AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
293 
I am, however, inclined to believe that the 
Antwerp of which I have been speaking is com¬ 
paratively a recent acquisition, perhaps within 
the last twenty or thirty years; the pigeon for¬ 
merly in use in Belgium was, without doubt, 
the owl. The short-faced Antwerps are a cross 
between the real Antwerp and the owl pigeon, 
which latter they frequently very much resem¬ 
ble, many of them having quite respectable 
frills and gullets. They are not quite so wild 
as the true sorts, but inherit much of their ex¬ 
cellent homing properties, and I have been in¬ 
formed of squeakers doing London and Dover 
without training. This variety are very small, 
and in addition to the occasional frill and gullet, 
have very short beaks ; their color is generally 
blue or mealy, sometimes chequered. Not 
being quite so intractable as the long-beaked 
ones, they may, with due care and a little pa¬ 
tience, be settled in a new abode, at any rate, 
they will breed in a fresh loft, consequently are 
much better known in England. 
A cross-breed between the short-faced Ant¬ 
werp and the dragoon pigeon, however, is the 
kind mostly used for carrying communications 
in England, and is considered more certain for 
short distances. The thorough-bred Antwerps, 
it is alleged, frequently overfly themselves in a 
ten or twelve miles’ match; these half-bred 
birds are considerable stouter than the Ant¬ 
werps, have rather thick, but not very long 
beaks, and but little wattle. They are the same 
colors as the short-faced Antwerps, excellent 
breeders, and becoming very common. 
A great variety of mongrels and crosses are 
brought from Belgium under the title of Ant¬ 
werps, many of which are the ugliest, most 
runtish-iooking birds imaginable; some of them, 
it is true, have a good deal of Antwerp blood 
in them, and will perform long journeys, but 
such are, by no means, desirable.— B. P. B., in 
Poultry Chronicle. 
MEXICAN GUANO-NEW DISCOVERIES. 
It appears that the Government of Mexico 
have recently granted for ten years to Senor 
Jose 0. Forns and others, representing a body 
to be called the Mexican Guano Company, an 
exclusive privilege for the exportation of guano 
from all the coasts and islands belonging to that 
country, with the exception of three islands in 
the Pacific known under the name of the Marias. 
Circulars have accordingly been issued, notifying 
the conditions on which it may be obtained, the 
professed object of the proprietors being to leave 
the trade as open as possible consistently with 
their own claims for remuneration. The quality 
of the guano existing on the Atlantic side of the 
coast has been more thoroughly examined than 
that on the other, owing to several cargoes hav¬ 
ing already been taken thence to the United 
States, as well as a few to Liverpool, and is 
stated to be entirely distinct from the Peruvian 
descriptions, its richness consisting in 60 per 
cent, of phosphate of lime. That which exists 
on the islands and promontories of the Pacific 
coast and in the Gulf of California is described 
as of a more varied character, some parts 
which are rainless being expected to supply 
high qualities, while in others the descriptions 
are inferior. Thus far, however, there seem to 
be no accurate classification of the respective 
sorts, nor any reliable estimates as to the quan¬ 
tities obtainable. The discovery of these de¬ 
posits as regards the Atlantic portion is only of 
recent date. The islands containing the princi¬ 
pal amount are called the Triangles, near the 
coast of Yucatan ; and no knowledge of the cir¬ 
cumstance seemed to have been possessed by the 
Mexican Government until very lately, when, 
after two American vessels had filled there, one 
of them, with more than 200 tons on board, 
was stranded in a storm on a neighboring point, 
and the matter was brought to light.— London 
Times. 
The Culture of Silk in Virginia. —Mons. 
Borra, the Republican states, is now in Danville, 
Virginia, for the purpose of purchasing a tract 
of land in that vicinity for the cultivation of 
mulberry and the manufacture of silk. This 
business was conducted once near that place on 
a very large scale, but from the bad manage¬ 
ment proved a failure. 
■-CO •- 
LARGE OAKS. 
About four miles south of Savannah, on the 
road leading to Costin’s Bluff, is a live oak, the 
branches of which cover a space 102J feet in 
diameter. The trunk is over 7 feet in diameter. 
In the new cemetery at Charleston is a live 
oak, formerly of still larger dimensions. The 
main branch on one side is broken off close 
to the trunk, probably by lightning. The frac¬ 
ture has been covered with tarred canvas, and 
the other half of the tree is in full verdure. 
The main branch of the remaining half extends 
54-J- feet from the trunk, which, allowing 6 feet 
for the diameter of the trunk, would give a 
diameter of 115 feet covered by the branches. 
These are the largest oaks we have any know¬ 
ledge of, in the space covered by their branches. 
As to their age, they were probably as large at 
the first settlement of the country, as they are 
now. They are noble, venerable, and magnifi¬ 
cent trees. 
The colossal pines of California exceed all 
others in height, and in the magnitude of their 
trunks, but not in the extent of their branches.— 
Traveler, in Journal of Commerce. 
The above are large trees, but they can be 
nearly matched by White Oaks now standing 
on the farm of the late Effingham Lawrence, 
of Bay Side, in the town of Flushing, Long 
Island. One of these according to our own 
measure with a tape line, has a spread of branch 
of 115 feet, others 100 feet or more; while the 
trunks several feet above the ground, measure 
from four to five feet in diameter. 
