AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
304 
For the American Agriculturist. 
ARE BOX LEAVES POISONOUS TO POULTRY ? 
Have any of your readers ever lost their 
poultry from eating green box, at this season 
of the year? I have just had two fine hens 
die suddenly, aLd on opening them to dis¬ 
cover the cause, found the craw and intes¬ 
tines filled with box leaves. Querist. 
Yonkers, Feb. 27, 1855. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
POULTRY, VERMIN, &c. 
In accordance with your invitation con¬ 
cerning poultry, I cheerfully proceed to cast 
in my mite. I have been for years a poultry 
amateur, and have, more for amusement 
than profit, studied their habits. I have also 
tried several distinct breeds, and have, there¬ 
fore, chiefly from my own experience, formed 
an opinion concerning their different merits. 
I have had the Dorkings, pure breed, and 
good birds, and, I think, a desirable breed ; 
although 1 did not try them very long, sim¬ 
ply because their carriage, general appear¬ 
ance, plumage, &c., did not partake as much 
of the beautiful as I fancied. I have also 
tried the Crested Polands, black bodies, 
white and full crests. With this breed I was 
much pleased ; they were hardy, generally 
healthy, good layers, and an ornament to the 
poultry yard. I had them so long that jl 
changed them simply for a change. I next 
tried the Shanghais, and of all the breeds of 
fowls I ever saw or tried, I think them the 
most abominable, unprofitable and unsightly. 
They are gross feeders, making for the same 
food and in the same space of time less 
than any breed with which I am acquainted. 
I have somewhere met with the axiom, 
“ quarrel with no man’s hobby,” hence I 
have deferred entering my protest, partly on 
account of the respect I would have for the 
opinion of others, and the desire to give 
them a fair trial. The chickens are never 
chickens, in an epicurean sense of the word, 
not filling out the first year, but the growth 
being expended in bone and stature ; and 
when fatted, if indeed they do ever get fat, 1 
have found the meat coarse and dry. I have 
not found their laying qualities so vastly su¬ 
perior to other breeds. 
I now come to my present breed of fowls, 
the “ Spangled Hamburgs,” or Golden Po¬ 
lands, with which I am fascinated. I have 
them pure, and they are exceedingly hand¬ 
some. I find them good layers, very active, 
perfectly hardy, and fine for the table. What 
more than this can be desired in any breed 
of fowls? 
A dry poultry house, with yard attached, 
is my way of keeping fowls. My yard is 
lathed on all sides, including overhead, 
which keeps them secure against any intru¬ 
sion. The yard is locked the year round, 
leaving a small hole about three feet from 
the ground for the ingress and egress of the 
birds. This latter remark leads me to speak 
of the second part of my subject, viz : ver¬ 
min. 
I have been much troubled with vermin, 
my neighbor and myself having caught this 
winter seven opossums, and I believe I have 
lost fowls by the minks. Hence the poultry 
yard and house should be vermin-tight for 
two or three feet from the ground. This I 
recommend for general security, but I prefer 
to catch them if possible. Vermin will not 
readily climb to enter the yard, but usually 
seek an entrance on a level with the ground. 
By concealing one or more steel-traps in.an 
opening especially provided for the purpose, 
(traps secured by chains) they are often 
taken. Concealing traps in their favorite 
walks by a covering of chaftj and suspending 
bait just over the trap, so high that they will 
have to reach up for it, is another successful 
mode. 
If poultry is well supplied with clean and 
wholesome food, corn, oats, buckwheat, &c., 
boiled and raw at intervals for a change, 
old mortar broken up fine, broken clam¬ 
shells, &c., clean fresh water, and, in winter, 
some animal food, and free and suitable 
range for exercise, they will not usually be 
troubled with many diseases. I generally 
attribute the diseases of fowls to some defect 
in their sanitary regulations. W. D. 
Morristown, N. J. 
ON FARMYARD MANURE. 
As to the relative value of dungs made 
under cover and in open courts, we have on¬ 
ly one experiment, made by Lord Kinnaird ; 
but it is a very interesting one, and should 
encourage further trial. A field was ma¬ 
nured partly with covered and partly with 
uncovered dung, and the produce of potatoes 
determined; the whole then sown with 
wheat, and dressed in spring with 3 cwt. ef 
Peruvian guano. The results are (omitting 
small fractions) — 
Uncovered dung. Covered. 
Potatoes, . 7 tons 12 cwt. 11 tons 15 cwt. 
Wheat grain, . 42 bushels, 54 bushels. 
Wheat straw.... 150 stones, 215 stones. 
The preservation of farmyard manure, in 
such a state as to retain its ammonia, has 
always attracted much attention among 
practical men ; but, with the exception of 
the necessity of keeping it from becoming 
too dry, little definite has been ascertained. 
