THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
37 
lively lean. The oxygen they consume is suffi- 
cient to convert into carbonic acid all the carbon 
of their food, the excess of which would go to 
the production of fat. To agriculturists these 
facts have long been familiar, and it is the well 
known practice with them to confine cattle to 
small comfortable stalls, and hogs in narrow 
pens, where the object is to fatten them in the 
shortest time and with the least expense of food. 
But we have not space to pursue the subject 
further at present . — Louisville Journal. 
EXTR.^.CT FROM A REPORT ON HORTICULTURE, 
Read before the Newbury Agricultural Society, at 
its Anniversary Aleeting, July 27, 1842, by Mat- 
thew Hall. 
Peppers should be sown in the first of Aprils 
in di’ills. When properly up, thin to stand 
about 10 or 12 inches apart, leaving one or two 
-stalks in a place. 
Mustard, for winter use, may be sowed in the 
latter part of August, or first of September, in 
drills about 18 inches apart, covered very light- 
ly. The bed on which it is sown, should pre- 
viously be made verj" rich. As soon as it is up, 
thin it out so as to let every plant have three or 
four inches space between them. For spring 
use, it may be sown in the same manner in 
January or Februar}'. It should be hoed and 
kept clean. 
Beets should be sown in February or the first 
of March, in a rich, sandy soil, in rows or drills, 
18 inches apart. The seed may be planted in 
the drills, 10 or 12 inches apart, and three or 
four in a place; after the plants are well up, thin 
them to one stalk or plant, and attend well vuth 
plough and hoe. After they have arrived to 
perfection in the fall, they may be baked like po- 
tatoesj and preserved all winter. Transplanting 
of beets does not answer well. 
Bush or bunch beans may be planted in the 
last of March, in a rich, sandy soil, in some part 
of the garden that will shelter them from the 
north wind, and give them the sun in the early 
part of the dajn If it should be likely to frost, 
nover them at night. They may also be planted 
about the full moon, in April, and for a succes- 
gioii of crops on to the 4th of July, or even later. 
They may be drilled in rows two feet apart, and 
after they are well up, thin to two stalks, 18 or 
20 inches apart. Stick (or pole) beans may be 
planted from the middle of April to July in the 
same manner as the others, except that they 
ahould have more distance, say two feet one 
ivay and 3i the other. Have your land well 
manured, and attend well with plough and hoe. 
As good seed is of the greatest importance, the 
stalks you allow to save your seed from, should 
never a bean be plucked from, till they are per- 
fectly ripe; then gather, shell them out, and dr}^ 
them properly in the sun, then put them up in a 
small bag with some tobacco or snuff, and hang 
them where they can have the air: the tobacco 
preserves them from the bug in a great measure. 
The seed should always be saved from the first 
beans you plant. 
Cucumbers, water melons and musk melons, 
although they can be raised in a garden, should 
never be planted there. The reason is obvuous 
— if a garden is not rich land, it should be made 
rich; this sends up grass and weeds very fast, and 
vines, after they get properly to running, should 
never be interrupted, and it would be impossible 
to keep them free from grass in a garden with- 
out moving them; therefore, select the poorest 
sandy old field you have, fence in your patch, 
lay it off with a plough twelve or fifteen feet 
square, in December; dig a hole in every cross, 
two feet deep and two feet wide, (or wider,) fill it 
up as soon as convenient with com cobs about 
two-thirds full, and beat them down with a maul 
or crowbar. Let your holes stand open all win- 
ter. In the first of March, fill up the remainder 
of the hole with manure, (that from a hog-pen 
is best.) Plant from the 1st to the 20th of April; 
put eignt or ten seed in a hill, some of them ten 
or twelve inches apart. But before you plant 
your seed, mix some of the earth or sand with 
your manure on the top of the hill, raise your 
hill about three or four inches above the level 
of the earth, for fear of rainsettling it below the 
surface, and drowning your seed or plants.— 
When they are up and have four or five leaves, 
thin them to two stalks, letting the farthest apart 
thrifty plants stand. When they commence 
running, lay them so as to run in different di- 
rections, so that one vine will not interfere with 
another. By the time they begin to run, they 
should be laid by, having your ground perfectly 
clean. Generally two ploughings and two hoe- 
ings will do them. After they have run three or 
four feet, they should be confined to the ground 
with cross sticks, to keep the wind from turning 
them over, (I mean the watermelon vine.) No 
sickly or deformed melon should be allowed to 
set on a vine. If you wish to raise large water 
melons, let but one mellon set on a vine till it 
nearly gets its growth; also top your vine. As 
seed is of the greatest importance, save your 
seed from those melons or cucumbers, which 
grow nearest the root of your vine; these are 
decidedly the best. Vines from these seed wil 
yield moreand come earlier. ^ 
Dr. Lewis Feuchtwanger, of IXew York, in 
a letter to the editor of the American Agricul- 
turist, says — The following preparation will ef- 
fectually extenninate all caterpillars, snails, 
bugs, beetles, earth fleas, leaf lice, ants and oth- 
er insects on fields, trees, bushes and hedges. 
Take diluted Pyroligneous acid, 1 gallon; 
white oak bark, 1 lb.; urine, half gallon; garlic, 
half pound. After soaking the oak bark and 
garlic for two days in the acid and urine, strain 
them off and sprinkle once a week or oftener, 
the trees infected with insects, or the pea, cab- 
bage, &C.J and they will be presented for the 
season. 
Extract from a very sensible Address of Ja's Ran- 
KiJtE, of Cananadaigua. 
