AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
THE POULTRY-YARD. 
On the principle that prevention is better 
than cure (and generally not only better, but 
much easier), this is the best time to wage 
war against those pests of the poultry-yard 
of the insect tribe, which, if allowed to get 
the upper hand, will interfere with all its 
arrangements, disturb the sitters on their 
nests, make fidgety, bad mothers of hens 
which would otherwise prove good ones, 
and finally occasion even the death of many 
chickens. Choose the earliest warm, sunny 
day, to thoroughly cleanse and lime-wash 
the hen-house. Let only one be done each 
day; as it should be done quite early, to al¬ 
low plenty of time for it to get dry. Wash, 
clean, and, if necessary, repair the floors. 
If it is not thought desirable to go to the ex¬ 
pense of new gravelling, the runs, those 
which have been firmly laid down in the first 
place, may have the surface pared and re¬ 
moved, which will leave it clean and pure. 
Especial care must be taken to keep the 
nests well washed and cleaned, and if the 
dust baths are supplied with fresh dust— 
wood ashes if they are to be had—the fowls 
will clean their feathers, and save much 
trouble and disappointment later in the sea¬ 
son, for there are few things more injurious 
to poultry, than being infested with vermin. 
When the hen-houses are set to rights, the 
rats should be looked to, caught if possible, 
and their holes stopped to prevent their dep¬ 
redations among chickens and ducklings. 
It is best to get through the business of 
setting the hens as soon as practicable; it 
should not be delayed beyond this month and 
the next; late chickens generally prove very 
unsatisfactory, but some of the finest we 
have known have been hatched in April, and 
even in May. 
When the lien hatches, leave her pretty 
much to herself: interference vexes her, and 
seldom does good. When the hatching has 
gone on some time, if the hen gets fidgety 
upon the eggs which are ascertained to be 
good, from care of the chicks, they may be 
taken from her, fed and kept warm ; but un¬ 
less she slights the eggs, it is best to leave 
her her chickens. Place a cup of crushed 
barley, with a little round oatmeal, in the 
corner of the nest, and some water in a shal¬ 
low pan, and she will know when to invite 
her young ones to their first repast. When 
the hatching is over, and the chickens dry 
and brisk, they may be removed into a clean 
nest, warmed, to avoid the insects which 
may possibly infest the sitting nest. When 
the chickens run about the nest, the hen may 
be put down under a coop, and the little ones 
fed on a good change of food ; hard-boiled 
egg and bread crumbs, crushed barley, pearl 
barley boiled, barley-meal, and other things 
which have been recommended by good 
judges. We do not like either groats or rice, 
nor have we found any advantage in the use 
of oatmeal worth its additional cost. It is 
best to put the hen in a wooden coop, which 
will shelter her and her chickens in case of 
a shower, and on wet days keep them in al¬ 
together. 
Ducklings must be kept from the water, 
and from getting wet. If a jar is given them 
to drink out of, with straight sides, they will 
drink and wash their breasts, but cannot get 
wet to injure themselves. The old duck 
may have a pan or tub with high, straight 
sides, so that the ducklings cannot get into 
it, which can be given to her once or twice a 
day, and then taken away. This care to 
have the ducklings kept dry, penning the 
duck on a dry spot, and having her constantly 
supplied with her limited quantum of water, 
has been found very successful in rearing 
ducks without any deaths. They will eat 
almost incessantly, and grow very fast. It 
is necessary to feed them very often, as they 
are greedy, dirty little fellows, and leave 
what they do leave, very dirty. They will 
eat barley-meal porridge, crushed-barley, 
and after a few days, oats. 
Summary. —Whitewash the house. Pare 
or new gravel the runs. Give the fowls 
the opportunity to clean their feathers. Con¬ 
tinue to set the hens. Take care of young 
chickens, and keep the ducklings from get¬ 
ting very wet.—Poultry Chronicle. 
POTATOES. 
The crop of potatoes in Massachusetts, 
and probably in New-England generally, was 
uncommonly fine last year, and altogether 
the most profitable crop raised. Of the 
Black Chenangoes, which I have raised for 
more than ten years past, without any rot in 
a single case, I last year obtained 320 bush¬ 
els to the acre. They are now worth at my 
door 65 cts. per bushel—320 at $G5=$208,30. 
This on land just broken up, and with a mod¬ 
erate quantity of stable manure, say 25 cart¬ 
loads to an acre, plowed in, gives a nett profit 
greater by far than any I know of in ordi¬ 
nary agriculture. 
Of the Jenny Lind potatoes, of which kind 
I planted only 8 square rods, I raised 24 
bushels, or at the rate of 480 bushels to the 
acre—worth now 62£ cts. per bushel, equal 
to $300 to the acre. 
This last is a huge, coarse potatoe, but 
well worth raising, owing to its wonderful 
productiveness ; they are used for table pur¬ 
poses by many, being generally a little 
cheaper than other kinds, and pretty good 
eating late in the season. The Black Che¬ 
nangoes seem to improve every succeeding 
year, and are now in this neighborhood es¬ 
teemed one of the best kind for cooking, and 
owing to the fact that they never suffer from 
rot, are more cultivated, I think, than 
any other kind.— Hon. Amasa Walker, in 
New-England Farmer. 
