THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
186 
pears, in most instances, to be the original or ' 
‘■'naliVe” stock of the country, improved by ju- 
dicious selection, or by crosses. So highly es- 
teemed, indeed, is acclimation, that no judi- 
cious and discriminating breeder is ever found 
willing to discard the native stock, but rather 
prefers it as a basis on which to build. Few 
who are not familiar with the operation of the 
principles of breeding, as there recognized, can 
be aware how vast an improvement they are, in 
a short time, competent to effect. In our own 
country, cattle raising has never received the 
.attention it deserves. While a few enlightened 
•and enterprising individuals here and there 
have interested themselves benevolently, in 
“building up” and improving either by follow- 
ing the rules prescribed by their transatlantic 
brethren, or by the importation of blood stock 
frotn abroad, the stock of a particular locality 
— the great mass of our tanners have remained 
comparatively indifferent as to the result of 
their efforts, and disposed — so tenaciously root- 
ed are certain old prejudices —raxYiev to ridicule 
than approve. Every one is probably aware 
that so far as the production of good stock is 
concerned, the farmers of New England are not 
so much in want ol material, as of information 
and discernment respecting breeders. Our na- 
tive stock, in its pure state, is peculiarly active 
and hardy; it has all the benefits of thorough 
acclimation, and is to the full as capable of 
symmetrical development, under a judicious 
and radical sj'stera of breeding, as the Durham, 
the Hereford, or the Devon. There are certain 
distinctive traits, or points of form with which 
the experienced breeder associates, correctly, 
the qualities of activity and vigor in the ox; 
others which denote the presence of a lactescent 
propensity in the cow, and others again which 
bespeak a capacity to convert food into fat. 
Each of these marks are distinctly impressed, 
and as incapable ot misconstruction by the eye 
of an experienced observer, as though the seve- 
ral characters they denote or symbolize were 
written on the animal’s hide. It is, however, 
of little avail that we select our best animals for 
breeders so long as we persist in the old prac- 
tice of selecting the best of their offspring for 
the market. This is an error that we wish 
greatly to see reformed. There is a degree ot 
inconsistency in it, utterly incompatible with 
the character of the age. 
From the Boston Cultivator. 
HEN HOUSE. 
Many farmers that keep hens complain that 
they do not lay in the season of the year when 
their eggs are in the greatest demand either for 
consumption in the family or for the market. 
It is well known that with all the attention that 
can be bestowed on fowls, that they will not lay 
so well in coltt weather, and hence the high 
price of eggs at that season; yet much may be 
done to encourage the production of eggs in the 
inclement season, and frequently with profit too. 
Near a good market, one a week each, in the 
months ol November, December and January, 
w'ill pay tor the food usuady consumed by hens. 
Though in some cases great pains have been 
taken to make hens lay in cold weather, and 
without success, yet this is not generally the 
case. Most persons that wisely manage in this 
respect, have very good success. Hens should 
be provided with a vrarm dry house; it would 
be well to have the house so warm that water 
would not freeze in the coldest weather, and 
when the weather is mild it should be well ven- 
tilated. 
Last fall we gave what we consider the best 
plan for a hen house, and for the benefit of ma- 
ny new readers we will now repeat the sub- 
stance of it in a few words. Make a house 6 
or 7 feet high, 10 feet wide, and 10, 20^ or 30 
feet long, or longer, each length of ten feet form- 
ing a section. Divide it lengthwise into three 
parts ot equal width ; the centre ot which will 
serve as a walk, and on each side to every ten 
feet will be a ward, which should be construct- 
ed as follows . — About four feet from the ground 
or the ground floor, make a flooring over the 
whole ward, excepting about ten inches square 
at each corner, by the wall, for hens to come 
up through. 
Over this floor put two roosts, about ten or 
fifteen inches above ff, according to the height 
of the house. On going up on this floor a hen 
can walk along and take an empty roost, and 
the manure should be Irequently removed from 
the floor, and a little plastei; ashes, char- 
coal dust, or sand thrown on it, unless the 
manure is to be saved lor morocco dres- 
sers. By adding a small quantity of plaster and 
charcoal dust to the dun?, the ammonia will be 
fixed and good guano may be made. If the ma- 
nure be not removed, the ammonia will injure 
the fowl’s eyes, when closely confined. 
On a line with the walk, and about thirteen 
inches under the front of the flooring, put a 
piece of board a few inches wdde, with the edge 
up, extending from one end ot the section to the 
other, for the front of the nests to rest on. On a 
level with this and one foot back from it put a 
board, one foot wide, fiat side up, extending like 
the narrow strip from one end ot the section to 
the other. Then make nests of light thin 
boards, one foot wide from right to left, that there 
may be ten to a section, and about thirteen inch- 
es high, and about the same from front to back. 
These nests will rest on the edge of the nar- 
row board, and go back and rest on the wide 
board an inch or two, then the hens can walk 
along on the wide board back of the nests, and 
take any one they please. The nests should 
be about six or seven inches high, excepting 
every second one should extend up to the floor- 
ing on the sides to form a division. They will 
be on the upper part at the back part, and the 
open space in front should be closed with a 
piece of board, to be removed lor the purpose of 
taking out the eggs. 
