44 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
no mistake about the profit of high manuring. 
The above is only one of ten thousand demon¬ 
strations.—E d.] 
Truthful Hints by “Ik Marvel.’ 
The following specimens of shrewd obser¬ 
vation by Donald G. Mitchell, alias, Ik Marvel, 
we find in that grave Qauarterly, the New Eng¬ 
lander. They are extracted from an article en¬ 
titled “ Hints about Farming,” which contains 
many brilliant, pithy, as well as suggestive hints. 
The shrewd, hard-working farmer who is re¬ 
ally malting money at his business, seldom says 
much about the profitableness of farming. “ He 
loves to croak rather; he counts his business a 
hard one; he affects a tone of discouragement.” 
.... “ The hens that lay golden eggs never cackle; 
at least we never heard them.” It is the retired 
citizen, the amateur farmer, who is so sanguine 
about profits. “ He loves to tell you, in a con¬ 
fidential way, what his last year’s sales of but¬ 
ter amounted to, and how many tuns of good 
English hay his reclaimed meadow will carry to 
the acre. He somehow seems to entertain the 
belief that every looker-on thinks he is spending 
a great deal of money, with very little return; 
and he is nervously anxious to talk down any 
such fallacy. Expenses are large, certainly; 
but a great many of them go to investment, he 
tells us. Digging rocks is heavy business, to be 
sure; but once out of the way, and the Michi¬ 
gan plow will not have its nose broken again. 
Trenching, too, is a thing of very saucy cost— 
particularly where the soil is underlaid with 
hard-pan or bolders; but then—what vegetables 
will come of it !”• It is not to be denied that 
“For a man who is thoroughly in earnest, 
farming offers a grand field for effort; but the 
man who is only half in earnest, who thinks 
that costly barns, and imported stock, and 
smooth fences, and a* nicely rolled lawn are the 
great objects of attainment, may accomplish 
pretty results, but they will be small ones. So 
the dilettante farmer, who has a smattering of 
science, whose head is filled with nostrums, who 
thinks his salts will do it all; who doses a crop 
now to feebleness, and now to an unnatural ex¬ 
uberance ; who dawdles over his fermentations 
while the neighbor’s oxen are breaking into his 
rye-field; who has no managing capacity, no 
breadth of vision, who sends two men to accom¬ 
plish the work of one—let such a man give up 
all hope of making farming a lucrative pursuit.” 
-«•—a-- - 
For the American Agriculturist . 
Stop the Rats. 
Look at their destructive work in the crib, in 
the cellar, in the garret, and every where. There 
is a barrel of potatoes with a dozen of the top 
ones half eaten, and unsavory moisture coming 
up from the rest, that is not suggestive of clean¬ 
liness. They have disemboweled the squashes, 
making a clean sweep of every seed. Here are 
pecks of carrot chips, where the scoundrels have 
held their nightly revels. There, they have in¬ 
vaded the grain bins, and scattered the corn, 
oats, and wheat around promiscuously. Noth¬ 
ing is safe from their depredations. It is esti¬ 
mated that these pests cost the nation ten mil¬ 
lions of dollars! 
Think of that, readers of the Agriculturist! 
It only shows the carelessness of the produ¬ 
cing class, that such an enormous tax upon their 
industry is submitted to. For a less sum, we 
made war upon Great Britain. Shall we not 
make war upon these enemies ? They usually 
make their attack at the foundation of a build¬ 
ing ; by rendering this impervious to them, our 
possessions are saved. Cribs are made secure by 
placing their corners upon posts three-feet long, 
topped with large flat stones. Dwellings and 
root rooms in barns are made rat proof by ce¬ 
menting the bottoms and walls. Cement is now 
about as cheap as lime, and every farmer that 
can afford a house, can have the cellar cement¬ 
ed. Connecticut. 
[That’s all very well, Mr. Connecticut, but 
what are you going to do when they insist upon 
staying in your hay lofts, and in the chambers 
of the house, in spite of your cemented walls, 
your traps, and even your cats. We can find 
no remedy short of poison, and every one who 
has tried this, knows what it is to have de¬ 
caying rats in or around the house. There is no 
mistake that rats are a great bore, and an effec¬ 
tual, neat way of getting rid of the pests, is yet 
desired.— Ed.] 
•-- ' —-- 
For the A mencan Agriculturist. 
Familiar and Useful Rotes about 
Common Birds.... III. 
the earn owl (Stnx jta.mm.ea .)— the farmer’s friend. 
