man who advertises in the Rural 2mew- 
Yorker, inclosing the amount you wish to 
invest in seed, will bring the article by re¬ 
turn mail to your post-office. When the seed 
arrives, soak in warm water Torton or twelve 
hours, then drain off the water, and stir in a 
little dry sand, to take up the surplus moist¬ 
ure and permit the seed to separate readily 
when sown. Sow thinly, in drills, covering 
two or three inches deep. Cultivate the 
plants during the summer, and secure as 
large a growth as possible. Next spring, 
t ransplant into rows four feet apart, and the 
plants two feet from each other in the row. 
Make the soil as rich as you please, and cover 
the plants five or six inches deep. If the 
weeds grow too rank among the plants hi 
summer, and you have any old salt to throw 
away, scatter it over the lied ; this will kill 
weeds, and not injure the asparagus; but 
keep salt away from a newly-planted bed— 
that is, plants that have not started into 
growth. After the first season, salt may be 
applied in large quantities, and usually with 
These plain, positive statements of the plant 
itself would seem to warrant the belief that 
the sap of a plant may be frozen and yet the 
plant be uninjured, provided it is thawed 
under favorable conditions. And yet Mr. 
Meehan - says : — “ Wei!, all the great names 
may tell us the plant was frozen through— 
the plant itself may, 'as our New England 
correspondent says it does, say it is frozen 
through, but wo prefer common sense, and 
EFFECTS OF FROST ON PLANTS 
In the April number of the Gardeners’ 
Monthly, in an article on the freezing of sap 
in plants (in reply to an article in the New 
England Farmer) I find some things that 
provoke, if not criticism, at least further 
investigation. (And, by the wav, this is one 
reason 1 like the Gardeners’ Monthly. It 
will excite thought and careful observation.) 
The editor holds that if the sap of a plant, 01 
vegetable of any kind, is frozen, it necessarily 
and inevitably results in the death of the 
plant. He says, “ Life cannot be sustained 
at ho low a temperature as 32°.” An appeal 
to the plant itself is favored, and this is 
doubtless the proper way to settle such con¬ 
troversies. Rut if its statements arc to be 
impeached, 1 cannot sec that such appeal 
can aid in a determination of t he question. 
This is not a new doctrine, originating with 
Mr. Meeman. From numerous experiments 
in 1766, John Hunter concluded “That 
plants, when in u state of actual vegetation, 
or even in such a state as to be capable of 
vegetating under certidu circumstances, must 
be deprived of their principle of vegetation 
before they can be frozen. ’ And, again, 
“ But the question is this Is every tree 
dead that is frozen ( I can only say that in 
all the experiments I ever made upon trees 
her os the “ People’s Practical Poultry book 
prescribes, and I am sure that for a few days 
she got better, lmt upon a careful examina¬ 
tion about four days after, 1 found that she 
was crop-bound; I opened the crop and le- 
moved the cont ents, sewed it up, and the hen 
teas better. She continued to feed aud drink 
well for the next ten days, when, one morn¬ 
ing, I found her very sick, and dead the next 
morning. Upon opening her 1 found four 
eggs iu the egg-passage, varying in size from 
one apparently full grown to the size of a 
hazle-mit. No shell on them. They were all 
hard, and formed in layers, 1 could hardly 
cut the largest with a sha rp knife. Perhaps 
I should say t hey were tough instead of hard. 
The largest was evidently ready to shell 
when the hen’s difficulty began, and out of 
one end of it protruded something having 
the apnea ranee u large paper string, three 
The above may be “common sense, but 
in the absence of his former articles on the 
subject , it has much the appearance of an 
adherence to a theory in the face of incon¬ 
trovertible facts. 
I have not'written the above in any cap¬ 
tions or fault-finding spirit, but for the sole 
purpose of leading to closer observation and 
the development of more light. 
Kokomo, Tnd. L J- Templin'. 
DAILY RURAL LIFE 
From the Diary of ci Gentleman near New 
York City. 
A PIN-CONSUMING ROOSTER 
We killed n young rooster a few days since, 
in the gizzard of which were eleven pins, in 
a little bunch like a sheaf of wheat, with the 
points downward. Tho gizzard around them 
was torn, and was becoming green. Mani¬ 
festly this rooster showed a. strong preference 
for pins, and must have put himself to some 
trouble in order to collect them ; but how do 
you account for tins propensity. Also do 
you think he would, in course of time, have 
digested them, or would they have caused his 
death ( I will mention that this same fowl, 
before the chopping off of liis head, seemed 
in remarkably liue spirits, and as strong and 
well as any of his brothers. Curious. 
East Orange, March S». 
holding and teaching the doctrine that a 
temperature of 32 cannot be endured by a 
plant and the life of the plant be preserved. 
But, notwithstanding these high authorities, 
whom 1 delight, to follow iu most things, on 
an appeal to the plant itself, which they have 
encouraged me to make, 1 feel compelled to 
accept tho statements of the plant ill opposi¬ 
tion, as it appears to me, to their teachings. 
