1865.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Q15 
neither is it well to let hay remain in the cock 
until it is very dry. As soon as it is well cured 
It should be stored. If one has an abundance 
of barn room, it is always better to put one load 
in a place, even if it should be necessary to 
move it after a few days. When there are cer¬ 
tain indications of a heavy rain before hay can 
be thoroughly cured and housed, it is well 
sometimes to put it in before it is really fit to be 
stored in a permanent mow. Under such cir¬ 
cumstances, pitch a load on some loose poles 
overhead, perhaps another in another place, 
and so on. Then, after a few days, it may be 
all forked over and shifted to another part of 
the harn. This labor requires no more time 
than to do it in the field, and thus a great 
amount of excellent hay may be saved from 
being damaged by the rain, and the labor per¬ 
formed when workmen have little to do. 
-■ I --- 
Western Agriculture. 
IS THE AMERICAN AGRICUETURIST ADAPTED TO 
THE WEST ? 
The following letter is Written to the Agri¬ 
culturist by a young go-a-head westerner, of 
Lasalle, Ill. It is so true an expression of gen¬ 
uine western feeling that we give it, making it a 
text for a few words on the same subject re¬ 
garded from a somewhat dilFerent stand point: 
Editor of the Agriculturist, Sir: 
“Do not think that your paper will do 
for the whole American continent. Why, 
sir, as far as farming is concerned, it will 
not do at all for the West. Guess it will only 
do for the East, where it is printed alongside an 
old stone wall, amongst roots, stumps, sticks, 
stones, grubs, brush, and all kinds of rubbish 
generally found on eastern land. Why, sir, if 
you have never been out west, you can not be¬ 
lieve the vast amount of work done here. Men 
here with one team cultivate 40 acres of land 
and live 4 miles away from it. Two men and 
teams can cultivate from 30 to 50 acres of small 
grain, and from 50 to 80 acres of corn and do it 
well. We have had men from the East here 
who declared that ten men could not do the 
work that one man had to do here. One man 
and team will plow 2 acres per day, and will 
mark one way from 30 to 40 acres (for corn.) 
One man and boy, with team and corn-planter, 
(Brown’s is most generally used) will plant from 
10 to 20 acres. We have corn-plows with 
which we plow ftom 8 to 12 acres, reapers 
which cut from 10 to 15 acres. We thresh 
and clean from 300 to 500 bushels of wheat 
from 500 to 800 of oats, and about the same of 
barley a day. Men husk from 30 to 50 bushels of 
corn, and we never think of cutting up corn 
stalks unless we have not got hay enough for 
our cattle in the spring, as they get feed enough 
in our cornfields through the winter, or until 
after the 1st of March, when we have to feed 
them until the 15th of April; then we turn 
them out into the prairies to go until the 1st of 
November. Then we take a day and hunt 
them up and drive them in rolling fat. Now, 
sir, do not you think this is a much more pro¬ 
fitable way of raising cattle than the way you 
tell us to do on page 137, May number, current 
vol.? Do not think because we can do so much 
work here in a day, that we are idle half the 
4,ime. It is nothing but constant work here 
. from the middle of March to the 1st of Decem¬ 
ber, or till Christmas. You have considerable 
to say about the best way to drop potatoes, 
pitch manure, make corn-markers,corn-coverer3, 
etc., but we do not need any such advice here. 
These are/acfe—just what you asked for. I 
can’t tell exactly where. Now Mr. Agricultur¬ 
ist, any information you desire about the West, 
I will cheerfully give it to you. 
Yours truly, “Western Boy.” 
It makes a man’s notions of farming expand 
when he takes his stand on an eminence upon 
the prairies, where the waving maize fields al¬ 
ternate with those of wheat, and cultivated 
land, with the unbroken prairie on all sides 
as far as the eye can reach, realizing that the 
soil is deep and very fertile, that the climate is 
genial, and that the multitude of men that are 
making homes for themselves and their chil¬ 
dren, all over that broad region, are vigorous, 
young, ambitious and free. The earth only half 
tilled, yields most bountifully, and even with¬ 
out tillage the natural crop of wild grass affords 
abundant pasturage, and hay of passable quality 
for herds of small and great cattle. The east¬ 
ern man who has had his little farm of 30 acres 
in Massachusetts or Vermont, and found 
enough to do for himself and boys, and perhaps 
one or two hired men the year round, may well 
look Avith wonder at cornfields of several hun¬ 
dred acres in extent, and express himself aston¬ 
ished at the rapidity with which farm work is 
done. He finds the soil as mellow as the finest 
garden mould he ever saw, and the subsoil of 
the same quality to the depth to which no 
ploAV can penetrate. He finds moreover the 
genuine Western Man as full of the West and 
its glories and advantages as if it Avere Eden 
itself, and as if no end of brag and exaggeration 
(which flows like a river) could conve}'^ a false 
impression. 
The West is grand, and it is easy to raise big 
crops, and to go over many acres a day, and to 
make great crops without manure, without 
trouble from Aveeds, without the necessity for 
three or four times plowing and hoeing for 
what AAm call hoed crops. It is nevertheless 
true that good farming is dependent upon the 
same fundamental principles the world over. 
