AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
19 
marketable value. Numberless others might 
be saved from disease and prostration by a 
moderate supply of this healthful esculent. 
Necessity of Raising more Carrots for Mar¬ 
ket. —The general merits or use of carrots is 
little understood as yet in America. Hence 
they are seldom raised for use beyond the 
farm where grown. We have tried in vain 
to procure them for our own use this season, 
without paying an exorbitant price for them. 
Quantity Produced per Acre. —An ordina¬ 
ry crop of carrots may be placed at 300 to 
400 bushels per acre, but 1,000 bushels or 
more have been raised under peculiarly fa¬ 
vorable circumstances. Arthur Young, as 
long ago as 1790, stated the average yield in 
Suffolk County, England, at 350 bushels, 
while Mr. Burrows’ crops averaged upwards 
of 800 bushels , weighing 42 pounds per bush¬ 
el, or fifteen tuns gross (33,600 pounds) per 
acre. We doubt if there would be much com¬ 
plaint about hard times, or want of landed 
property returning a good interest for the 
investment, if our farmers generally imitated 
these examples. 
The Cost of Raising must depend on a va¬ 
riety of circumstances, such as value of 
land, cost and facility of procuring manures, 
price of labor, &c. ; but we believe the value 
of the crop in the locality where grown, will 
always afford an ample advance on the cost 
of production, as they are usually most val¬ 
uable where lands and manure are dearest. 
We doubt if this cost can in any case exceed 
about sixteen cents per bushel, and in many 
instances they may be raised for ten or 
twelve. If their value were generally un¬ 
derstood as food for horses, thousands of 
bushels might be daily sold in the New-York 
markets, for fifty cents per bushel, thus 
leaving an ample margin for conveyance to 
market and profit to the farmer. We hope 
to see these views carried out in the vastly 
multiplied production and consumption of 
this invaluable root. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
SELECTION OF BREEDING ANIMALS. 
Allow me, through the columns of your 
journal, to draw the attention of farmers 
more to the selection of the male animals, 
which they breed from. Let them not be 
satisfied with a bull because he is handy by, 
or because nothing is asked for his services. 
Better drive the cow two or three miles, and 
pay the price asked for a thoroughbred or a 
high bred grade. The calf, if sold to the 
butcher, will fully pay the difference ; if al¬ 
lowed to grow up, will do much more. I 
could but remark a day or two since, when 
looking at a couple of pigs of the same breed, 
the difference between American and English 
farmers. The sire and dam of one of the 
pigs were imported. The ancestors of the 
other one were also brought from England, 
and at the time were probably as good as 
any there. The first pig was a fine-boned, 
short-legged, small-nose, well-turned animal; 
while the other was much coarser every 
way; a good representation of her great 
grand parents, no better at any rate. A per¬ 
son not acquainted with the breed would not 
think them the same. The American had 
been satisfied with her ancestors, as they 
were when they came into his possession, 
being perfectly contented if the pigs were 
only as good as their mother. The English¬ 
man kept trying to improve upon them, 
and did so until now he has succeeded in 
breeding an almost perfect animal. 
There is scarcely a breeder of improved 
stock in this country, who can show animals 
of his own breeding, superior to those he 
first started with. Many of them will be 
found not even equal. 
The farmer will find it very much to his 
advantage to be very careful in selecting the 
male. Many a penny may be so made, and 
much pleasure afforded in seeing in place of 
his present long-legged, half-starved, raw- 
boned stock, easy keepers, good milkers, and 
well-shaped cows. ' 
The breeders’ attention may be called to 
the foregoing remarks with equal advantage. 
In selecting the male let him not be governed 
by price ; better pay for a really good ani¬ 
mal five times the sum asked for an indiffer¬ 
ent one. He will find this to be the rule, 
whether he regard it with an eye to the 
money, or with the desire to improve his 
stock. If in the latter way, no one will deny 
it; if in the former, experience will teach 
him, that with most people it is the good 
points of the father, more than those of the 
mother that sells their progeny. S**. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
A POULTRY-RAISER’S EXPERIENCE. 
In No. 24, Vol. 13, you solicit information 
respecting the successful management ol 
fowls As I was somewhat successful in 
the business, and the way or reason why 1 
began being rather amusing, I have thought 
proper to first give you a short history of it 
as well as of how I subsequently managed 
them, with the results, &c. 
In the year 1837, I lived high up on the 
eastern bank of the Kennebec river, away 
down in Maine, and, although the country is 
a cold one, I really took the hen-fever (as 
breeding hens is now called), in the following 
manner, and some time after it raged in 
Massachusetts too, which makes it at first 
appear strange : At that time my business 
was supplying my neighbors and so many 
others as I could, with any and every variety 
of dry goods and groceries. As credit was 
the custom of that place, I had to charge 
first, and then collect after as best I could, 
which was generally by taking what I called 
dunning excursions among my customers. 
