1866.] 
AMERICAN AG-RICULTURIST. 
427 
The White-haired Porcupine. 
Erethizon dorsatus. 
Among the great family of rodents, wliich in¬ 
cludes rats and mice, rabbits, squirrels, marmots, 
etc., there is no group of genera more interest¬ 
ing than the porcupines. "We have two which 
are quite common __ 
in this country, the 
White-haired Porcu¬ 
pine, which inhabits 
the IsTorthern United 
States and Canada, 
and the Yellow-hair¬ 
ed Porcupine which 
is found in the re¬ 
gion of the upper 
Missouri, and in the 
Pacific States. The 
former is probably 
familiar to most of 
our readers. It is an 
animal about 2 to 
2'|a feet long to the 
tail which is 7 to 
10 inches in length. 
It weighs 20 to 30 
pounds. Tlie head 
is short and flat, and 
tlie spines are part¬ 
ly concealed in its 
coarse hair. It has 
soft fur next the skin, 
of a brown color, 
and mingled with coarse hairs with white 
ends, giving it a greyisli look, which is higlit- 
ened by the spines. These are white, with 
dark, barbed points, 2 to 3 inches or more 
long, erectile, and easily shed and renewed. 
The animal may be able to loosen them some¬ 
what, at will, but the idea that it can shoot, or 
throw them even a short distance, is absurd. It 
is extremely sluggish in its motions, and when 
attacked neither attempts to escape nor shows 
fight, but with a sue- __ 
cession of quick side¬ 
ways motions,makes 
it dangerous for any 
animal to touch it. 
The erected spines, 
barbed at the end, 
will stick into the 
mouth or other part 
of the body, and 
liold there, working 
in deeper and deep¬ 
er, so that dogs, 
wolves and lynxes, 
are sometimes killed 
by the irritation and 
inflammation conse- 
(pient. The animal 
climbs readily, and 
feeds upon fruit, 
twigs, leaves, and 
the tender inner bark 
of trees. AVhen nu 
merous they are said 
to do great damage 
to the elm and bass¬ 
wood trees, girdling 
and barking the limbs or trunks so that the 
trees die. The creature is held in no favor, 
being in all respects a nuisance, and to none 
more so than to the owners of flne hunting dogs, 
which it often spoils. The Indians hunt them, 
using them as food, and employing the spines, 
M'hich they usually color brilliantly and cut in 
small pieces for use, as beads, to ornament 
leggins, mocassins, canoes, baskets, trinkets, etc. 
This animal is frequently called Hedgehog in 
America, especially by people of New England 
origin, and that the incorrectness of the appel¬ 
lation may be the better seen, we give a picture 
of the Hedgehog of Europe {Erinaceus Euro- 
pcBus). This little animal is common through¬ 
Tig. 1.— WHITE HAIKED OR CANADA roKCUPINE. 
out Great Britain, and the Continent of Europe. 
It is very different from our Porcupine in every 
respect, e.xcept that it is a quadruped armed 
with spines. It is an insect-eater, closely al¬ 
lied to the moles and shrews, though it is 
said to eat some kinds of fruit, and it is well 
known as a destroyer of mice, snakes, and toads, 
worms, snails, etc., devouring birds’ eggs also, 
and small birds. It is only about 8 or 10 inches 
long, and has a slender snout, fringed at the 
Fig. 2.— EUROPEAN HEDGE-HOG. 
end. When attacked or alarmed, it rolls itself 
into a ball, presenting only its spiny back to its 
foes. The muscle by which it does this under¬ 
lies the skin where ever the spines are, and the 
motion erects the spines and holds them firm. 
The spines are about an inch long, of a dark 
brown color, tipped with white, and arranged 
in clusters, covering the upper surface and sides 
of the body; the belly is covered with whitish 
fur. The Hedgehog is easily domesticated, and 
does good service in cellars, kitchens, out-houses, 
and gardens, eating cockroaches, beetles, etc., 
etc., driving away mice, and ridding the garden 
of snails and grubs. Its habits are nocturnal, and 
it hibernates during the winter, sleeping in a nest 
of hay and leaves 
in some hollow log 
or heap of stones. 
Hints on Improv¬ 
ing the Land. 
Money properly 
used is the source 
of many of the com¬ 
forts of life; hence 
the great end of 
farming is to make 
money. It is not to 
embellish the land, 
to build fine houses, 
barns and fences; to 
raise fancy stock, or 
in any other way to 
make a show in the 
world. It is to make 
money, to acquire 
propertjq with the 
ultimate view of tak¬ 
ing the comfort of it. 
The grand question 
is, how can a farm be 
rendered the most profitable ? And the answer 
is, first and last, by improving the soil so as to 
make it most permanently productive. The 
great defect of American farms, at least this 
side of the Alleghanies, is their impoverished 
condition. They have been cropped and re¬ 
cropped, their products sold, and but little re¬ 
turned to the land to keep up its fertility. Any 
body can see that the net products of a farm 
which yields 50 bushels of corn to the acre, are 
much greater than 
one which gives 40. 
For, if 30 bushels 
will pay the expens¬ 
es of tillage, there is 
a profit on the for¬ 
mer of twenty bush¬ 
els, and on the other 
of only 10. Sup¬ 
posing this to hold 
good on all the crops 
of the farm, is not 
one acre of this first 
farm rvorth two of 
the second ? In what¬ 
ever way we can in¬ 
crease the income of 
the land above the 
expenses, we gain so 
much more profit, 
and this decides the 
value of the farm. If 
land which gives a 
clear gain per acre 
of .$7, is worth $100 
to the acre, then that 
which gives $14 gain 
is worth full two hundred dollars per acre. 
It costs nearly as much to till land which 
yields only a profit of $3.50, as that which 
yields $14. AVhy not, then, apply the extra 
manure, and the extra brain-work, and get the 
$14 ? The first man barely gets a living; the 
second grows rich. The best agriculturists here 
and in England, have found out this true prin- 