An elaborate inquiry has recently been made 
by Payen, which throws considerable light 
on this point. He was led to examine this 
matter from the plan proposed, and carried 
into effect to some extent in France, of em¬ 
ploying earthy substances for the purpose of 
absorbing the urine of the cattle in their 
stalls. He has ascertained that if urine be 
allowed to putrify for thirty-four days, then 
mixed with lime and evaporated, 70 per cent 
of its nitrogen escapes; and further, that if 
some fermenting substance be added, the 
action is so much accelerated that 85 per 
cent escapes after thirteen days by the same 
treatment. By mixing various substances 
with the f resh urine, he found that decompo¬ 
sition was retarded or diminished, and that 
no substance was at all comparable with lime 
in this respect. Two per cent of lime is suf¬ 
ficient almost entirely to prevent loss of am¬ 
monia; and this it effects by preventing 
that decomposition which causes the nitro¬ 
gen to pass into the form of ammonia. Ac¬ 
cording to his statement, no injury to the 
dung is produced by the admixture of lime, 
and he therefore proposes that it should be 
thus employed. He has ascertained that 
peat charcoal has very little influence in pre¬ 
venting decomposition of the dung and loss 
of ammonia; but when mixed with about 5 
per cent of sulphate of iron it does produce 
a certain effect, though greatly inferior to 
that of lime. Potash acts quite as well as 
lime, though from its cost it can not be em¬ 
ployed in practice. Blood is preserved from 
putrifaction in the same way, or by the ad¬ 
dition of about 5 per cent of sulphric acid, 
and evaporation. 
The employment of lime in the way indi¬ 
cated by Payen is deserving of trial. It is 
important, however, to observe that it must 
be mixed with the dung while perfectly fresh; 
and to insure success, a small quantity 
should be mixed with it every day as it is 
brought to be laid on the heap. If added 
already to the putrid dung, it is not only use¬ 
less but positively injurious. The results of 
experiments made in this way, with the pro¬ 
duce of crops grown with dung treated with 
lime and without it, would be very import¬ 
ant.—T7ie Journal of Agriculture, and the 
Transactions of the Highland and Agricul¬ 
tural Society of Scotland. 
HILL SIDES- 
There are very few farms of any extent, 
on which there are not “ slopes,” which de¬ 
fy the skill of the cultivator, and- which re¬ 
main unswarded in despite of his utmost 
exertions to stock them with grass. This is 
owing to the tendency of such places to 
“ wash.” All the fine particles of the soil 
being borne down by the water, the surface 
soil is generally found on examination to 
consist merely of course sand or gravel 
without sufficient cohesibility to furnish a 
medium for the roots of the plants, which 
perish for want of moisture. The only cor¬ 
rective, however, which is required in such 
cases, is clay, which is proved by the follow¬ 
ing experiment: On the south side of my 
farm there is a sand ridge of some elevation, 
extending along flic line some thirty or thir¬ 
ty-five rods. I had frequently plowed, 
worked, and liberally manured this ridge, 
but without effecting my object; the surface 
of the slope, from the top to the base of it, re¬ 
mained nearly destitute of verdure, and was 
plowed into unseemly gutters by the spring 
and autumnal rains. As a last resort 1 com¬ 
menced carting online clay, which I obtained 
on the opposite or north side of my premi¬ 
ses, and which was conveyed to the slope 
without the labor of ascending it. Nearly two 
hundred loads were dumped down on the 
verge of the descent, and was then evenly 
spread and plowed in with a light furrow. Af¬ 
ter this, and before harrowing, fifty loads more 
of clay, and twenty of old compost, were 
spread on, and the whole harrowed in with 
a light seed harrow. Grass seed—timothy 
and clover—was then sowed, and covered 
with a light brush, and the work finished off 
with a liberal dressing of plaster. This 
operation was performed in August. The 
seed came up vigorously, and by the time 
cold weather set in, the surface presented a 
most beautiful appearance, being covered 
with a dense and heavy herbage of a most 
beautiful green, and sufficiently strong to ar¬ 
rest the action of water upon the soil. Since 
that, the “ sand slope ” has never washed, 
and is now one of the most productive por¬ 
tions of my farm. Plaster and super-phos¬ 
phate of lime, are the only manures that 
have been used since laying it down. This 
is the only way in which such lands can be 
successfully managed ; clay is the only al¬ 
terant that will suffice.— Germantown Tel. 
Dead Heads. —The Louisville (Ky.,) 
Times says : 
“We believe that railroad corporations 
are the only bodies, soulless or otherwise, 
that ever ranked editors as dead-heads. It 
is an indignity to the profession, and we 
hope it will be met with proper resentment. 
The newspaper press is at present more- 
burdened with dead-heads, than any other 
enterprize extant. The most burdensome 
and troublesome of these dead-heads are 
railroad corporations. From a preliminary 
survey of a railroad up to its completion, the 
entire press contiguous to the line com¬ 
mence advertising the projectin the editorial 
columns.” 
The husbands in St. Louis are models. 
The St. Louis papers are complaining that 
married men sit in church with their arms 
most tenderly around their wives, and sug¬ 
gests that “ it distracts the attention of the 
lookers on from the preacher.” Fare to St. 
Louis $18. State Line railroad in excellent 
order. Put on your bonnets, girls.— Albany 
Knickerbocker. 