Prof. Leconte teaches t hat the sap of trees 
and shrubs does become frozen without the 
slightest damage to them. Pictet and 
MANKicOof Geneva made observat ions on a 
horse chestnut tree, from 179(5 to 1800, which \ 
developed the fact that there was not more 
than 0,04 Of a degree's difference between the 
temperature of the center of the tree and the 
atmosphere surrounding it. In 1888 Holder 
found trees below the freezing point and in a 
congealed state, without injury to theii vi¬ 
tality. Many other experiments, made by 
the most Able and careful observers, go to 
prove the same point. During the past win¬ 
ter we have had a temperature as low as AH' 
Fall. It froze through thirteen-inch brick 
walls. Are we to believe that the sup in 
an apple tree three inches in diameter could 
resist such a degree of cold and not congeal ' 
Even the brandies and BmaU twigs endure it 
and live. Now, one of three things is true : 
1. Tho sap does not freeze at all, or, 2, it 
freezes without injury to the plant; or, 3, 
there is no sap in the tree or plant at the 
time of the cold weather. A.S to the first, we 
have the evidence of our senses that it is fro¬ 
zen. By chopping into a tree during a long- 
continued spell of very cold weather, it will 
lie found that the cells of the wood are Med 
with small particles of ice. A turnip may be 
taken from a pit so hard that, it can scarcely 
be cut with a knife; by scraping, it will be 
found full of icy particles. That a tree or 
plant can survive this freezing is evident 
from the fact that forest trees do survive the 
cold, even of high northern latitudes. As 
suggested by the correspondent of the New 
England Farmer, the roots of vegetables do 
freeze and survive. That they are frozen is 
evident, from the fact, as 1 stated above, they 
arc. found full of ice, and if one is taken and 
thawed in a warm atmosphere, or in tepid 
water, its texture will be destroyed and it 
will be soft and spongy ; while those left in 
CHICKENS’ HEADS DENUDED 
I HAVE some very fine Light Brahmas that 
are troubled with souia kind of vermin. 1 
don’t know what it is ; the feathers come off 
of their heads, i have some common hens, 
too, but they don’t seem to be affected. 1 
keep the hennery clean, and I don’t know 
what to make out of it. It comes sudden ; 
in less than twelve hours the heads are as 
dean as if they were shaved off. Will the 
Editor or the' readers of the Rural give a 
remedy? Please say what it is. 1 don’t 
think they are lice, because I never saw any¬ 
thing like it before. A SUBSCRIBER. 
Indianapolis, Ind. 
CUTTING A COCKS COMB. 
Please inform your subscriber (see Ru¬ 
ral New-Yokkkr, March 15, page 173,) that 
he can cut the comb of his cock and not in¬ 
jure him. Hold him so he cannot stir ; then 
take a sharp knife in the right hand, take 
hold of the comb and pull with the left hand 
and cut it close to his head ; a puff-ball and 
Hue feathers will stop the blood. It must be 
stopped or he will die. I know by expe¬ 
rience. J - M - E> 
them in proper shape, is certainly nene- 
liciul, if not positively necessary. If trees 
that have been set in nursery rows or hedges 
fail to make stocky specimens, the leading 
shoots should Vie annually shortened, until 
the requisite form is secured. 
TOP-DRESSINQ ASPARAGUS BED. 
April S.—Has anybody ever seen land too 
rich for asparagus ? 1 never have, and, al¬ 
though my beds are annually top-dressed 
with richest manure to be had, this treat¬ 
ment only provokes a more healthy and vig¬ 
orous growth. The more rank the young 
stems, the better ; consequently, we force 
this plant to the utmost extent without fear 
of injury. If 1 lived on the rich, Western 
prairies, L would try and ascertain the limit 
in size to which Giant Asparagus c.ould be 
grown. Asparagus is such a delicious aud 
healthy vegetable, coming iu just at tho right 
time in spring, to meet a keen appetite for 
rich succulents, it is strange that every fam¬ 
ily does not have a full supply. If a man has 
a poor soil, tmd manure worth two to live 
dollars pea- load, it costs something to raise 
asparagus ; but out in the country, far away 
POULTRY NOTES, 
Hens Eating Eggs.—A correspondent of 
N. E. Homestead says Hens eat their eggs 
because they desire food of the kind of which 
the egg is eompiosed—the shell to procure 
lime, and the yolk aud white to procure al¬ 
bumen and other oily substances. Now' if 
the liens can obtain a sufficient quantity of 
these oily substances iu their daily food, they 
will not eat their eggs. This can be effectu¬ 
ally accomplished by keeping within Teach 
of tho fowls, a constant supply of air slaked 
lime, fat meat and pulverized bona. 
Turkey Raising .—Will some of the many 
readers of the Rural New-Yorker be kind 
enough to give their experience with raising 
turkeys when young ; how and what to feed 
them till they are from three to four weeks 
old ! Please answer through the columns of 
the Rural. —W. M. D., Jlockford, III. 
Yard and Building far 100 Fowls.— A sub¬ 
scriber at Williamstuwn, Oswego Co., N. Y 
asks poultry keepers of experience to furnish 
tlirough the Rural New-Yorker the size, 
plan aud construction of a building, and the 
size of a yard to accommodate 100 fowls. 
