AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
9 
Such is our method of rearing turkeys; and 
the flock, fine, rampant and gobbling, is just as 
sure to come round every autumn, as our grass 
or our grain crop. In this way they have 
never been troublesome to the farm ; but bred, 
helter-skelter, as allowed by too many, without 
care, the mother hens laying abroad in the 
fields and woods, their young are mostly lost 
by vermin and accident; those that survive are 
a continual pest to the farm ; and in the end are 
neither a pleasure nor profit to their owners ; 
while properly bred, they give both pleasure in 
their rearing, and profit in their consumption, 
while they feast the eye with a moving picture 
of luxury and beauty. 
■-• • t- 
THE CORN CROP-THE DROUTH. 
Several very popular—and we will add as a 
general rule—ably-conducted journals in the 
United States, have taken great pains within a 
few weeks past to alarm the country on the 
subject of the drouth, and the consequent 
great deficiency of the corn crop. It was but 
a short time previously, they were prophesy¬ 
ing that wheat would be down in this market to 
$1.30 per bushel, and corn to 60 cts. This 
was one extreme; now they go to another, 
painfully exciting the apprehensions of the la¬ 
boring classes, lest corn and potatoes, owing to 
the short yield and high prices, will be mea¬ 
surably beyond their reach the coming winter. 
Gentlemen, instead of indulging in such 
alarming editorials, suppose you had taken a 
turn among the farmers in your respective dis¬ 
tricts, and obtained accurate statistics of the 
amount of their products last year, and the 
probable amount of all kinds this year; then 
you would have had more reliable data on 
which to have founded your opinions, and the 
people would have listened to you with much 
greater confidence and respect. 
From the best information we can obtain, 
one-fifth more corn was planted last spring, 
than was ever before done in the United States. 
It is generally acknowledged that these crops 
north of the line of latitude 42°, and south of 
35°, will be a full average. But in that belt of 
land lying between these extremes, especially 
west of the Alleghanies—the great corn produc¬ 
ing region of our country—it is the opinion 
of some that there will be a decline of 25 
to 30 per cent; while others contend that 
owing to the greatly increased breadth of land 
planted this season, and the late reviving 
showers, there will not be a deficiency of 
over 15 to 20 per cent. That this last opinion 
may be the more correct we have reason to be¬ 
lieve; and to substantiate it, we copy the 
following items from some of our exchanges 
published in the region of which we are now 
speaking. Many more of similar extracts could 
be given from the papers of Kentucky, Tennes¬ 
see, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and 
Ohio, if it were deemed necessary to strengthen 
this position. 
From the Louisville (Ky.) Journal:—In con¬ 
versation with a farmer in this county and an 
observant gentleman of Clark county, Indiana, 
the former informed us that he would make 70 
bushels corn to the acre, and in Clark the yield 
would average 30 bushels to the acre. If these 
statements are correct, it would seem to indi¬ 
cate that the corn crop will not be as deficient 
as supposed, particularly in the vicinity of the 
Ohio river. 
From the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Advertiser:— 
Corn is very much improved by the recent 
rains. We have met many friends from differ¬ 
ent sections of the country, and from them we 
gather that this crop will not be much of a fail¬ 
ure after all. We have news also from South 
Georgia and Alabama, which speak very en¬ 
couragingly of the prospects. It is very seldom 
that Tennessee fails in her corn crop, and al¬ 
though it has suffered much, we are not with¬ 
out hope that the corn will average a crop. 
Aside from the late more cheering advices, it 
must be recollected that an extra large quantity 
of old corn is still on hand in the great west; 
and that wheat, rye, barley and oats this sea¬ 
son have been a full, if not more than an aver¬ 
age. Add to this, potatoes have not suffered 
more this season from the drouth than they did 
the past from the rot; and then under the new 
reciprocity treaty, Canada will pour a large sur¬ 
plus of her wheat crop into the United States, 
estimated at about twelve million bushels more 
than she has ever before grown. Thus we 
think there is little fear but our wants will 
be fully supplied for the coming year; and 
that there is no necessity for a panic, or a fur¬ 
ther rise in breadstuffs and vegetables. And 
so it seems, now think the operators in these ar¬ 
ticles, for corn and some other things have 
fallen more or less in their prices within the past 
few weeks. 
