AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
41 
We should probably get some eggs with¬ 
out further effort, but to make success cer¬ 
tain we give fish, two or three times a week. 
A small fish, caught in all our salt-water 
creeks and ditches, called the mummychaug, 
makes excellent feed for fowls. Fish offal 
from the market, or butcher’s offal, would 
probably answer as well. Beginning the 
fowl season November 1st, with a flock of 
pullets hatched the preceding April, we have 
eggs, constantly and in abundance, through 
the coldest weather. The quantity increas¬ 
es after February, and in the three following 
months it rains eggs on our hill, and the 
thunder of Shanghai eloquence wakes the 
echoes of every morning hour. 
We keep, in their purity, White Dorkings, 
Buff Shanghais, and Chittagongs. The Asi¬ 
atic fowls are the only reliable winter layers, 
and make early chickens for broiling, better 
than any variety we have tried. The cross 
of the Dorking with the Shanghai makes a 
very plump, fine-fleshed fowl for the table ; 
and they are not bad layers. The Buff Dork¬ 
ing, made by this cross, is a very handsome, 
sprightly bird. With a stock of forty or fifty 
fowls we raise all the eggs and chickens 
used in a large family, and from a debit and 
credit kept for several years, it appears that 
each fowl pays about a dollar clear profit. 
No other investment on the premises pays 
so well. 
Harrowing Grain. —W T e have often found 
great benefit in harrowing winter grain in the 
spring of the year, as soon as the ground is 
well settled and dry, more especially wheat 
somewhat winter killed. It stirs the earth, 
encourages tillering, and adds to the vigor of 
the growth of the plant. The harrow should 
be followed by the roller, so as to replace 
the roots of the plants which may be laid 
bare by the harrow, and crowd them'into the 
earth. It is hardly necessary to add, that 
the harrow should be light, with short, fine 
teeth. Among the German population of 
this country, we have seen wooden-tooth 
harrows frequently made use of for this 
purpose; they asserting, that the teeth were 
not so liable to injure the plant. We believe 
that barley, oats, and all spring crops of 
grain may be harrowed to advantage, when¬ 
ever the surface of the ground becomes 
somewhat hard and encrusted, which all clay 
soils are liable to after a hard rain. Har¬ 
rowing the hemp crop under such circum¬ 
stances, we were informed, in Kentucky, 
has been found highly beneficial. 
Ladies Repository.— We have an utter 
aversion to that class of periodicals known 
as “ ladies’ magazines,” filled as they gene¬ 
rally are with light, trashy literature, love- 
stories, &c. It is an insult to the intelli¬ 
gent ladies of our country to present them 
such reading, as being adapted to their tastes 
or necessities. There are, however, excep¬ 
tions to this wholesale denunciation, and 
among these exceptions we would place 
foremost the Ladies’ Repository. We have 
been familiar with it for years, (it is now in 
its XVthvolume,) andean heartily commend 
it as one of the very best magazines for the 
family circle. A high moral and intellectual 
tone characterizes its pure, interesting and 
instructive pages. Each number contains 
two fine original steel engravings, which are 
alone worth the price—$2 a year. Pub¬ 
lished monthly by Messrs. Carleton & Phil¬ 
lips, 200 Mulberry-st., New-York. 
CHEMISTRY 
FOR SMALL AND LARGE BOYS AND GIRLS. 
CHAPTER X. 
Oxygen—Symbol O—Atomic Weight 8. 
81. We have now come to the description 
of one of the most important of all the sim¬ 
ple or elementary bodies, Ox-y-gen. It is 
important, because it is very abundant, con¬ 
stituting, as it does, one half or more of the 
weight of the whole earth. Eight pounds in 
every nine of all the water of the ocean, the 
seas, lakes, rivers, &c., is oxygen. We can 
name but very few substances, mineral, veg¬ 
etable, or animal, of which oxygen does not 
form a considerable portion. Perfectly dry 
common salt is one of the few abundant min¬ 
eral substances, wliice does not contain oxy¬ 
gen. It is owing to the oxygen of the air 
that substances burn or decay. It is this 
element in the air which supports life, and 
keeps up the renovation of our bodies ; and 
this same element is also the cause of their 
speedy decay after death, and of their ema¬ 
ciation during life. 
82. Oxygen was once thought to be the 
cause of all acidity or sourness, because it 
is found abundant in sour substances, such 
as vinegar, sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol), 
nitric acid (aqua fortis), &c., and on this ac¬ 
count it received its name. Oxy means 
sharpness or sourness, and gen the producer 
of; that is, oxy-gen signifies sour-producer. 
