boys’ department. 
99 
Bogs’ ^Department. 
USEFUL AMUSEMENTS FOR BOYS. 
On most farms the care of young stock belongs 
to the women and boys. The boys should make 
the care of calves their own. 
Calves should never be allowed to suck after the 
first day. When they have filled themselves well 
with the first milk, they should be taken away and 
confined in the barn ; and until the milk becomes 
good for use, it should be taken from the cow, and 
fed by hand to the calf. It will soon learn to 
drink, if a finger be put in its mouth and its muzzle 
in the milk. At the end of three or four days, it 
should have no more new milk. When the milk 
has been skimmed, let it be w r armed and given to it. 
The calf will not be so fat and look so sleek as if 
fed with new milk, but will grow in frame as fast, 
and be as large in size and bone, as one fed on new 
milk, if it have enough; the reason of this is that 
the cream skimmed off the milk only makes fat, and 
does not make flesh or bone. Feed the calves well 
with good sweet skim milk at regular periods, say 
three times a day, and give them good pasture, and 
by fall they will be of good size. Always treat 
them kindly, and make them gentle. This will 
give you good and kind cows, if the calves be 
heifers ; and good and gentle oxen if they be steers. 
In the fall either make yourself, or get made, a 
small yoke, put it on the steer calves, and accustom 
them to it, and commence breaking them. In the 
winter, after they have become docile, hitch them 
to small sleds and draw little loads of wood. By 
spring the steers will be well broken. 
ANOTHER POULTRY ACCOUNT. 
You may remember, boys, that last April, I gave 
you a copy of my poultry account for 1844. Now 
if you are so inclined, I will overhaul the account 
for the past year. But before we go to the figures, 
I will tell you of sundry mishaps and blunders, 
which have had some effect on the profits, for by 
the errors of others you may learn as much as by 
their success. 
First, then, not having a proper yard enclosed, I 
had to keep the fowls during the summer shut up 
in their house (21 ft. by 12) until afternoon, as I 
was planting immediately around the building. 
This confinement, and limiting their food entirely 
to corn, when they should have had a variety, such 
as oats, buckwheat, a little wheat, and some 
butcher’s offal, or scraps of meat, induced a dis¬ 
temper among them, by which some dozen or more 
were carried off; and causing a great falling off in 
the eggs. Then again all the broods of early 
chickens were completely destroyed by a certain 
little animal, which it is not polite to name, and 
which we must therefore spell, viz., l-o-u-s-e. I soon 
found that a few drops of sweet oil, or a little fresh 
lard, well rubbed on the back of the head, and on 
the wings of the chicks, immediately on taking 
them from the nest, was a perfect remedy—so much 
for Dame Partlett’s family. 
The Gobbler’s family was even more unfortunate, 
for of the four turkeys that survived the winter, 
three were killed during the summer, and of about 
fifty chicks, four only exist at this present. Now 
these calamities happened on this wise. The old 
fowls, having their wings clipped to prevent roosting 
on trees, fell a prey one night to sundry unruly dogs, 
who took advantage of their crippled condition, 
and the little chicks suffered in various ways from 
a want of that important requisite, “ the master’s 
eye.” An unsightly heap of brush, in the neigh¬ 
borhood of the coops, afforded shelter to that sneak¬ 
ing rascal, “ black rat,” who cut the throat of every 
unfortunate chick that came within his domain. 
One night some frisky young Berkshires escaped 
from their pen, for lack of a few nails driven in 
time, and played such pranks among the coops, that 
the account of killed and wounded the next morn¬ 
ing was quite a serious affair. Neither did the 
geese entirely escape. Theirs was a case of killing 
with kindness. The man who had charge of the 
live stock, believing, like many a better educated 
one, that “ good living,” and “ plenty of it,” was the 
great good of earthly existence, dealt out the corn 
so liberally that by reason of excess of fat, two 
only, out of twenty-four eggs from the two geese, 
contained the living principle, and of these one only 
hatched, the other suffering from a lack of patience 
in-, I wont tell who. Now then, having got 
through the chapter of accidents, let us look to the 
cyphering. I commenced the year with the follow¬ 
ing stock, viz.: 
1845. Dr. 
Jan. 1. To 44 hens 6 cocks, a 25 cts. $12 50 
“ “ 6 turkeys, a 62 1-2 cts 3 75 
“ “ 4 geese, a 62 1-2 cts. 2 50 $18 75 
Feb. 25. To cash for 15 hens, a 25 cts. 3 75 
Jan. 30. “ “ “ 22 geese, a 50“ 11 00 
Aug. 14. “ “ “ 6 young ducks, 1 00 
Nov. 14. “ “ “ 5 common do. 1 25 
“ “ « lp’r Muscovy, 1 13 $18 13 
Dec. 31. “ 61 1-2 bush, of corn, a 62 1-2 cts. 38 44 
“ “ labor picking geese, 88 
$76 20 
To balance (profit), 44 25 
120 45 
1845. Cr. 
Dec. 31. By 3660 eggs used or sold^ a 11-10 c. $40 15 
“ “ 25 chickens do. do. a 25 c. 6 25 
“ “ 3.turkeys do. do. a62£&$l,00, 2 25 
“ “ 6 ducks do. do. a 37 1-2 c. 2 25 
“ “ 23 geese do. do. a 6 c. per lb. 15 67 
“ 11 35 lbs. geese feathers, a 50 c. do. 17 50 
“ “ 16 bush, hen manure, a 12£ c. do. 2 00 
Dec. 31. By stock on hand, viz.: 
103 fowls, a 25 c. 
7 ducks, a 37 1-2 c. 
4 turkeys, a 75 c. 
4 geese, do. 
86 07 
$25 75 
2 63 
3 00 
3 00 $34 38 
$120 45 
The result, you see, although not quite equal to 
1844, is not to be despised. The geese are not the 
least profitable part of the stock. They are the 
large white Bremen variety, weighing, dressed, 
from 1C? to 15 lbs. They are confined in a lane 
which gives access to the different fields, and in 
which there is a large artificial pond, with a good 
supply of water, even in the driest seasons. L. 
Rahway, N. Jan., 1846 
