AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
405 
BRAHMA POOTRA FOWLS, 
With the following extract of a letter, we 
received a trio of superb Brahmas of Mr. 
Smith’s own raising. Their size is large 
enough to satisfy the most ambitious, the 
cock only nine months old, weighing 101 lbs., 
the pullets, seven months old, weighing 6£ 
lbs. and 6$- lbs. respectively, and this in thin 
flesh. Their stately forms, and fine propor¬ 
tions commend them to the eye of the breed¬ 
er at once. The pullets have been laying 
some time previous to our receiving them, 
and quite steadily since. We hope to be 
able to speak of their qualities for the table 
another year. 
Valley Falls, R. I., Feb. 22, 1855. 
I think you can make the cock outweigh 
any Shanghai in the country. I have had hens 
of this breed that weighed over 12 pounds 
each at 3 years old. I sold Dr. .T. C. Ben¬ 
nett, and C. C. Plaisted, two of them for$50 
each, and they sent them to England with a 
young cock, I sold them at the same time 
for $50. He weighed over 12 pounds at 10 
months old. The trio I think weighed a little 
over 37 pounds. It is hard to find Shanghais 
that will come up to that weight or near it. 
Yours in haste, Geo. Smith. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
EXPERIENCE IN RAISING SPRING WHEAT. 
Stone Mills, Jefferson Co., N. Y., Feb. 23, 1855. 
As this is known to be one of the most 
natural wheat producing sections in the Uni¬ 
ted States, it may well be inferred that the 
best means are employed in the producing of 
this crop. So far as the kind of wheat sowed 
is concerned my practical experience and 
observation may be of some value to the 
readers of the American Agriculturist who 
live in sections of country where wheat is 
not the main staple of production, and I 
cheerfully answer to your call. 
I raise more or less spring wheat every 
year, preferring it to winter wheat, because 
of the uncertainty of the latter. I have 
tried many kinds, but I have found three 
varieties to be the most profitable for me. 
These are known as the Black Sea, China, or 
Tea, and Fife. The Black Sea wheat is not 
so valuable to manufacture into flour for ex¬ 
portation, because it is not so white and light, 
or soft to the touch of the finger, but makes 
good bread, of a rather yellowish color. It 
never has rusted or blasted with me, and I 
doubt if with any body else if sown within 
the month of May. I have grown it upon 
interval land so rich that it lodged and lay 
flat upon the ground during the time it was 
filling until it was harvested, yet it was well 
filled and yielded thirty-eight (38£) bushels 
per acre. It is an earlier variety than the 
others, and may be sown, and do compara¬ 
tively well, when it would be too late for 
either of the other two kinds to mature. It 
has been sown as late as the 20th of June in 
this section, and produced bright straw and 
a plump berry. This has been much liked, 
because it may be sown so late as to escape 
the wheat midge and yet fill. As the wheat 
midge does not rage so much now as former¬ 
ly, it is not so extensively cultivated. 
The Fife and China, or Tea, are the best 
kinds for producing a good quality of flour ; 
millers give the China the preference, be¬ 
cause it is a softer wheat and grinds so near¬ 
ly like the best kinds of winter wheat. The 
quality of flour competes with the latter. I 
have had some of both kinds ground at the 
same time and compared the flour and bread, 
and the difference observable ay as in favor of 
the Fife. Yet millers will not pay as much 
for it by six cents per bushel. 
There is one thing in favor of the Fife; if 
it does not sell for as much per bushel, like 
the Black Sea, it will not shell like the China 
while harvesting. I have cut the China 
while quite green and found it to shell much 
when in that state. My practice is to raise 
the three varieties. Last season I raised 
500 bushels of the different kinds from three 
bushels of seed. This year I purpose to 
sow forty or forty-five bushels. I sow one 
bushel and a peck to the acre. The China 
appeared to come up too thin the past dry 
season. As the berry is larger it needs from 
four quarts to a peck more seed per acre 
than the other two kinds, though in the Black 
Sea yield spoken of, I only sowed one bushel 
per acre, after corn. The land was clean 
and in excellent order. S. Kieffer. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
The late Duke of Northumberland once 
purchased a beautiful and valuable horse; 
but no sooner had his grace begun to use 
him, than he discovered that the horse had 
one very bad trick—that of suddenly lying 
down Avhen his rider was on his back. This 
could not be endured, so he ordered his ser¬ 
vant to get the horse properly broken in. 
Accordingly away went the groom to a cele¬ 
brated horse-breaker, in the city of Durham, 
and without mentioning the animal’s particu¬ 
lar frailty, left him with a general commis¬ 
sion to break him in. The next day, the 
teacher of horses rode out on an experimen¬ 
tal trip with the duke’s favorite, and present¬ 
ly found himself gently rolled upon the soil, 
and the horse by his side, very much at his 
ease. “ Oh,” said the horse-breaker, not at 
all embarrassed, “ is that your custom 1” 
So he provided himself, the next day, Avith 
several strong stakes and plenty of sound 
rope, and took the unceremonious steed to a 
large field adjoining Durham Cathedral. 