You will remember (69) that liydro-gen sig¬ 
nifies water-producer. 
83. Oxygen is distinguished for its strong 
affinity, or liking, for nearly all the other ele¬ 
ments ; and though we find it abundant in 
the air and other gasses, it seldom exists 
alone. When set at liberty during the va¬ 
rious changes in nature, it speedily unites 
with some other element to form a com¬ 
pound body. When not combined with any 
other element it takes a gas form, and is 
then much like air in its physical properties. 
It is, like air and hydrogen (69), transparent 
or colorless. 
84. The oxygen in a jar containing 100 
cubic inches (nearly 2 quarts), weighs about 
34^ grains (34.29), while the same amount of 
air weighs about 31 grains (31.01). Oxygen 
gas is, then, about one-tenth heavier than 
common air. 
85. How to obtain Oxygen. —To obtain hy¬ 
drogen from water (HO), we put in zinc, 
which took away the oxygen and let the 
hydrogen go free ; but we have not been able 
to find any substance which will take away 
the hydrogen and set the oxygen at liberty. 
The reason is, that oxygen has so much 
stronger affinity (or liking) for other sub¬ 
stances than hydrogen has, that it will be 
the first to desert the water compound. The 
most convenient method of getting pure oxy¬ 
gen is, to take some solid substance contain¬ 
ing a large amount of it, and then heat it so 
as to evaporate or drive off a part or the 
whole of its oxygen. There are many sub¬ 
stances of this kind, such as red lead (Pb 3 ,0 4 , 
or Pb,0000), saltpetre (KO,NO s , or KO,- 
NOOOOO), chlorate of potash (KO,C10„ or 
K0,C100000), &c. 
86. If we put some red lead (Pb 3 ,0000) 
on a shovel, and heat it to redness over the 
fire, one atom of oxygen will be driven off 
from every particle of the red lead, and we 
shall have a brown substance left called 
litharge (Pb,000). By placing an inverted 
tumbler over the heating mass of red lead, 
we should catch some of this oxygen gas, 
but it would be mingled with much air. If 
the red lead be put into a gun barrel, or in 
an iron bottle or flask, with a tube at¬ 
tached to the neck, we could then catch the 
oxygen as it escaped in a gas form from the 
tube. A similar change will take place if 
we put upon the shovel or in the iron bottle 
some chlorate of potash (K0,C100000), but 
in this case all the oxygen will be driven off' 
and we shall have left a substance similar to 
common salt, called chloride of potassium 
(KC1); and from each particle of the chlo¬ 
rate of potash we shall get six atoms of oxy¬ 
gen in a pure gas form. 
In the next chapter we will explain a sim¬ 
ple process of getting oxygen for experi¬ 
ment. __ 
THE WHEAT CROP AT THE WEST. 
- • - 
We learn, says the Chicago Tribune, from 
a gentleman who has traveled pretty exten¬ 
sively through the States of the northwest 
during the past six weeks, that the prospect 
of the wheat crop was never better. In 
Iowa, a large quantity has been sown, but 
so great is the emigration to that State, and 
so rapidly did it fill up last season, that a 
large portion of the surplus will be required 
for the new settlers there and in Kansas and 
Nebraska. 
Throughout Illinois, it is represented that 
the crop never looked better. The high pri¬ 
ces of the last few years, and the almost 
certainty that there will be but little abate¬ 
ment during the present year, have stimu¬ 
lated the farmers to sow to an extent beyond 
former precedent. And the same may be 
said of Wisconsin. The prospect there is, 
that the abundant crop of last year will be 
succeeded by one equally as good this. 
We hear good reports, too, from Indiana 
and Michigan. On the whole, if no unto¬ 
ward event interposes between now and 
harvest, the northwest, which is in fact the 
granary of the Union, will turn out a sur¬ 
plus which will gladden the hearts of the 
breadless in our eastern cities. 
There will be comparatively few men en¬ 
gaged in the construction of railroads in the 
west, during the present season, all the great 
lines being nearly completed. This will re¬ 
duce the consumption of non-producers and 
cause a large amount of labor to return to 
agriculture—-thus increasing our supply by 
the operation of two causes. So, we may 
look for an active fall business and a full 
supply of breadstuff's, unless blight, or mil¬ 
dew, or some other destroying agent, shall 
blast the fair prospects of the present. 