There is another important reason why prices 
should not advance. The European harvests 
are nearly over, and have proved to be a full 
average; thus the demand from this quarter, 
for the breadstuffs of America, will be nothing 
comparatively to what it was last year, when 
the crops were so very deficient. We presume 
also that there will be greater economy prac¬ 
ticed at the West in feeding corn to their stock 
this season ; and we devoutly hope that not a 
few distilleries will be stopped converting this 
inestimable grain into liquid poison — a curse to 
the country and its people. 
WHAT ARE TEETH MADE FOR ! 
Every one will answer to masticate or grind 
up food. Yet how few use them for this pur¬ 
pose. They are principally used to cut up food 
small enough to have it pass through the capa¬ 
cious oesophagus (or meat pipe) into the sto¬ 
mach. 
If we wish to dissolve sugar or any other sub¬ 
stance quickly, we pulverize it finely. But who 
thinks of pulverizing a potato finely before it 
goes into the stomach to be dissolved. As a 
potato is usually swallowed it is more than half 
in small lumps from the size of a pea to that of 
a chestnut. These lumps go into the stomach, 
and the dissolving fluid (gastric juice) can only 
act upon the surface, so that it is a long time be¬ 
fore the whole is dissolved, and very often these 
lumps leave the stomach and go unchanged 
through the whole 25 feet of the intestinal canal, 
producing irritation all the way. If, on the con¬ 
trary, the potato had been mashed in the mouth 
or on the plate so that every portion should 
have been as small as fine sand, the gastric 
juice would have quickly dissolved the whole, 
and it would have been changed into nutriment. 
What is said of potatoes applies to other food. 
If apples and other fruits were entirely ground 
up they would be far less injurious. Children 
are so little taught on this subject, that we see 
them straining and stretching their necks to get 
down a piece of meat, which will lie for hours 
an internal poultice, before it can be dissolved or 
digested. Pieces of apples, potatoes, &c., pass 
through the system unchanged while they have 
irritated the whole food channel. 
We have said nothing in regard to the fer¬ 
mentation that takes place in most kinds of 
food, when lying undigested for three or four 
hours in the stomach. 
A GOOD TOOTH POWDER. 
We never have occasion for tooth powders of 
any kind. A hard, stiff brush, vigorously used 
upon, around, and between the teeth with cold 
water only, is quite sufficient to keep them in 
good order, especially if care is taken to clean 
them just before going to led , so that no food 
will remain to corrode them during the night. 
If any thing more than the brush is wanted, a 
little soap is excellent. But many persons wish 
for tooth powders, and we will here give them 
a recipe for making one of the very best, both 
in regard to quality and cost. It was furnished 
us by a medical friend of this city, and we can 
vouch for its good chemical qualities. The 
chalk is for cleaning and polishing, the soda for 
neutralizing any acids upon the teeth, the sugar 
and other substances for making the article plea¬ 
sant to the mouth. 
Take two ounces of finely prepared chalk, 
one ounce of bicarbonate of soda, and one ounce 
of dry sugar and rub them thoroughly together. 
If a beautiful or rather fashionable color is 
desired, add a little Dron Lake, or dry, ground 
Sanders Wood. An agreeable odor may be given 
by adding a little essence or oil of wintergreen, 
rose, bergamot, or whatever suits the fancy. 
All the above materials can be procured of any 
druggist for a few pence, and a quarter of a 
pound of powder thus be made of a better and 
safer quality than nine-tenths of that sold at 
twenty-five cents an ounce or higher. 
- - • • • - 
Errata. — In our last nnmber on page 401, 
for “ land” in first and second column read sand. 
For “bushels” of oats and wheat in third col¬ 
umn read acres. 
THE ROUP. 
The disease described by our correspondent 
below, is called the roup. It is prescribed for 
fully in every good work on poultry, and is 
easily cured if taken in time. The following is 
our remedy, which we have practised with suc¬ 
cess for years. 
In cold weather wash the head of the fowl 
with warm soap-suds, from two to four times a 
day, as it may require. In warm weather, cold 
soap-suds is the best. Then take a pin or small 
awl, and open the nostrils well, so that it can 
breathe freely. After this operation, give a tea¬ 
spoonful of sweet oil or butter, if a small hen, 
and more if a large one; and keep her in a 
warm place in winter, and a shady one in sum¬ 
mer. Feed lightly when ill, with Indian meal 
dough, or mush unsalted, or other light food. 
Fowls get the roup more frequently from be¬ 
ing too closely confined, or for want of fresh air 
than from any other cause. 
Sayville, L. I., Sept. 4, 1854. 
Lately my hens have become partly diseased, 
the remedy for which I cannot find in any work 
on poultry I possess. They lay no eggs. The 
