200 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
I esiiraaie that my hens atiuri me irorii their 
egss, without regard to their meat, a clear profit 
ol 50 per cent. I confine them to their yard, 
hen-house andbara cellar cluringgardening,. and 
t ) their house and cellar in the winier, and think 
with that degree of confinement, they lay belter 
than they do when allowed to wander at large., 
Hen-houses and roosts should be kept neat, and 
often whitewashed, and their nests should al- 
ways have hall an inch or more of ashes or lime 
on the bottom, under the hay. Broken or rotten 
eggs should never be allowed to remain in the 
nests. Dirty water should not be given them. 
To do well, they require pure w'ater, and all 
their food fresh and uninjured irom taint or ler- 
mentalion. I estimate that during the year, 
(deducting the time oi their moulting, and in- 
clination to set,) I have got daily, one hali as 
many eggs as 1 have had laying hens. 
Every family can, with very little trouble, 
with their flock of a dozen hens, have fresh eggs 
in plenty, during the whole year, say in all, 2,- 
000, and 100 full grown chickens; and of all 
the animals domesticated for the use of man, (if 
such be the fact,) the hen is capable of yielding 
the greatest profit to the owner. It is a pleasant 
recreation to feed and tend a bevy of laying 
hens. 
Care should be taken to change roosters often, 
as otherwise the best variety in the world will 
run out, and cease to be profitable from breed- 
ing in: and I feel great confidence that much 
Improvement may be made by due attention to 
erossiiag, and in this way some of the evils from 
breeding be averted. I have stated that I give 
my fowls meat: this is indispensable if they are 
not allowed to go at large. If corn is fed out, it 
should be soaked, and 15 bushels is a fair year- 
ly allowance for 12 hens and a rooster. But 
they should always have food by them, and af- 
ter they have become habituated to find enough 
at all times in the trough, they take but a few 
kernels at a time, except just before retiring to 
roost, when they will take nearly a spoonful in- 
to their crops; but if they are scantily or irre- 
gularly fed, they will greedily snatch up a whole 
crop full at a time, and stop laying, and not uu- 
frequently engender some fatal disease. 
Statement of Jesse MARiiii. 
To the Kennebec County Agricultural Society: 
Gentlemen -.—The following is my method 
of keeping poultry, for which, i want your pre- 
mium, if you consider me entitled to it : 
My family of hens consists of twenty in num- 
ber, exclusive of old king chanticleer, who rules 
the roost, cracks the day, and calls to operations. 
They are of the genuine old fashioned Kenne- 
bec breed, which live by eating, and lay for 
amusement; they generally pay all my bills by 
using their own. 1 have a room for them in 
one corner of my barn, warm and comfortable, 
well furnished with roosts, nests, &c., where all 
their operations are carried on, although I give 
them liberty to go into other parts of the barn, 
and occasionally the liberty of the yard, which 
is equal in size to that of any honest man or 
rogue, who has taken the benefit of the poor 
debtor’s oath. Their bill of fare consists of a 
constant supply of corn in cold weather, and 
another dish, which they prefer, is made of 
boiled potatoes mashed up fine, and scalded 
meal or bran, in the proportion of three quarts 
of the former to one of the latter. In the sum- 
mer the corn is shortened, and more of the hen- 
pudding (as we call it) is supplied. In order 
that the shell department of the business may 
be carried on to advantage, I supply them with 
lime and pounded bricks. I kept my account 
current with them, between the first of January 
last and the thirty-first day of J uly, inclusive, in 
which time I received two hundred and fifteen 
dozen of eggs : these I have sold for eleven cents 
per dozen, making $23 65 
Estimated cost of corn and potatoes, 5 00 
Balance in favor of hen family, $18 65 
Prom this sum, take the interest of the capi- 
tal invested, cost of lime, brick dust, and atten- 
dance, and you can have the profits oi the brood. 
g;^The Sugar crop in Louisiana is estima- 
ted at 185,000 to 200,000 hogsheads the present 
year. 
Buckwheat Cakes. — As this is the season 
for buckwheat cakes, the following recipe will 
at this time be valuable to 'those who are fond 
of them ; a irienj.!, wjio.has tried the experiment, 
says it makes decidedly better cakes with hali 
the trouble necessary in the usual mode of rais- 
ing them with yeast. 
To three pintsof buckwheat flour, mixed into 
a batter, add one tea spoonful of carbonate of 
soaa dissolvedin water; and one do. of tartaric 
acid dissolved in like manner; first apply the 
carbonate, stir the batter well, and then put in 
the acid ; thus the use of yeast is entirely super- 
seded, and cakes “ as light as a feather” are in- 
sured. One great advantage is that the batter is 
ready for baking as soon as it is made. 
The foregoing is a very excellent recipe for 
“spoiling a batch of batter,” or turning out 
“cakes,” upon which drippings from a respecta- 
ble leather apron would be quite an improve- 
ment! The man who started the recipe must 
have had strange notions about the “lightness of 
a feather.” Cakes, such as he recommends, 
would give an ostrich the nightmare! 
COUTEHTS OF THIS HUMBER, 
©ominunfcatfon.tf. 
Oration, delivered before the Alumni Society 
of Franklin College, by the Rev. Geo. F. 
Pierce, 193 — 195 
Good and Bad Management, 196 — 197 
Crop of Co.tton in South Alabama, 197 
Selections, Hptvactcs, 
Conversation on tbe Economy and Manage- 
ment of the Farm, 195 — 196 
A Farmer Rewarded by Perseverance 197 — 198 
A Beautifulincident,. 199 
Editorials, etc., 199 
Management of Hens, 199 — 200 
PRINCE’S 
liinueean Botanic Garden and Nurseries, 
FLUSHING, L. I., NEAR NEW YORK. 
