192 
SOILING CATTLE.-CORN FOR THE EUROPEAN MARKETS. 
undivided attention to the production of eggs and 
batching another brood. 
The capon is taught to nurse by rubbing his 
breast roughly with a corn-cob, or whipping his 
legs with small twigs, or better still, by rubbing 
nettles on his breast, at the same time confining him 
in a box so low that he cannot stand erect, and 
placing the chicks under him. This was Minda’s 
course of treatment. Perhaps the best course, 
however, is that practised in France, where the 
custom is to confine the obstinate capon a few days 
in a solitary dark place; then to put the chicks with 
him, when he is much rejoiced to have their com¬ 
pany, and ever after remains their faithful guardian. 
Some capons, however, can never be made to take 
chicks, perhaps on account of the castration hav¬ 
ing been imperfectly performed, which often occurs 
when the subject operated upon is too young—the 
parts then being very soft. 
The greatest advantage of caponizi.ng is found in 
the vast improvement made in the size of the fowl, 
the excellency and superior flavor of the flesh. If 
desirable, [ will communicate a simple method of 
operating, without all the array of instruments pa¬ 
raded by some operators. D. L. Phares. 
Wkitesville, Miss., March, 1847. 
Please to do so.—E d. 
SOILINGCATTLE. 
As the subjecc of soiling cattle has been dis¬ 
cussed and much written about of late, permit me 
to contribute a few remarks on two summers’ prac¬ 
tice. I have a farm of 110 acres under cultivation, 
on which I keep five horses, two mules, and five 
cows. I prepared one and a half acres in a lot 
adjoining the barn and stables, sowing Timothy- 
seed in the fall and clover in the spring. The 
ground had been previously made rich for the cul¬ 
tivation of potatoes and other roots. The Timothy 
failed to come up well; but the clover and a native 
grass grew luxuriantly, so that from the early part 
of May until after harvest-time, I had an abundance 
of green fodder for my horses and cows. In fact I 
had more fodder than was necessary to consume in 
a green state, and consequently made a part of it 
into hay. In the spring, fearing there would not 
be grass enough upon my one and a half acres to 
support my animals, I planted, in drills, about a 
quarter of an acre of sweet corn of the large kind: 
but having no occasion to use it as fodder, 1 thinned 
it out just before it was in tassel, and raised there¬ 
from about twenty bushels of shelled corn. 
As to the expense of labor in soiling, I would 
remark that one of my men cut all the fodder 
necessar}', before breakfast, who was followed by 
two others, one with a porter’s cart, and the other 
with a wheelbarrow, and conveyed a part of it to 
a rack erected in the middle of my barn-yard for 
the accommodation of the cows, and the remainder 
to the stable for the horses. The animals had three 
full bites a day, morning, noon, and evening. Not 
more than fifteen or twenty minutes were occupied 
by the men at each meal, and this was not alto¬ 
gether lost time, as the men and horses had an 
hour to rest and feed at noon. I would re¬ 
mark, however, that as long as my winter’s stock 
of carrots and sugar-beets lasted in the spring, I feed 
them once a day to my cows. 
These remarks, I think, are only applicable to 
farmers in the vicinity of cities, or large towns,, 
where a ready and accessible market offers for all 
kinds of vegetables and produce, and where land is 
too valuable to be used for the purposes of grazing. 
Here I would merely add that, a few years since, 
the same piece of ground, occupied as above, was 
seeded with large clover, which grew so luxuriant¬ 
ly that it was thought that it could not be properly 
cured. It was cut green and sold in bunches, 
mostly to milk-men, at three or four cents each, 
amounting in the course of the season to about 
$100. J. 
PRODUCTION AND PREPARATION OF CORN 
FOR THE EUROPEAN MARKETS. 
The present season seems fully to have settled 
the question in favor of an immense exportation of 
Indian corn to European ports hereafter. Necessity 
and famine have overcome prejudices against its 
use there, which heretofore had been insurmoun¬ 
table. Appetite has given to it a relish and flavor, 
which otherwise it would have never been found 
to possess; and the recollection that it has saved 
millions from famine, will hereafter endear its use 
to the multitudes abroad wherever it can be had. 
To provide for this permanent demand, is now 
the proper duty, as it will be the decided interest of 
the American farmer. Yet this should be done 
within reasonable bounds. It will not do for the 
sugar or cotton planter; the hemp, the wheat, or 
the tobacco grower, to abandon his accustomed 
crops, and divert from their appropriate uses soils 
little suited to the growth of corn ; nor for the gra¬ 
zier, the stock-breeder, or the shepherd, to neglect, or 
turn from his legitimate pursuits, to the cultivation 
of this grain. If any absurd system like this be 
adopted, to any extent, corn will go down and the 
neglected crops will go up, till the scale is reversed. 
Yet there is danger of this. Americans are too 
impulsive, too excitable, and it is too often a feast 
or a famine with them. If an article or pursuit 
seems likely to pay, every one rushes into it; if 
appearances are against it, they are for abandoning 
it in the mass. We run from agriculture to manu¬ 
factures, from manufactures to trade, and from trade 
to speculation. At o^e moment we have a high 
tariff, at another scarcely any ; sometimes we have 
no banks, and at others, every village may boast 
its own, and the excels soon reduces the country to 
utter destitution agam. Our pendulum is ever on 
the swing, and dashe*- far beyond the centre of gra¬ 
vity on either side ; and if our ship gets a little out 
of trim, we are all so '.ager to right it that we rush 
tumultuously to one s.i^e and careen her worse than 
ever. 
A slight addition 1* the quantity of acres now 
devoted to the culture of corn, with more careful 
planting, manuring, and cultivation, and with 
greater economy in its feeding and use, will swell 
immensely the annual amount sent forward to the- 
shipping ports. Added to this, new land is con¬ 
stantly brought into cultivation, and with high 
prices and an unstinted demand staring us in the 
face, what so likely to command attention as an ar¬ 
ticle that pays so well and rnake^* such immediate 
returns ? The capital required ft*** growing this- 
crop is so near to nothing as to be- inappreciable 
