boys’ department. 
163 
33cms’ ^Department. 
RUMPLESS FOWL. 
Fig. 45. 
This bird derives its name in consequence of 
wanting feathers in its tail, and should therefore be 
denominated a tailless rather than a rumpless fowl. 
However odd it may be in appearance, we know 
from experience that it is an excellent breed of 
fowls, having kept them for years. We found them 
hardy, good layers and nurses. They are of me¬ 
dium size and of various colors, though the golden 
brown speckled predominate. It is destitute of the 
gland on the rump, which we believe is found in 
every other variety of the domestic fowl. A tail 
is as useless an appendage on fowls as horns are 
on cattle, and if the boys wish to cultivate a profit¬ 
able breed of fowls there is nothing equal to the 
humble rumpless. 
sprincTwork. 
Now, boys, is the time for active work. This is 
just as important in its place as are the schools and 
studies of winter. Not that [ would have you ne¬ 
glect your books altogether, even though you can¬ 
not attend school. By no means; you must give 
many leisure hours to study and reading during the 
summer. But with most of the boys who read the 
Agriculturist, this is the season when labor takes 
the lead, as study does during the cold winter 
months. You have had a fine time for the latter ; 
now, for the former. You need to begin right 
here as in everything else. 
“ Everything in its season.” You have often 
heard that if a man loses an hour in the morning, 
he may toil hard all day and cannot overtake it. So 
it is with the year. This is the time for fitting the 
ground and planting the seeds. Now is just the 
best time for doing this. It is early in the spring, 
just when the trees and the plants all about you are 
putting forth their leaves and flowers. This is na¬ 
ture’s time. If this be passed in idleness, you will 
get no good crops this year. Just as when youth 
is passed in idleness and vice, it can never be re¬ 
covered in after life. 
Now, then, for a few vreeks, is the season. 
Everything for the year depends on it. If you 
would see the flowers of summer and the golden 
fruit of autumn, be active now in putting your 
grounds in the best state, and in planting in the best 
possible manner such seeds as will give you those 
flowers and fruits. And after they are planted, 
don’t let a weed grow in all the grounds. Remem¬ 
ber, that it costs just as much strength of land to 
grow a weed as it does a useful plant; and that the 
weeds are great robbers of the plants. Begin now, 
and keep on, and your hearts will be gladdened by 
and by with the reward of your labor. 
“ Everything in its place.” This is another im¬ 
portant lesson for you to learn. I suppose you 
have your little axes and hoes, and rakes, and other 
tools, suitable for boys, as I recommended you last 
year. If not, you will have your father get them at 
once. And then you are to see that everything is 
kept in the very best order, and is always put in its 
place. An axe left out in the rain to rust, or a hoe 
left in the ground overnight, is a very slovenly and 
wasteful practice. On no account should you ever 
suffer it. No work is ever finished, not even for the 
day, till all the tools employed are put in their pro¬ 
per place. You w r ill find, as you grow older, that 
it costs less time to put everything in the tool place 
at night, than it does to find it in the morning, or tc 
wear off the rust from such as can rust, if you re¬ 
member where you left them. Lately, I hired a 
man, and set him to making a ditch. He took my 
mattock, spade, and shovel, and when he finished 
the work, left them all on the ground where he last 
used them. Of course I dismissed him at once, for 
my tools were covered with snow that night, and 
much injured before they were found. Here he 
lost some days, and I sustained considerable damage 
by his not having learned when a boy, to put 
“ everything in its place.” 
“ Everything well done.” “ Whatever is worth 
doing at all, is worth doing well,” was the motto 
of a man who performed a most incredible amount of 
labor, and was one of the greatest men of his age. 
And it is precisely the doing things well, or the 
botching them up anyhow for the present, because 
they are in a hurry, that makes some men rich and 
respected, and others poor and despised. The for¬ 
mer always have time at their command. The lat¬ 
ter are always in a hurry, and always losing from 
the effects of their poorly done work. The former 
have good fences, good buildings, good fields, good 
everything. The latter have poor fences, unruly 
cattle, leaky barns, damaged crops, poor everything. 
The former always have “ good luck.” The latter 
are always fretting at their “ ill luck,” in part their 
own shiftlessness. Learn to do everything w r ell. 
But I must stop right here. T. 
Ohio, April, 1846. 
Experiments. —Well, boys, what do you pro¬ 
pose doing the coming summer ? Can any of you 
tell ? Will you let the season pass negatively away ? 
or will you make some experiments in gardening or 
farming with a view of testing certain principles ? 
For example : do any of you expect a favorite calf ? 
If so, will you weigh it when first dropped from the 
cow; then learn it to drink milk from the pail, and 
weigh every particle it consumes till old enough to 
kill; then weigh the calf again and see how much 
flesh it has gained on every hundred pounds of milk 
consumed, and give us the result. 
