76 
WHAT CAN I DO ? 
safely be laid down at about 80. It is not prob¬ 
able that any kind of fowls can be made to ex¬ 
ceed this number as their general product. The 
devices resorted to in order to force fowls to lay 
in the winter season, by the means of artificial 
heat, in my opinion, are not productive of any 
benefit to the owner, in the end. You can 
but get your 80 eggs per annum, though you 
keep your fowls during the winter where the 
thermometer never falls below 60° or 70° F. 
What you gain in cold weather, you lose in 
warm. But, say you, “ the eggs are much more 
valuable in winter.” I doubt it; but you expend 
more than the difference in value in producing 
the necessary heat. Again, you subvert the 
order of nature. The sun was made to give 
light by day, the moon by night; the day is a 
period of labor, the night, one of rest: so in like 
manner, is there a season for fowls to lay, and 
a season of rest. If you force them to lay out 
of season, you weaken their producing powers, 
and when spring approaches, instead of the 
lively, cackling red-combed hen, you have one 
worn out and unproductive. Look, if you 
please', to the fowls of warmer climates. Do 
they produce more eggs than those of our own 
latitude ? Not at all. And though the earth be 
covered with verdure and the trees clothed with 
a green, umbrageous foliage, yet the dunghill 
fowl rests in her productiveness as the colder 
months approach, and even there she produces 
no more eggs, in the aggregate, than at the 
north. I think that he who is not satisfied 
with the state of things which nature demands, 
is going beyond the province of man in thus 
seeking to bring forth what the God of nature 
never intended to be. 
Not only should we look for such fowls as 
will insure the maximum average number of 
eggs, but the quantity of food that they will con¬ 
sume, must also be brought into account. It 
is often said by persons hawing a favorite vari¬ 
ety of the large breed of fowls, that “ they do not 
consume any more than the smaller breeds.” 
This is said, I presume, without any intention 
to deceive, in many cases, and the error has 
been committed by not having been particular 
to ascertain positively the amount actually fed 
out. Sometimes the house slops furnish half 
enough to feed a couple of dozen of fowls which 
are not brought into the account at all. Again, 
some speak at random, “ guessing ” at the 
amount eaten. Where is the animate being of 
the quadruped kind, that does not eat in pro¬ 
portion to its size ? How can it be expected 
that a fowl like an ostrich will consume no more 
food than one of ordinary size ? It cannot be ; 
and let interested men, who have fowls to sell, 
say what they please on this point, it is incon¬ 
trovertible that large fowls will eat in propor¬ 
tion to their size. This being a fact, large 
breeds can never be so profitable as smaller 
ones, taking all things into consideration. 
The mania now existing in some sections for 
fowls that can walk over a common five-foot 
fence at a single step, is one of the wildest and 
foolishest notions of the age. Nothing but the 
novelty of the thing has brought such fowls 
into notice. Probably in the very countries 
where these mammoth fowls are natives, our 
own native breeds would be hailed as a great 
acquisition. So much for the restless disposi¬ 
tion of men for something new. I would here 
caution every one who feels an interest in fowl 
breeding, to beware of much that emanates 
from the vicinity of Boston, in praise of these 
mammoth breeds. T. B. Miner. 
Clinton , Oneida Co ., N. Y 
WHAT CAN I DO ? 
What one man can do towards arousing a 
spirit of improvement has lately been shown to 
a great extent in Norfolk county, Massachusetts. 
If Marshall P. Wilder had put the question to 
himself, and then sat down contented, that he 
could do nothing, at the time he first agitated 
the subject of forming the Norfolk-county Ag¬ 
ricultural Society, it is not very likely that 
upwards of twelve hundred ladies and gentle¬ 
men would have sat down together, to enjoy 
the pleasures of a social dinner, as they did 
last fall, at their second aniversary. 
What Can a Woman Do ? is a question some¬ 
times asked by the same class of do-nothing 
men, who put the first question. In that county, 
the farmers’ wives and daughters have proved 
themselves capable of infusing such life and 
spirit into the mass, by the interest they have 
taken in the annual fairs, that they are now 
looked upon as the great anniversary holidays, 
and reunions of society. 
Sensible Premiums .—Among other sensible 
things connected with this society, is the offer 
of liberal premiums for the best family-baked 
bread. At the last fair, there were sixty ladies 
with a hundred and seventy-five loaves, com¬ 
peting for the prize, or rather, prizes. Colonel 
Wilder gave two silver cups, and several other 
gentlemen gave three or four half barrels of 
flour, and twenty dollars in cash. Some of the 
bread offered was surpassingly excellent, while 
the other was just such bread as one half the 
