1(54 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Relaxed and heated by such a process, 
they leave their roosting-place at early dawn, 
(for no artificial treatment can change this 
natural instinct,) and at once begin breathing 
a totally different atmosphere, sometimes 
damp, sometimes frosty, and at all times 
chill. 
Such sudden changes must, and do influ¬ 
ence them most prejudically, sowing the 
seeds of catarrh, roup, inflammation of the 
lungs, and consumption. Catarrh in fowls, 
I am convinced, is merely a premonitory 
symptom of roup, and if checked early, and 
properly treated, "Viz., by removing the bird 
affected to a dry and moderately warm house, 
allowing it a pretty generous diet, and giv¬ 
ing a few grains of rhubarb and blue pill, will 
soon pass off, and leave behind no evil ef¬ 
fects. 
But, on the other hand, if neglected, will 
run on, and become an established roup ; and 
once let this disorder enter the yard, there 
is no knowledge when its deadly infection 
may disappear. 
I fancied that I had quite got rid of it by 
the cure of my fowls, by having my houses 
thoroughly lime-washed out, and thrown 
open to the air for a week, and also by 
having provided new vessels for the fowls to 
drink out of. But on turning some fresh 
poultry into the yard, I found that before 
they had been there two days they were as 
bad as the ot hers had formerly been, although 
not one of the old stock remained in the 
yard. 
I believe roup to be a disease intermediate 
between the influenza in man, and the glan¬ 
ders in the horse, and proportionately fatal 
accordingly as it approaches in symptoms 
one or the other of these diseases. 
It may be brought on primarily by suffer¬ 
ing a catarrh to be neglected, by the breath¬ 
ing of an infected atmosphere, or by a 
healthy bird drinking from the same vessel 
in which infected birds are in the habit of 
drinking; for when a fowl thus affected, 
drinks, the-discharge from the nostril is apt 
to run into the water, thus tainting it, and so 
rendering it highly infectious for other fowls. 
Poultry Chronicle. W. W. B. 
Stale Bread. —M. Boussingault, the great 
chemist, says that the common belief of the 
cause of the conversion of new into stale 
bread is, that it gets dry, or, in other words, 
that it loses water. He, however, took a 
loaf weighing 8 lbs., out of the oven, being 
then, in its interior, at a temperature of 
about 207 degrees. This loaf he suspended 
in a room of 61 to 66 degrees, and the loss of 
heat carefully noted. After 25 hours, the 
temperat ure of the bread had sunk to that of 
the room, and the loaf had lost 0.008 per 
cent, of its weight—water of course. It 
was now half stale, and the crust no longer 
hard. At the end of the sixth day, the bread 
was thorougly stale, although it had lost 
only one ten-thousandth of its weight by dry¬ 
ing. Boussingault, therefore, regards stale¬ 
ness in bread as due to a gradual change in 
its molecular condition, and not to a loss of 
water. 
(Jorn Cake. —A special premium was 
awarded to Mr. Charles W. Wampole, at the 
late fair of the Montgomery County Agricul¬ 
tural Society, for acorn cake, made after the 
following recipe : 
“ Take the whites of eight eggs ; one- 
fourth pound each of corn starch, flour and 
butter; half pound sugar; one tea-spoonful 
of cream of tartar ; half tea-spoonful of soda. 
Flavor with almond to suit the taste.” 
Why are country girls’ cheeks like French 
calicoes ? Because they are warranted to 
wash and retain their color. 
SONG OF THE FARMER, 
BY THE “PEASANT BAKU.” 
Give to the lord his palace grand, 
And halls of splendid pride ; 
A fig for all his dignities, 
And all his pomp beside ! 
Give me the Farmer’s peaceful home, 
Beneath the maples high, 
Where Nature’s warblers wake the song, 
The waters prattling nigh. 
The citizen may love the town. 
And Fashion’s gaudy show; 
The brilliant pageantry of Art 
May please the eye, I know; 
But Nature’s charms delight the heart, 
All simple though they be ; 
The acres broad, the streamy vales, 
The lowing herds for me ! 
What though the bronze is on our cheek, 
Toil calloused in our hand, 
With honest pride we stand erect, 
The nobles of the land ; 
For “ patriot Truth,” that spirit bright, 
In this wide world so rare, 
Points proudly to the Farmer’s home, 
And cries—“ My own are there !” 
CHORUS: 
Then here’s to him who tills the soil. 
The true, the strong, the brave ! 
Without him Art would fly the land, 
And Commerce leave the wave ; 
And yet no frown of hauteur cold 
Distains his manly brow ;— 
Hail to the Farmer ! thrice all hail! 
Lord of the mighty Plow ! 