Sources of Happiness. — Surely pecuniary 
gain should not be considered as the scale in 
which all things are to be weighed. It has been 
said tliat wisdom js better than riches — and it is 
indeed so. The advancement of fortune is a 
laudable object; but we have received the ca- 
pacity for social and intellectual enjoyments, 
and it could not be meant by the Giver that we 
.should receive it in vain. All our struggles in 
life are directed to increase our happiness — if, 
however, we confine our endeavors merely to 
the enlargement of our possessions, the gratifi- 
cation which may arise from success will still 
be a gratification to which a rational and reflect- 
ing being should be loath to confine himself. — 
The highest order cf happiness, and that least 
exposed to vicissitudes, is to be found in the cul- 
tivation of our intellect, and the improvement of 
our dispositions. Knowledge may put nothing 
immediately into the pur.se ; but it will bestow a 
purer and more la-sting enjoyment than any 
thing contained in the purse can afford,. The 
more we mingle in friendly intercourse w'ith 
our species, the more will our benevolent feel- 
ings be expanded ; and if, in addition to mental 
culture, a man be at the same time in peace with 
himself, and of charity towards all men be af- 
firmed to have the means of happiness independ- 
ent of worldly circumstances. 
The Farmer’s Life. — Gentlemen, allow me 
to congratulate you on the happy situation in 
life, in which those are placed, who are engaged 
in the cultivation of the earth. In independence, 
in healthfulness, in amenity, it excels every oth- 
er. Prudence and economy, and a just estimate 
of his position in society, are requisite for a man 
in all situations; but to whom are the facilities 
to independence so great as to the farmer"? Fa- 
vorably situated for avoiding temptations to be 
led away by the vanities of society, he is sur- 
rounded with everything neeessarj’- to comforta- 
ble existence. His life, indeed, is a laborious 
one; but labor is no evil— it conduces to the 
vigor of the body and of the mind, and certain 
ly, it is not in idleness that happiness is eve 
found. The verj" place in which his labors aret 
carried on is favorable to him. He lives, n q 
pent up in walls, and in a confined or insalubri- 
ous atmosphere, but in the free airs of heaven, 
with the boundless sky for a roof, and surround- 
ed by every thing that is lovelj in natm’e, and 
calculated to lead the mind from nature to na- 
ture’s God. The .sentiment of love and admira- 
tion of the beautiful works of the Creator, leads 
us to see him, and to know him, and to adore 
him. He who can plod on in his fields, insen- 
sible to these beauties, is truly of a cloddish 
heart. He is incapable of experiencing that 
sublime love ot the Deity, which alone can ele^ 
vate the .soul above the miseries that envelope 
all worldly concerns, and give him as it were, a 
foretaste of the pure and exalted joys of a fu- 
ture .state.” 
REARING OF CHICKENS. 
To the Editor of the Farmers’ Register.— 
You some time since requested to know my 
mode of raising chickens, and I take great plea^ 
sure in forwarding the same to you. 
I mu.st, in the first place, give you my plan 
for constructing a “hen house,” as I consider it 
one of the most important things about the rear- 
ing. My “hen houses” are built of pine logs^ 
with the bark taken off, and chinked in with 
wood. On the inside of the house, and about 
one foot from the walls, I plant forks, across 
which I lay poles for the fowls to roost on, be- 
ing careful that no part of the poles or forks 
shall touch the house. About once in tour 
weeks, I have these poles washed or replaced 
with new ones ; by these means I get rid of lice, 
if any should have found their way to the roost 
of the fo wls. My boxes for the hens to lay in 
are put upon forks in the same manner, being 
entii'ely detached from the house, and are taken 
out once in three or lour weeks, and new nests 
made for the hens. 
Since I have been pursuing this plan, I have 
never been troubled with lice, nor have I ever 
lost any considerable number with the gapes, a 
disease which I am convinced proceeds from 
the young chickens inlialing hen lice from the 
parent hen . 
In chickens having the gapes, a worm is 
found in the larynXj near the lungs, which con- 
tinues to increase in size until the whole aperr 
ture in the windpipe is filled up; and the chick- 
en then suffocates. I am convinced that this is 
the cause of the disease ; for if the parent hen is 
kept elear of lice, the young escape the gapes. 
When I find my hens are ready to go to set 
ting, I always, in the early part of the season^ 
set two on the same day, and when they hatch, 
put the n togetlier in coops, or hovers, and teed 
them on corn bread; until the chickens begin to 
feather, when I give them small hominy. At 
this time I take away one hen, and confine her 
for a few days, when she will become weaned, 
and again be ready for setting in a few weeks. 
In the summer, when the young chickens do 
not require the protection of the mother to hover 
them, I frequently give as many as fifty or six- 
ty chickens to one hen. 
Last season I set six turkeys, and they on- 
ly brought out a sufficient number for three of 
them to attend to. I set the remaining ihi’ee on 
hens’ eggs, taking v-are to set a hen at the same 
time. During the season, each turkey brought 
out three brood.s, amounting in all to 150 chick- 
ens. 
The turkey hens while setting require to be 
well fed and watered, and if well attended to, 
will set most of the summen 
Since I have adopted the above rules, I have 
been very successful in raising chickens, and 
can recommend them to the patrons ofthe Reg- 
ister. Very respectfully, 
Wm. B. Green. 
Candles. — Prepare your wicks about half 
the usual size, wet with spirits of turpentine, 
put them in the sun until dry, then mould oiidip 
your candles. 
Candles thus made last longer, and give 
much clearer light. In fact they are nearly (A 
quite equal to sperm in clearness of light. 