At each end a short piece of board should ex- 
'end from the wide board named above, back to 
the wall, from which the fowls can go up 
through the flooring. Against the w'all in the 
centre, there should be a piece of board, about 
fitteen inches from the ground, and from this 
there should be a piece at each end, extending 
up slanting to the two short pieces just named ; 
on these slanting pieces there should be some 
cleats. Then the hens can occupy all the 
ground, or ground floor, without impediment; 
they can jump upon the piece by the wall and 
walk up the ladders and go along the wide 
board to any nest, or go up through the flooring 
and to any roost. This gives economy in room 
as the fowls can occupy the whole pound, then 
above it the nests, then tfe flooring and then 
the roosts, and a free passage to all, and the 
manure nearly all saved, in the cold season, and 
removed. 
There should be a window in each ward, ex- 
tending up about as high as the roost, and down 
to within a foot and a half of the ground. This 
may be taken out in summer for the purpose of 
ventilation. The fowls may occupy the walk, 
or it may be kept n^-al and clean, by putting 
laths from the flooring to the roof, and from the 
nest to the ground. Instead of building a house 
on purpose, part of a sheu or other building may 
be finished off in this way as a section, or as a 
single ward, just by taking a place about three 
feet wide any desirable length. A hen house 
may be rendered warm by banking it up with 
common earth, and this can be done in favora- 
ble situations with but very little labor. 
To MAKE Yellow Butter in Winter. — 
Put in yolk of eggs just before the butter comes, 
near the termination of the churning. This has 
been repeatedly tried, and it makes very fine 
sweet butter. It is kept by many as a great se- 
cret, but its great value requires publicity. — 
Cor. Alb. Cult. 
In an experiment in Maryland, in feeding 
hog.s with shelled corn, and the same lot with 
half the quantity in meal made into mush, it 
was found that on the mush they increased five 
pounds more in a given time, than on the raw 
corn, and their coats were much better. 
From the (So. Ca.) Temperance Advocate. 
NEWBERRY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
report on oats, rye, barley and buckwheat. 
The Chairman of the Committee on Oats, 
Rye, Barley and Buckwheat, begs leave to Re- 
port — 
That having been unable to confer with the 
different members of the Committee, he has per- 
haps been deprived ot embodying in the Report, 
information that would have been of essential 
service ; that such information as he is able to 
give for the preparation of these crops, he sub- 
mits under their respective heads. 
The peculiar situation of our climate — the 
partial failure of our Corn crop will necessarily 
direct the attention of our planters to these crops; 
the use which can be made of them renders 
them peculiarly valuable in the event of a scanty 
corn crop. 
Oats . — This crop has generally been treated 
with less attention than it deserves. Old worn 
out lands, considered unfit for any other crop, 
are usually assigned to it ; and it is not at all to 
be wondered at, that many persons are barely 
able to save the seed. Many contend that this 
is all that is wanted — the rest being pastured off 
by the stock; in this way they receive the full 
benefit of the crop. It should, however, be made 
a valuable crop, and better soil should be as- 
signed to it, and better preparation. W’^e have 
in the cow-pea, a most valuable article for the 
preparation of our lands for small grain, and as 
oats usually prosper best on a soil not too finely 
pulverized, they would receive the lull benefit of 
such a course of preparation ; and as in regular 
rotation of crops, small grain invariably suc- 
ceeds a corn crop, the cow-pea should be bounti- 
fully cultivated with the corn crop, and this 
turned under as soon as the vines begin to bear; 
we would thus prepare our lands not only for 
crops of small grain of every kind, but for every 
other crop, and the soil instead of being impov- 
erished would continue to improve. By turn- 
ing under the pea-vines in the fall with a suita- 
ble plow, the ground will necessarily be put 
in excellent preparation to sow your orts, either 
in the fall or in February, as desired. This 
could not, under the general system of farming 
which prevails, be done with the whole crop, 
but such portion of it as would receive this 
course of preparation, would amply repay for 
the extra labor bestowed. 
Fall sowing is to be preferred, as the oats are 
not so liable to be injured by the Spring drought ; 
the yield is greater and the head much better 
than if sown in the Spring. When, however, 
it has been delerred until Spring, they should at 
ail events be put in during the month of Febru- 
ary. Cotton-seed, if applied then, is of more 
importance to this crop than to any other. The 
seed should be carefully plowed in, or if the 
ground has just been broken up, a heavy iron- 
toothed harrow would peihaps answer a good 
purpose in putting the seed to a proper depth. 
The old adage “dust in your wheat and daub 
in your oats,” isnottruewith regard to this crop. 
It is as necessary that the oat crop should be 
as carefully put in as wheat, lor when plowed 
in wet, a great portion of the seed is buried at 
such a depth, that the heat and air can never 
affect it, and it must necessarily perish, or the 
strength of the grain be greatly impaired by the 
time it reaches the surface, and before it can re- 
cover, it has necessarily to throw out a new 
series of roots near the surface ; during this time 
it is exposed to the changes of the seasons, 
whereas, if put in at a suitable depth, the young 
plants would grow off vigorously. Baron Yogt, 
of Germany, has fully tested this, and has made 
a series of experiments to illustrate this impor- 
tant fact. At the same period after the seed 
were sown, those put in at one inch below the 
surface, had four healthy blades, while those at 
three and four inches had two, and at most three 
sickly leaves. These experiments should con- 
vince the most incredulous. 
The selection of proper seed is also a subjee 
of much importance. There are, however, 
some excellent varieties of oats cultivated 
among us. The Bremen or Potatoe Oats, is 