MUSKETOES AND WORSE INSECTS- 
Still unable to find my authority for the 
“sawdust of juniper wood,” the artemisia, 
recommended by Dr. Hooker, and the rue, by 
another correspondent, have frequently oc¬ 
curred to me as remedies for another pest 
still more complained of by travelers. It is 
an old saying that neither fleas nor bugs will 
bite where there is a sprig of wormw r ood or 
rue in the bed; and, although these herbs 
may not be procurable when most wanted, 
they both furnish a powerful essential oil, of 
which a half pint (or smaller) bottle, wrapped 
round with a yard or so of folded muslin, and 
packed in a tin box, might form a part of the 
traveler’s equipage. Opening this box, put¬ 
ting a few drops of the oil in the muslin, and 
squeezing it well to diffuse the oil all through 
it, and spreading this cloth between the sheets 
an hour before going to bed, the insects 
might be effectually quieted, if not expelled, 
so long as the odor remains, which would 
be the whole night. The same cloth would 
serve repeatedly, and form a safe package 
for the bottle. But another essential oil, 
havinganodorlike junipermixed with worm¬ 
wood, but more powerful—that ofturpentine, 
may be obtained almost wherever paint is 
used, is very cheap, and known to be ex¬ 
tremely repugnant to bugs, and therefore, 
probably, to fleas. This may be used in the 
same manner, and may procure the traveler 
a good night’s rest, when he would otherwise 
be driven from his couch. J. Prideaux. 
Gardiner’s Chronicle. 
Trees. —The Humboldt California Times 
mentions a spruce pine log, 26 feet long, 
which turned out 1,000 feet clear stuff, 
without knots or windshakes. The tree 
made 13,000 feet clear lumber. We don’t 
believe it can be beat in the country, though 
we have trees of other species much larger 
—for instance, the red wood—that are esti¬ 
mated to turn out upward of 100,000 feet. 
That one tree will build two houses, each 
two stories high and 50 feet square, furnish¬ 
ing all the square timber, planks, shingles, 
&c,, would not be credited in the Atlantic 
States. 
THOUGHTS OF AN OLD SMOKER. 
- fb- * 
The National Magazine for November con¬ 
tains the following article on tobacco smoke, 
to our mind, one of the most interesting dis¬ 
cussions of its merits and demerits, that has 
appeared among all the tracts and treatises on 
the subject the last ten years have seen. Do 
not pass it by, smokers, for you can testify 
of its verity; and ye who do not smoke, 
read it that you may not. 
A quarter of a century ago, I began io 
master two difficult attainments; I learned to 
shave and I learned to smoke. Of these two 
attainments, smoking was incomparably the 
hardest; but I managed it. What has it 
cost me 1 I have smoked all sorts of tobac¬ 
co, and, as I suppose, in almost all forms. 
I began with cigarettes, advanced onward to 
cigars, then to Maryland tobacco, then to 
returns, then to bird’s-eye, and thence to the 
•strongest shag. I have bought and smoked 
cigars at all prices, and of all manufactures, 
from the suspicious articles, six of which may 
be bought for sixpence, and which probably 
are innocent of any connexion with nico- 
tania, save a slight tinge with its juice, to the 
costliest Havana. I have been fanciful in 
cigar tubes, and also in pipes, though to no 
alarming extent, having never paid more than 
a dollar and a half for a tube, and a dollar 
and a quarter for a meerschaum ; and, after 
all attempts to be fine, preferring the naked 
cigar, or the half yard of clay. I have spent 
money, too, on instantaneous lights of many 
sorts. When phosphorus boxes, containing 
a small bottle of fiery mixture, and about a 
score of matches, cost seventy-five cents 
each, I gave that for one. When lucifer, 
matches were invented, and sold for twelve 
cents a box—less in quantity than may now 
be bought for a cent—I patronized the manu¬ 
facture. I have used German tinder, fusees, 
and a dozen other kindred inventions ; and 
all these, costing money, have served me 
only for the lighting of my pipes or cigars. 
Looking at it then, altogether, and taking 
into account cigar-cases, cigar tubes, tobac¬ 
co, pipes, and matches ; considering, too, 
that I have been a constant and persevering, 
though not an enormous smoker, I may safe¬ 
ly and fairly conclude that, take one time 
with another, smoking has cost me half a 
dollar a week for twenty-five years. 
A half a dollar a week; that is to say, 
twenty-six dollars a year; making for the 
whole period, and without reckoning inter¬ 
est, either compound or simple, the sum of 
six hundred and fifty dollars. Now, this I 
repeat, is keeping within compass; and a 
friend at my side tells me that double the 
amount a week would be nearer the mark ; 
but as, during ten years past, I have not ex¬ 
ceeded the more moderate computation, I 
shall let it remain. 
Six hundred and fifty dollars—setting aside 
the consideration of interest—is a large sum. 
If, twenty-five years ago, instead of a tobac¬ 
co-box I had set up a money box, and drop¬ 
ped into it a weekly half dollar, I can not 
avoid the conclusion that I should be now six 
hundred and fifty dollars richer than I am ; 
and there are many things I could do with 
six hundred and fifty dollars. It might serve 
me for a year’s housekeeping, for my estab¬ 
lishment is on a humble scale ; or it might 
set up my eldest boy ; or it might refurnish 
my house. Or, if the half dollar week had 
been devoted to a life insurance, and I were to 
die to-morrow, my family would be the bet¬ 
ter for my self-denial by one thousand five 
hundred dollars. Or if I had spent half a dol¬ 
lar a week on literature, my library would 
now be, and much to my advantage, larger 
than it is. Or if, laying aside selfish consid¬ 
erations, I had set apart the half dollar a 