Having spent the entire day without success 
upon one of these occasions, I felt some¬ 
what wolf or waspish, as I called on my last 
customer for the amount due me. The ap¬ 
pearances about were such as not to give 
me hope of the least success, but I had 
made up my mind to have something, for I 
felt almost desperate, and, to add to my bad 
feelings, or to take all the hope out of me, 
my customer’s wife, with a shrill nasal voice 
that would have done credit to any vixen, 
anticipated my business, and commenced : 
“ Yer needen’t to come here for nothing, for 
we’ve got nothing for yer but the old hen 
and her two chicks, there, (pointing them 
out) and yer’ll have to ketch um first; but I 
guess yer can’t, for the foxes have tried a 
heap o’times, and there she is yet, good as 
ever, so we’re safe this time from yer duns.” 
“How much for the lot V’ said I. “ O ! I al¬ 
ters gets a quarter dollar a piece for my hens, 
and the chicks are as good as the old ’un, 
and that’s seventy-five cents for the lot, if 
yer in’arnest.” “Well,” said I, “ you will, 
of course, help catch them!” “Not a bit 
on’it, if yer catch them all yer may have 
them, but it’s all yer’ll get, anyhow.” From 
this time I had the hen-fever, for I am cer¬ 
tain that I cut some curious geometrical fig¬ 
ures in my efforts to catch the old hen. She 
flew well, but run better, and, moreover, was 
blessed with excellent respiratory organs, so 
much so, that I had well nigh given up the 
chase, though I had held out to go around 
the house and hovel several times, and 
through the latter more, as well as through 
the potatoes, corn, and several other fields; 
not a foot of ground within 100 yards but 
that I had crossed, fences and stones with¬ 
out number were also crossed in every pos¬ 
sible way, until, at last, the old hen dodged 
into a rock heap, and was soon bagged with 
the two others. My fever was by this time 
very high, for within a very short period I 
had resolved to go into the business of breed¬ 
ing fowls, as these proved to be so good 
to lay. 
Two years from that time I was settled in 
Massachusetts, with one hundred and fifty 
hens to look after, instead of debtor custom¬ 
ers ; nor have I ever regretted the change or 
the hen race either. My flock consisted of 
peas, guineas, turkeys, doves, every variety 
of Polands or top-knots, creepers, all varie¬ 
ties and colors of common barn fowls, not 
excepting the rumpless and frizzled fowls, 
as well as the Dorkings, Games, Bantams 
and Malays. 
A few were good, but more than four- 
fifths were worthless as layers. The guinea 
fowls that I had were shy layers, and con¬ 
tinually at war with the turkeys, which were 
weakly and unprofitable enough at best. 
The pea fowls were of no profit, and cow¬ 
ardly except when they could catch a small 
chicken alone, and then they were sure to 
shake the life out of it. I soon found that 
early chickens would bring as much or more, 
when the size of robins, than late ones would 
when full-grown, so that with early chickens, 
squabs, and eggs, I did a very good business. 
I allowed my hens to mix, and thus got 
some mongrels that were belter layers than 
the pure breed of either variety, and by se¬ 
lecting the best shaped and quickest grow¬ 
ers, having as many other good qualities as 
possible, 1 got a stock of nice fowls. They 
were large, plump, brightly-colored, with 
yellow legs, which in the Boston market 
was indispensible for the highest price. The 
pea and guinea fowls, with turkeys, to me 
were not profitable, and so I gave them up, 
keeping hens and doves only. 
As every fancier thinks his own stock 
best, it was natural that I should think mine 
best. None were at that time kept by me 
except such as would lay nearly two hun¬ 
dred and fifty eggs per year, and raise one 
brood of chickens ; their weight alive had to 
be four pounds or upwards. Such hens, well 
kept, will nett five dollars a piece per year 
for their eg;gs, provided the owner has a gar¬ 
den to cultivate, the manure of the hens, and 
the insects they will destroy, when allowed 
a proper range, will well pay for their feed, 
thus leaving the eggs clear' profit, and the 
chickens to pay for the house-room : while 
the pleasure derived from the business ought 
to be a sufficient compensation for one’s 
time. 
As to the diseases of hens I know but 
little. My chickens once had the gapes, I 
suppose, as it is called, for they were con¬ 
tinually opening their mouths, and a few 
died. My hens once caught the croup, or 
something like it, and a few of them died ; a 
few doses of cayenne pepper, however, stop¬ 
ped the progress of both diseases ; and ever 
after, when there appeared any symptoms of 
disease among my hens, I fed them for two 