Riding around and around, the animal, ac¬ 
cording to his character, soon stretched 
himself comfortably, rider and all, on the 
green sods. Without saying a word, the 
horse-breaker, getting up, seized upon his 
Avooden stakes, drove them deep and firm 
into the ground, all around the Avilfull brute, 
and then, by means of the rope, fastened 
him doAvn exactly in the position chosen by 
himself, so that neither legs nor body could 
stir one inch. Of course, after a time, the horse 
was Avilling to get up, but the teacher was 
Avilling he should lie still; and there he kept 
him, Avith plenty of hay and water within 
reach, for three days and three nights, him¬ 
self sitting on his back for most of the time, 
smoking his pipe. The horse, as long as he 
lived, I am able to assure you, never lay 
doAvn any more with his rider on his back. 
WHISTLER AT THE PLOW. 
A Lesson from the Drouth. —We have 
endeavored occasionallyto impress upon the 
farmers and planters of this country, the im¬ 
portance of adopting a more thorough and 
judicious tillage than at present generally 
obtains. During the present season, in pass¬ 
ing through different parts of the State, we 
have been more than ever convinced of the 
evil of close culture, especially in the pro¬ 
duction of corn. We notice this subject 
now, that our agricultural friends may be 
duly impressed with the importance of plant¬ 
ing hereafter more sparsely, plowing more 
deeply, and preparing more thoroughly the 
soil. We beg them, in the preparation of 
their lands for wheat, corn, oats, and indeed 
all important crops, to try the system of sub¬ 
soiling. We have seen it tested in Floyd 
County, in a wheat crop, Avith the most sat¬ 
isfactory results. Upon this subject the 
Chattanooga Gazette adds its testimony. 
After stating the almost entire failure of the 
corn crop in that section, it says : 
“ The experience of this fatally dry sea¬ 
son ought to convince every farmer of the 
importance of deep plowing, even subsoil¬ 
ing. Fields that have thus been cultivated, 
have stood the drouth Avonderfully, and will 
make a tolerably fail-yield.” 
Origin of the Culture of Cotton in Amer¬ 
ica. —Though the cotton manufacture of 
England Avas, at its origin, supplied Avith the 
raw material from the Levant, and subse¬ 
quently from the West Indies and South 
America, the United States soon became the 
principal exporters of what appeared to have 
been an exotic to their soil, though an ordi¬ 
nary short staple is stated by Mr. Seabrook 
to have been groAvn in Virginia, in a limited 
Avay, at least 130 years before the Revolu¬ 
tion. In Wilson’s account of the Province 
of Carolina, in America, published in 1682, it 
is stated that “ cotton of the Cyprus and 
Malta sort grows well, and a good plenty of 
the seed is sent thither.” Mr. Spalding, of 
Sapelo Island, near Darien, in Georgia, has 
stated that his father was one of the first to 
cultivate the long staple of Sea Island cot¬ 
ton, in 1787, from seed received from the 
Bahamas. The seeds of probably the same 
cotton, carried into the interior and upland 
parts of Georgia, from the poor soil and drier 
climate, and the necessary modification of 
culture, produced Avhat is known as upland 
cotton. The culture spread thence into the 
the States Avhich abut upon the Gulf of Mexi¬ 
co. There the rich soil and moist climate 
required the cultivation to be suited to it; 
but every thing being congenial, and fresh 
seed introduced from Mexico, the largest 
known returns have been obtained. 
Cotton in Algeria. —Mr. Walsh, the Paris 
correspondent of the N. Y. Journal of Com¬ 
merce writes that the whole of the first page 
and part of the second of the Moniteur, are 
occupied by a report of the Minister of War 
on the development of the culture of cotton 
in Algeria during 1854, and the distribution 
of the prizes provided for the most assiduous 
and successful planters. An Imperial pre¬ 
mium—twenty thousand francs—to be de¬ 
livered each year, for five years, has been 
divided, this time, between a French settler 
and an Arab Cadi, of the Province of Oran; 
and the Reporter begs his Majesty to remark 
hoAv fortunate and promising it is for the 
cotton culture that the Arabs should have 
engaged in competition in the enterprize, 
with the Europeans. A hundred and eighty- 
four bales of Algeria cotton grown last year, 
Avill be offered at public sale at Havre, on the 
12th of next month, under the auspices of the 
government. The quality is designated as 
excellent. Place is to be specially reserved 
at the Industrial Exhibition of May, for all 
products manufactured by “ Metropolitan 
industry ” with the Algerian article. I in¬ 
close an official report from Bombay, on the 
culture of cotton in India; the particulars 
will obtain attention in the south and south¬ 
west of our Union. 
Guano for Corn. —One of our neighbors 
let a piece of land to be planted upon shares 
with corn. He proposed to the laborer to try 
an experiment Avith guano on one portion @f 
the field—should think about one fourth — 
while the other portion received a good coat 
ing of yard manure. The field being Avell 
prepared, and marked out so as to show the 
place far each hill, about one table-spoonful 
of guano was dropped in a place. It was 
then well mixed with the soil of the hill with 
the hoe. A little fresh dirt Avas then hauled 
over the compost thus made, and the corn 
dropped and covered. The result Avas such, 
that the owner offered to take the guanoed 
portion for his half of the crop. The labor¬ 
er agreed to his proposition ; and the OAvner 