THE New Descriptive Cata- 
logues (which have cost over $700) of the 
Trees, Plants, and Seeds at this Establish- 
ment, will be sent gratis to every post pciid ap- 
plicant by addressing 
WILLIAM R. PRINCE & CO. 
Flushing, Dec. 4, 1844. 
parison of it with my crop of cotton, and now 
take pleasure in saying to you, it is_a superior ar- 
ticle in point of fineness and length ol fibre, con- 
taining more lint on the seed, and will yic-ld much 
more from the s.ame quantity of land ifianted. 
i am respectfully, dear sir, 
A'our obedient servant, 
[Signed) Wm. Johnston. 
Georgia, Newton County: 
I hereby certify that I obtained from John W. 
Graves, of this county, a sack of Cotton Seed, 
(which he represented of superior quality intro- 
duced from Texas,) which I planted last spring, 
and find to exceed my most sanguine eupectation. 
I planted it two or three weeks after my other 
cotton, (which is the Petit Gulph,) and notwith- 
standing the season wrs dry and unfavorable 
throughout the year, (the growing season) yet it 
is by far the best cotton I ever made. I think by 
the time it is all gathered, the best part will yield 
2000 to 2500 pounds per acre. My neighbors who 
have seen it are of the same opinion. Prom the 
trial I have made, I believe it will yield double as 
much as my other cotton on land of the same fer- 
tility. [Signed] Jackson Harwell. 
24th October, 1844. 
Georgia, Morgan County : 
This is to certify that I am neighbor to JohnT 
McNeil, Esq., and that he last spring got a lead 
of Texas Cotton Seed from John W. Graves, 
Esq., of Newton county, and planted them on 
what I consider average land of his farm ; and 
from frequent observation of the crop, with his 
other cotton, (which is the Petit Gulph,) I do be- 
lieve it will far excel any other cotton I have ever 
seen raised in this section of country. And I 
also believe that the staple excels any other I 
have ever examined, as to fineness and color. 
[Signed] John P. Evans. 
This will certify that I acted as overseer for 
Mr. JohnT- McNeil for the year 1844. My know- 
ledge of farming induces me to believe that the 
Texas Cotton, raised by Mr. McNeil this year, is 
a very superior article, and with me preferable to 
any other cotton I have ever raised. It is of long 
and fine staple, and well boiled, and easily picked 
out, and has withstood a drought this year belter 
than the Petit Gulph Cotton. It is, in a word, a 
valuable cotton. I have ginned eight bales of the 
Texas Cotton on Mr. McNeil’s Carver Gin, and 
find that it yields one pound of clear cotton from 
three of seed cotton ; and from my experience of 
thirty years in cotton growing, I have never rais- 
ed any I think equal to the Texas Cotton. 
[Signed] Allison Kent. 
TEXAS COTTON SEED. 
T he subscriber offers for sale, Cot- 
ton Seed of very superior quality. The 
original stock was procured in Texas, and culti- 
vated on his plantation in Newton county, for 
the last three years, with extraordinary success. 
The yield is much larger, and the quality superior 
to the Petit Gulph or other kinds of Cotton usu^ 
ally grown in this section of country. 
Planters who purchase a supply of the seed 
may rely upon sufficient increase in product of 
the first crop to refund the outlay for seed. 
Planters who take an interest in improvements 
of this sort, are referred to the annexed certifi- 
cates, and the Cotton raised from the seed may 
be seen at the warehouses of Adams & HopHns 
and Clark & Roberts. 
JOHN W. GRAVES. 
A supply of the above described Cotton Seed 
is offered for sale at the following places, at five 
dollars per bushel : 
Adams & Hopkins’s Warehouse ) 
Clark & Roberts’s do. 
D’Antignac & Evans’s do. >Augus a. 
Hand & Williams’s Store, J 
McKinley & Martin’s Store, Madison. 
Hill, Morrow & Hill’s Store, > o • i i 
D. Dickson & Co.’s Store, \ Circle 
Madison. October 29, 1844. 
Dear Sir — I regret it was not in my power yes- 
terday, when I saw you, to give you any opinion 
with regard to a small lot of cotton I have grow- 
ing from seed presented to me last spring by my 
friend, John W. Graves, Esq. Since 
ever, 1 have been to my plantation 
Augusta, October 30, 1844.' 
John W. Graves, Esq.: 
Dear Sir — Having been called on by you to 
make a statement in relation to your Texas Cot- 
ton, we take pleasure in saying, that for the last 
two or three years we have received at our ware- 
house your cotton crops. The quality has inva- 
riably proved very superior, both as to color and 
length of staple. On sale, it has always brought 
the highest market price. We consider it a very 
superior article in the cotton line. 
Your obedient servants, 
Adams Hopkins. 
Mr. John T. AleNeil : 
Dear Sir — We have received the two bales of 
Texas Cotton sent by you to us, and take pleas- 
ure in saying that in color and length of staple it 
is superior to anything we have seen ; and cheer- 
fully recommend it as such as will always bring 
the highest market price. 
Your obedient servants, 
n5-wp&Ctf Clark & Roberts. 
B ACON’S LARD LAMPS.— A new 
article, superior to all others for this pur- 
pose, emitting a good clear light without smell or 
smoke, and at an expense, counting Lard at 8 
cents a pound, of about a quarter of a cent an 
hour. 
These Lamps have been satisfactorily tested, 
and are recommended as “just the thing” for 
the use of planters, and all others who study utili- 
ty, neatness and economy. 
A supply of the above Lamps, with Fillers and 
Wicks-for-them. For sale by 
HAVILAND, RISLEY & CO, 