This bird may be regarded as the typical ex¬ 
ample of the Owl family. It exhibits in perfec¬ 
tion, many peculiarities of their form and struc¬ 
ture, such as the thick plumage, the large eye, 
with the discs surrounding it, and the feathered 
legs. It is distributed over a wide extent of 
country, throughout the sea-board districts. Its 
northern limit appears to be near the 44tli par¬ 
allel of latitude; thence it is found along the 
coast of both Oceans, as far south as Brazil. 
This species is not common in New-England, or 
the Western States, but south of Pennsylvania, 
is the most abundant of the family. There is an 
owl, widely distributed over the Eastern Con¬ 
tinent, abundant in England, France, Germany, 
Russia, and the Scandinavian Peninsula, known 
by the same name, which some Naturalists have, 
with hesitation, treated as a different species, but 
in shape and habits it appears to be identical 
with oui own. In color and size they do not 
differ more than other species upon different 
sides of the Atlantic, which are admitted to be 
identical—not so much, indeed, as the Barn Owl 
of Cuba does from that of California. For our 
purposes the European and American Barn Owl 
may be treated as varieties only of a single 
species, although slight specific differences prob¬ 
ably do exist between them. 
The total length of the female is about sixteen 
inches; the male, as is usually the case with pre¬ 
datory birds, is somewhat less. It is without ear 
tufts; its legs are long and feathered to the toes. 
Specimens from different parts of North Ameri¬ 
ca exhibit different shades of color, especially 
in the under parts. In the common type, these 
are a pale fawn or buff color, interspersed with 
small spots of black. The upper parts have a 
groundwork of tawny yellow, but nearly every 
feather has a small black spot near the end, suc¬ 
ceeded by another spot which is white. The 
facial discs, or rings of feathers surrounding the 
eyes, are nearly white. 
It is probable that the Barn Owl is the most 
efficient exterminator known, of the smaller an¬ 
imals, such as mice, moles, ground squirrels, etc., 
which are so annoying that they are classed un¬ 
der the common name of vermin. 
It is nocturnal in its habits, being rarely seen 
before the evening twilight. During the day it 
is so imbecile as to permit itself to be insulted 
at will by the puniest aggressor, and if disturbed, 
it flies in an irregular, shambling manner, as if 
bewildered by the light. It is rarely found in 
the recesses of the woods, but seems rather to 
prefer the vicinity of human habitations and farm 
yards, or fields grown up to small brush, de¬ 
cayed hollow trees, and above all, deserted build¬ 
ings. In such localities it is certain of an abund¬ 
ance of its favorite food. In some obscure nook, 
or recess, it remains from sunrise to sunset, in 
nearly an erect posture, with retracted neck, and 
closed eyelids, dozing away the hours in which, 
from the structure of its eyes, it is unable to ap¬ 
proach its prey, awaiting the return of twilight. 
If approached in this state it does not fly off, but 
hisses like an angry cat, and clicks its bill at the 
intruder. If forced to leave its position it seeks 
the nearest place of shelter from its enemies. 
In the evening dusk, however, it assumes a far 
different appearance. It then starts from its re- 
pess for some field or farm-yard where the mice 
or smaller animals are plenty, and with noise¬ 
less, firm, and protracted flight, explores the 
ground with the regularity of a highly trained 
pointer, sailing along the fences, over the val¬ 
leys, watching every movement of a grass blade, 
and catching with sensitive ear every sound that 
issues from behind it. All its feathers termi¬ 
nate in fine downy margins, exposing no rough 
surfaces to the air, so that its flight is as noise¬ 
less as a shadow. Its vision is so acute and its 
motions so active, that the animal of which it is 
in search, rarely escapes if once exposed to view. 
It is able by a process of regurgitation, to 
eject from its stomach all the indigestible por¬ 
tions of its food, such as fur, bones and feathers. 
These are thrown out in the form of rounded 
pellets, which are always found in abundance 
near its nest, and give to its vicinity an odor 
pleasant enough, perhaps, to the owl, but far 
otherwise to the observer. 
The quantity of food which it consumes is 
most extraordinary. Mr. Waterton, an eminent 
British ornithologist, whose opportunities for 
observing its habits in this respect were excel¬ 
lent, as he several times domesticated it, says, 
that when it has young, it will bring a mouse or 
similar animal to its nest as often as once in 
twelve minutes. But in order to have a proper 
idea of the quantity of mice it destroys, it is 
necessary to examine the pellets which it ejects 
from its stomach in the place of its retreat. 
Every pellet which Mr. Waterton examined, he 
found to contain from four to seven skeletons of 
mice. In one instance, where it nested in an 
old gateway, he caused the vicinity of the nest 
to be thoroughly cleansed, and upon an exami. 