North Brookfield, March, 1855 
WHY DON'T HE DO IT ? 
When a farmer knows that a gate is bet¬ 
ter, and, as a time-and-labor-saving fixture, 
cheaper than a set of bars and posts, and 
without calling on a carpenter, he can him¬ 
self make one, Why don’t lie do it 1 
When he has no other fastenings to his 
gates and barn doors than a stone rolled 
against them, and in a single evening, after 
supper, is able to make a better one, Why 
don't he do it ? 
Or when he sees the boards dropping from 
his barns and out-buildings, and like heaps 
of rubbish lying in piles about the premises, 
and need nailing on again, Why don't he do it ? 
Or if he is afraid of the expense of nails, 
and is always crying up the maxim of Dr. 
Franklin, to “ save the pence, and the pounds 
will take care of themselves,” and he knows 
that the same Dr. Franklin also said, that 
“ many men are penny wise and pound fool¬ 
ish,” and he is not careful to think of the 
precept contained in the latter, Why don't he 
do it 1 
If it is a saving of nearly half the manure 
of a farmer’s stock, by keeping them shut up 
in yards, instead of running at large through 
most of the winter, Why don't he do it! 
If he knows that many of his fields would 
be greatly improved by ditching, and by the 
removal of large stumps and stones, Why 
don't he do it 1 
And if he can add fifty per cent to the 
product of his clover fields, and even his 
pasture by the use of gypsum, Why don't he 
do it ? 
If a farmer of fifty acres has (as he should 
have) use for a good corn-sheller, and one of 
the many improved fanning mills, and has 
not already obtained both, Why don'the do it? 
69 
And if it is cheaper, actually cheaper, to 
burn dry wood than green, and to use a 
stove instead of an open fire-place, Why 
don't he do it ? 
WHAT RAILROADS ARE TO DO FOR AGRI¬ 
CULTURE. 
Has it occurred to you what great benefits 
are to accrue from the transportation of seeds 
from north to south, by railroads ? Not only 
is there more excitability and consequent 
greater germinating power in the seeds ri¬ 
pened in a cold climate, but the habit of the 
plant acquired in a colder climate, gives it a 
greater seed-producing and perfecting power 
than if grown in a warmer climate. In the 
cold climate, nature puts forth her powers in 
the production of the seed ; in the warm 
climate she glories in the size of stalk and 
leaf. Maize, that near Montreal can be 
brought to produce 175 bushels the acre, has 
a very small stock and leaf, compared with 
the same plant grown in Georgia, where 
great skill in culture can scarcely bring the 
crop of grain above 50 bushels to the acre. 
In the Northern States and Canada, corn 
may be planted in hills so close that 5,700 
hills to the acre, with three stalks in the 
the hill, producing on an average li ears to 
the stalk, with entire success; while in 
Georgia the production on land of the same 
quality will be about 2,500 ears to the acre, 
taking from 2,500 plants, standing singly in 
hills, 5 feet by four apart. While the grain 
in the Northern field will weigh from three 
to four times as much as that in the South¬ 
ern, the plant, without the grain, in Georgia, 
will probably weigh much heavier than in 
Vermont. The crop of maize in the United 
States averages over six hundred million 
bushels. If the seed should be procured 
from three degrees of latitude north of the 
place of planting, and planted in hills or 
drills at a distance adapted to the habits of 
the plant in its Northern clime, allowing for 
a moderate change of habit for the first year, 
the crop would probably be greater by one 
hundred millions of bushels. The average 
crop of wheat is now about 130 millions. 
Northern seed would enlarge it 20 millions. 
Oats are grown to the amount of 160 mil¬ 
lions of bushels. This might be increased 
some 25 millions in the same way. And so 
of the other grains and most of the root 
crops. What a vast result from so cheap 
and feasible a resort! Some two hundred 
millions of dollars the people of this nation 
might add to the value of their food crops, 
by an expenditure of a very few millions for 
the best seed, and this merely transferred 
from the pockets of one set of farmers into 
those of another, and used in aid of the rail¬ 
road interest, by its transportation.— Ameri¬ 
can Railroad Times. 
Lambing Season.—A t this period it may 
not be useless to direct the attention of 
flock-masters to the simple means by which 
the evil effects resulting from unusually 
-hard or protracted labor may be in many in¬ 
stances averted. In all cases where much 
“ handling ” has been required during partu¬ 
rition, where “ draining ” supervenes, or in 
cases of abortion, the administration of the 
following dose has been found very benefi¬ 
cial : Two, ounces of Epsom salts, 2 
drachms, of ginger, and 2 drachms of lauda¬ 
num. Should inflammation ensue, resort 
may be had to bleeding; but as a rule such 
patients require all the stregih which Nature 
furnishes. Unless the unfavorable symp¬ 
toms disappear in the course of 24 hour3, 
repeat the dose. It is from experience that 
I recommend this mode of treatment, as I 
feel fully assured that in the two past lamb¬ 
ing seasons it has been—in connection with 