That what is true for the eastern farmer as re¬ 
gards the relations of the air, the soil, the 
plant, and the animal to each other, on his 
small, poor farm is just as true for the farmer on 
the broad acres of Illinois. If it is not necessa¬ 
ry for him to save, and haul, and spread ma¬ 
nure noAV, he should remember that Avithout 
good husbandry his fields will finally become 
exhausted and need manuring. If weeds do 
not trouble him noAV, let him take the more 
care they do not find their way upon his laild 
in foul grain seed, etc. If he has ten thousand 
acres of wild grass, upon which his herds, with 
those of his neighbors, may range and fatten, 
he can not tell in hoAV few years his OAvn quar¬ 
ter section will be all the land he can control, 
and farms and pasturage grounds of different 
farmei's be as Avell defined as they are further 
East. If stall-fed beef, and dairies, and milk, 
and cream, and butter, and cheese, are almost 
unknown articles of diet, or of farm production, 
let him live in hope of the good time coming, 
when home markets, or ready transportation, 
will make it worth while to know something 
about their economical production. The prai¬ 
ries are not boundless, their fertility not inex¬ 
haustible, and manuring produces almost as 
desirable effects at the West as at the East. 
We admit that we can not mark for corn, 
40 acres a day, nor plant 20 acres, nor do a great 
many things as fast as they do “Out West.” 
The Agriculturist is intended to be adapted to 
the wants of civilized men who till little or 
mi?ch ground, whp have live stock to care for. 
be it beev'es or cliickens, households to provide 
for as regards both the Avants of the body and 
the mind, and Ave doubt not even “Western 
Boy” finds some thing both of interest and 
value to himself. Should he Avrite again we 
hope he Avill tell us what he knows from expe¬ 
rience, and Avhat his Western neighbors Avould 
be benefitted by knoAving also. 
A Ncay Poultry Book. 
There is now in press and soon to be issued 
by the Publisher of the Agriculturist, a new 
Avork on Domestic Poultry, by Mr. S. ]\I. Saun¬ 
ders, of Staten Island. It Avill form, Ave think, 
a valuable hand-book for all Avho keep chickens, 
Avhetlier for economical purposes merely, or 
for fancy. The number of poultry breeders is 
last increasing, who take more delight ii. 
the perfection of breeds, and the production 
of beautiful birds,than in either eggs or poultry, 
for their OAvn tables or for market. This is in 
deed a beautiful and beneficial “fancy,” and to 
be encouraged, unless it runs into uiiAvarrnnta 
ble extravagance, for it is through poultiy fan¬ 
ciers alone that Ave can hope for the preserva¬ 
tion in purity ot those elegant and beautiful 
breeds of foAvls Avhich are and Avill ever be of 
so great use to all poultry raisers, enabling 
them to impart to common stock those qualities 
which render the pure breeds famous either ns 
layers, or for the production of flesh. We give 
on the next page two of the beautiful engrav¬ 
ings with Avhich this A\mrk is very fully embel¬ 
lished. The first is of three somewhat famous 
breeds of French foAvls, wdth descriptive ex¬ 
tracts from Mr. Saunders’ forthcoming book. 
“ Within the last two or three years some valu¬ 
able importations of new breeds of poultiy 
have been made into England from France; 
but I am not aware that they are knoAvn on this 
continent. They have, hoAvever, become suf¬ 
ficiently known and appreciated by our British 
cousins as to demand our attention. 
“ The Houdan has short thick legs, and a 
round, well - proportioned body, large head, 
small top-knot, falling backAvard. It is bearded, 
and has five claws on each foot. It is a good- 
sized foAvl, weighing, Avhen fully groAvn—cock, 
6 lbs.; hen, from 4j to 5 lbs. The plumage 
should be speckled, Avhite, black, and straw 
color. The comb is the most remarkable part 
of this bird ; and I can not do better than quote 
Jacque’s description: ‘ Comb, triple crossAvaj’s 
of the beak, composed of tAvo flattened spikes, 
of long and rectangular form, opening from right 
to left like two leaves of a book, thick, fleshy, 
and variegated at the edges. A third spike 
grows betAveen these tAvo, having someAvhat the 
shape of an irregular straAvberry, and the size 
of a long nut. Another, quite detached from 
the others and about the size of a pea, should 
shoAV between the nostrils and above the beak.’ 
This gives the bird a grotesque appearance, and 
there is an air of impudent drollery and humor 
about him that is peculiar to the breed. The 
legs are dark leaden gray. In this breed the 
hens approach more nearly the weight of the 
cock than is usual. These foAvls are very popu¬ 
lar in France, as layers and table-foAvls. 
“ The Ceevecosijr is better knoAvn than any 
of the French fowls; it is one of the best layers, 
not only on account of number, but also of size, 
being equal in*this respect to the Spanish. It 
is a short-legged breed, square-bodied, deep 
chest, Avell shaped for the table. 
“ Like most of the French breeds, it is bearded 
and top-knotted, but the latter appendage is 
