16 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
brick of the proper size and to adopt this plan. Nothing 
can be better. About once a month a little lime should 
be spread upon the dirt floor, to prevent unpleasant odor 
from spoiled milk. No water stands in this dairy, and 
but rarely any dripping from above. The whole (except 
shed roof) is covered up with earth to the common level 
and is well set in blue grass and sliaded by fruit trees. 
Keeping cows in winter being a subject of practical ex- 
perience with me, and one which I have taken much 
pride in, I think I can give your subscriber such informa- 
tion as will enable him and every one else, who follows 
my plan, to keep fine fat and healthy cows, and to enjoy 
the comforts of a large yield of rich milk and butter from 
fall until spring. 
My plan is this : To plant early in spring an ample 
stock of long orange Carrots and Sugar Beets, and in 
summer a crop of Ruta Bagas, for the number of cows to 
be kept. In summer my cows run at large, but are fed at 
night and morning with vegetable parings from the kitchen 
with a little meal siftings, and such trimmings of vines, 
grass, &c., as are thrown out of my garden. This treat- 
continues until frost, when we begin to feed moi’e freely. 
Cut shucks, hay, fodder or oats, with a little meal or bran 
on them, are then given as a bulky or filling up food, with 
boiled vegetable scraps and a little meal, twice a day. 
When vegetation is entirely killed, we keep our cows in 
stalls in cold and wet weather, and give each one a half 
bushel in the morning, and the same at night, of Carrots, 
Beets, or Ruta Bagas (washed and sliced) boiled with a 
quart of meal, a little salt, and any vegetable scraps which 
may be kept about the kitchen. We give also as much 
shucks, hay, fodder (cut up, with a little meal upon them) 
as they will eat up readily.' We have found this system 
to pay most liberally for the outlay. We keep two cows, 
both fine ones (native stock) and manage to keep one in 
good milking condition when the other is dry. Last win 
ter, for instance, our brag cow had a calf in December. 
She supplied our family of seven whites and six servants 
with the richest milk from two to three times a day, and 
allowed my wife to sell from S2.75 to S3. 50 worth per week 
besides. The cost of meal and long food, which 1 always 
purchase, did not exceed 12 ^ cents a day for this cow, 
while the roots were not estimated, they being grown upon 
my own premises. 
Such results as the above should not be anticipated in 
many instances, as there are but few cows which give so 
much milk. In fact, if made known, the truth would not 
be received by many of your readers. This system, how- 
ever, cannot be denied ; a sufficiency of long and boiled 
food, warm and spacious stalls, exercise in good weather, 
an abundant supply of pure water, are the true secrets of 
a successfuldairyrnan. After such wintering, more especi 
ally when they have had the range of a rye or barley lot. 
your cows come out in spring fat, sleek, and strong enough 
to supply themselves with food in summer; and are en- 
abled to escape those fatal diseases ‘dmllow-horn” and 
‘ffiollow-tail,” which by many are called ‘‘murrain.” 
Let “E. G. P.” protect his cows from cold and wet 
weather in winter, and he will find his stabled cows will 
give more milk and keep in better health, than those run- 
ning out when feed on double the quantity of food. 
The long orange Carrot is most productive here. The 
Sugar Beet is always cut short by the potato, or “blister 
bug and Ruta Bagas uncertain on account of dry weath- 
er. 
As for milk pans, I think tin, glass and stone-ware 
equally good. But neither will do unless scalded and 
sunned frequently ; otherwise they will cause the milk to 
sour and spoil very rapidly. Very respectfully, 
R. B. N. 
Huntsville, Ala., December, 1856. 
POULTIiY— BREEDS. ]>IA>AGE3IENT, &c. 
Editors Southbrn Cultivator — The September num- 
ber of your valuable paper having failed to my address, I 
write 1 1 say that you will furnish it if possible, as I am 
not willing to forgo the information to be gleaned from a 
single number. 
I will further improve the present opportunity by ask- 
from yourselves or some of your numerous correspondents 
a few plain instructions with regard to the rearing and 
proper management of domestic fowls : 
1st. Which breeds of hens lay best at different seasons 
of the year '? 
2nd. What description and preparation of food is best 
calculated to secure fine fowls for the table, and a plentiful 
supply of fresh eggs'? 
3rd. What is the very best mode of treatment to be per- 
sued with young chickens and Turkeys'? 
4th. And above all, how may that arch-enemy of young 
poultry, the tcart, be prevented or cured 'I 
5th. I would be glad to know what author you con- 
sider most reliable upon the subject just mentioned^ 
A speedy answer to the foregoing questions will be very 
thankfully received by Mrs. M. B, W. 
Mobile, Ala., Dec., 1858. 
REPLY OF THE EDITORS. 
1 st. The best layers, for the winter months, when eggs 
are most valuable, are the short-legged, plump and well- 
bred Brahmas or Shanghais, A cross of the Game upon 
the Shanghai or Brahma, produces a fine table-fowl and a 
good layer — though the infusion of Game blood renders 
this cross somewhat quarrelsome. 
2nd. Mixed food such as corn, (cracked or soaked) 
wheat screenings, boiled potatoes, rough rice, Indian meal 
dough, or baked corn bread, (without salt) with a plenti- 
ful supply of gravel, old wall plaster or pulverized 03 'ster 
shells, and an abundance of water, will keep your fowls 
in the best condition. When put up to fatten, they 
should be fed 3 or 4 times a day with a dry dough made 
of sweet potatoes and meal, with a plentiful supply of 
water and pounded charcoal. Give them no gravel; keep 
their coop and feeding trough perfectly clean, and they 
will be fit for the table in about 10 or 15 days. If kept 
up longer, they begin to fall away in flesh, and are apt to 
become unhealthy. 
3rd. We have had little experience with Turkeys. 
Voung chickens should be fed on hard boiled egg and 
meal dough for the first day or two — afterwards, on boiled 
potatoes, meal dough, wheat screenings, &c. Finely- 
chopped fresh meat is also of great service in feeeding 
young chickens, supplying the place of insects, and mak- 
•ing them grow off vigorously. 
4th. If the fowl is particularly valuable, apply to the 
warts a weak solution of caustic, or cut the wart off and 
bathe the part with strong salt and water. It is a loathe- 
sorne disease and very difficult to cure, and we generally 
prefer to kill the fowl at once. As a preventive, keep 
your poultry-house perfectly and well ventilated — 
mix a little surphur in the food of your fowls from time to 
time, and keep a sunken tub full of fresh hard-wood ashes 
under cover, for them to dust themselves in. 
5th. Bement and Browne are our best American au- 
thors ; but the most perfect treatise on Poultry in ourpos- 
