, 
paid a guinea each, for a half a dozen of them, 
having had his choice out of the yard of an Eng- 
lish nobleman. He shipped them from London, to 
my care, with directions to pay the steward of the 
ship a dollar for each live fowl delivered in New 
York, where they all arrived safe, and where their 
progeny can be had in its purity for $ 5 per pair. 
As to the farming of East Jersey, all that I can 
learn from intelligent individuals, as well as from 
my own observations for the last twenty years, the 
crops, on many farms have been more than doubled 
within that period. Agricultural papers have had 
much influence in bringing about this change. A 
mine of wealth has been opened from the marl 
beds and lime kilns, the use or application of which 
has stirred up an inquiry, and a consequent im- 
provement, not before dreamed of. Other fertiliz- 
ing substances have also been brought into play, 
such as guano, bone dust, plaster of Paris, pou- 
drette, &c. ; but, of all others, guano takes the 
lead. Where the land is suitable for it, I have seen 
some of the most astonishing effects from its appli- 
cation, particularly in connection with green-sand 
marl. 
In passing through Morristown, the county seat 
of Morris county, a most delightful village for a 
summer residence, I heard of a man who had 
sneeringly been represented as a " New-York 
farmer," a "city farmer," a "book farmer," &c. 
Knowing that the place he occupied was completely 
run down, at the time purchased, it being, as was 
waggishly said, ''under two-rail fence," and flat 
on the ground at that, I was determined to see 
for myself what had been accomplished by a man 
almost wholly unacquainted both with the theory 
and the practice of agriculture. 
In 1844, he commenced erecting his buildings, 
which are peculiar in their structure, all of his own 
planning, and combining greater convenience, both 
in his house and out-buildings, than I recollect 
ever of seeing, from a similar outlay, the whole 
expenditure not exceeding $6,000. In the spring 
of 1 847, he moved his family from New York, be- 
fore which time he had done little more than to set 
out some fruit trees and repair the border fences. 
His next object was to accumulate manure, sow, and 
plow under green crops. By the use of bone dust 
and other fertilizers, he succeeded in growing a fine 
crop of buckwheat and oats, which he plowed un- 
der as deep as he conveniently could without the 
aid of a subsoil plow. Into his barnyard, which is 
partly roofed over, he hauls everything that can be 
collected suitable for making manure, keeping the 
surface perfectly dry by covering the whole, as it 
becomes filthy, with refuse hay and straw. It is 
estimated that he has on his farm, at the present 
time, 250 loads, (28 bushels to each load,) of barn- 
yard and pig-sty manure ; 300 barrels of poudrette, 
of his own manufacture ; 500 bushels of oyster- 
shell lime ; and 14,000 lbs. of horn shavings ; and 
if anything more is wanted, he will make up the 
deficiency in guano. 
This " gentleman farmer" is also paying much 
attention to the cultivation of fruit, and has some 
fine specimens of healthy and rapid-growing trees, 
which he has taken great pains to set out. In 
planting them, he first digs large holes, say three or 
four feet, in diameter, the bottoms of which he 
covers with small stones, then with a rich compost 
formed of turf, leaf mold, wood ashes, bone dust, 
and oyster-shell lime. Then, after cutting off the 
tap root, he sets the tree in the position he wishes 
it to grow, straightening the other roots horizon- 
tally, and fills up the hole with good virgin soil, 
also mixed with bone dust, wood ashes, and oyster- 
shell lime. After this, he cultivates his trees as he 
would a crop of corn. 
He is reclaiming his wet lands, (otherwise 
worthless,) by under-draining, the effects of which 
already give good evidence that they will soon be 
worth $100 per acre, and will pay the interest of 
three times that amount when they are laid down 
in grass. Samuel Allen. 
Morristown, N. J., April, 1849. 
Effects of Dissolved and Undissolved 
Bones. — Fear has always been entertained that 
bones would not operate sensibly on heavy soils ; 
and with undissolved bones, there is no question 
that this fear is well founded ; but with bones dis- 
solved in sulphuric acid, or otherwise, these fears are 
groundless. 