- 9 © •-- 
CiiEAr Produce in California. —A corres¬ 
pondent of the Journal of Commerce says 
under date of San Francisco, June 16th, that 
flour holders will not be able to get prices up 
now. Wheat will be coming in soon, and there 
is as much or more being raised here as will 
supply us with flour. One trouble here is, the 
land is too productive. Things grow so easy 
that they raise too much. You can get potatoes 
for nothing. In many parts of the country they 
are shoving them out of the bags, to save bags, 
leaving the potatoes to rot. I will give you an 
account of the sale of a lot for the benefit of 
the creditors of a man failing. There were 
sixty tons loose, which sold for six cents the ton. 
There were 200 bags of potatoes in the lot. 
They sold for ten cents the bag, each about 12 
bushels. These bags cost about fifteen cents 
each. So you see the bags were depreciated in 
value by having the potatoes in. After paying 
expenses, the creditors had twelve dollars and 
a half for the sixty tons and two hundred bags. 
Feeding Poultry. — Professor Gregory, of 
Aberdeen, in a letter to a friend, observes:— 
“As I suppose you keep poultry, I may tell you 
that it has been ascertained that if you mix 
with their food a sufficient quantity of eggshells 
or chalk, which they eat greedily, they will lay 
twice or thrice as many eggs as before. A well- 
fed fowl is disposed to lay a large number of 
eggs, but cannot do so without the materials of 
the shells, however nourishing in other respects 
her food may be; indeed, a fowl fed on food and 
water, free from carbonate of lime, and not find¬ 
ing any in the soil, or in the shape of mortar, 
which they often eat on the walls, would lay no 
eggs at all with the best will in the world.” 
A Fact for the Rearers of Poultry. —Mr. 
Purse, steward to S. Capon, Esq., Framlingham, 
had some few weeks back a cock turkey, or, as 
they are called in Suffolk, a gobble-cock, deter¬ 
mined to sit upon some eggs which were left in 
a nest. The steward, by way of experiment, 
placed under him 25 ducks’ eggs, which so de¬ 
lighted him that for several days he refused to 
come off after his food. After sitting 29 days 
he hatched out 20 ducks. A hen and a duck 
hatched out at the same time 30 between them. 
As the gobble’s services were now required in 
another direction, it was thought advisable to 
commit his young family, together with those of 
the hen, to the care of the duck. They are 
now all alive, 3 weeks old, 50 in number, march¬ 
ing about with the old duck. 
- ♦©-•— - 
Large Field of Corn. —On the west side of 
the Scioto, just below Columbus, there is a field 
of six hundred acres of bottom-land planted in 
corn. Fifteen shovel plows and three cultiva¬ 
tors, worked by eighteen men and twenty five 
horses, are kept in constant requisition; and 
the result is, that scarcely a weed can be seen 
in the well plowed furrows. Twenty-five Ger¬ 
man girls follow the plows, and do the hoeing, 
for which they received 624 cents per day. The 
Journal says this corn is the tallest in the neigh¬ 
borhood. On our prairies it takes a locomotive 
in some places, nearly three hours to pass 
through a continuous corn-field. And all the 
labor that is required to cultivate it is in the 
planting and picking of the crop. — Chicago 
Journal. 
IMPORTED STOCK IN WISCONSIN. 
The steamer Michigan, which arrived here 
last Monday morning, bringing a heavy load, 
landed on our dock the superb stock which 
Capt. McKinnon, with an enterprise and public 
spirit worthy of all praise, has just imported from 
England and introduced into Northern Wiscon¬ 
sin. The “ King of Cymry,” is a horse cele¬ 
brated all over Europe as one of the noblest 
specimens of that useful animal ever exhibited, 
combining as he does, all those qualities of 
strength, beauty, speed, endurance, and size, 
which are so desirable. When he was only a 
yearling, he was sold for five hundred guineas, 
and was purchased by his present owner at an 
expense of $5,000. Though much jaded by a 
passage across the sea, and bruised on the rail¬ 
road cars, a mere glance at his perfect propor¬ 
tions was enough to satisfy good judges that he 
is all he has been represented to be. He stands 
full 16 hands high, is a beautiful rich bay, with 
black legs, good substance, fine racing powers, 
and sound constitution and action. From the 
superior blood, combined with his fine shape, 
great beauty, and the superior racing qualities 
he possesses, he cannot fail in getting race 
horses, valuable hunters, trotters, and good 
harness horses. 
The other stock consisted of a Durham bull, 
a dozen different heads of sheep of the most im¬ 
proved and best varieties, and various kinds of 
English and China fowls. 
We are glad to see that our farmers take suf¬ 
ficient interest in the improvement of their stock, 
to render these importations on the part of 
Capt. McKinnon a matter of general approba¬ 
tion. We now have a race of horses which al¬ 
ready have obtained considerable celebrity 
abroad for speed and endurance; and in a few 
years we shall be able to show specimens that 
will not be surpassed by those of any other 
portion of our country.— Green Bay Advocate. 
-- 
Soda Fountains Poisonous. —Dr. Doremus, a 
chemist, is startling the New-Yorkers with some 
new dangers to their health. He analyses the 
soda water gathered from a large number of 
fountains, and finds copper or lead, or both, in 
specimens taken from some of the largest dealers, 
at this season, in the article. The result of his 
investigations he publishes in the American 
Medical Monthly for July. 
