tree of the Lieb injured. From this we may 
reasonably conclude it will prove a valuable 
addition to our limited list of choice, hardy 
cherries. The fruit is about the size cf En¬ 
glish Morello, lighter in color, and so nearly 
sweet that it may be classed with the sweet 
cherries. The tree is a botanical curiosity. 
The twig and bud strongly indicate their 
origin from the Morello family, while the 
leaf as strongly resembles those of the Duke 
family. The fruit, if classed with any of the 
established classes, would be called a heart 
cherry probably. I will only add, that no 
eggs. This shows us that, up to the fifth 
year, hens increase in value, and then are 
better fitted for the soup pot than the hen¬ 
nery. 
The above items we find going the rounds 
or agricultural papers without comment. 
We wish our correspondents who have had 
experience with hens several years of age 
would give the results of their observations, 
in regard to the value of such hens as layers, 
compared with pullets. 
Our r>l .serrations have principally been on 
the Light Brahmas. We have hatched these 
in early spring, arid in summer. If hatched 
the first of March, the pullets often lay in 
August and September. After laying one or 
two broods, they sometimes take a rest aud 
do not lay much till toward spring. 
If the time from hatching till the first of 
January Is reckoned as the first year of a 
hen’s life, the above statement may be true 
as far as that goes. But if the first year is 
reckoned from the time the hen commences 
laying, it is very far from being correct. 
We have always considered the first twelve 
months that hens lay, the most profitable 
year of their fife. At the end of this period 
they have gained their full size but are not 
too old to be good for the table. If then sold, 
there is no lost time after they commence 
laying. If kept longer, they use up several 
weeks or months in moulting, at wluch time 
they produce but very few eggs. Then it 
has been our experience that many of them 
begin to take on fat excessively, which seri¬ 
ously diminishes their value as layers. 
Our losses from accidents and sickness have 
mostly' been among fowls more than eighteen 
months old. 
Whether the conclusions of the German 
naturalist were based on experiments with 
one hen, or with a hundred, or a thousand, 
does not appear. The subject is an import¬ 
ant one and we hope to hear from many of 
our poultry farmers aud correspondents who 
have given the matter their attention .—New 
England Fanner. 
PEARS AND FIGS IN GEORGIA 
AN INEXPENSIVE INCUBATOR, 
I am unable to say anything about the 
Hon. Mr. Wilder’s New England pears or 
those of Mr. Ferris of California, not hav¬ 
ing tasted either ; but I have seen California 
pears in the Augusta market (less than two 
weeks ago) which looked very fine and tempt¬ 
ing, and can certify, from experience, that 
they are far inferior in flavor and little better 
in appearance than what we raise on a 
“Sand Hill” near Augusta, Ga. The pears 
raised here are of great variety and bear re¬ 
markably well, such as the Duchess DeAn- 
gouleme, Belle Lucrative, Jxiuisc Bonne de 
Jersey, &e. This latitude is admirably adapt¬ 
ed to all kinds of fruit, and it only requires 
a little attention and pat ience to have any¬ 
thing you want in the fruit line. 
If wc understood drying figs, we might 
supply the whole world with that commod¬ 
ity ; and it is only surprising that some live 
man don’t make a business of it. Can you, 
or any of your readers, tell us how it is done 
to the greatest advantage ? Fortunes can be 
made here at the South in more ways than 
raisin? cotton, if we. understood everything 
else as well. One of our papers informed 
us, a few days ago, how easy a man made 
$200 on an acre of pecan trees, and advised 
planting pecan nuts, which would flourish 
here equal to any tree in our forests. Send 
out some of your factory operatives that 
have been recently turned out of employ¬ 
ment, and let them see what can be done on 
some of our cheap lands. No excuse for 
starving here if they are willing to work ; 
and there is no use in annexing Cuba to ac¬ 
quire a climate suited to almost anything. 
We expect to see “John Chinaman” making 
tea here after we get our canal finished. Did 
you know we have some 20<i or more of these 
Celestials at that work, and expect our little 
town will become a second Lowell, if we 
don’t get ahead of it ! No stoppage in any 
enterprise in this part of the “ Empire State;” 
and we don’t feel the panic half as much as 
we did a big storm two nights ago, which 
uprooted some of our best shade trees. 
Summerville, Ga. c. 
The pears our correspondent ate from Cal¬ 
ifornia were, of course, picked long before 
they should have been in order to develop 
their best eating qualities — just as the 
oranges we get in the New York market are 
gather ed and are unlit to eat, compared with 
those that mature ou the trees. President 
Wilder, however, has, we think, eaten Cal¬ 
ifornia pears in California, and hence is bet¬ 
ter qualified to make comparison than lie 
would be had lie confined his eating to the 
samples of California pears sent to the Bos¬ 
ton market. 
In 1S71 we published 
Susie St. Clair Smith writes as follows 
to the Poultry Bulletin :—“The idea having 
suggested itself to me during the past spring, 
that the eggs of most domestic fowls might 
be batched by some simple and inexpensive 
process of art ificial incubation, I determined 
to make the experiment; and having suc- 
A. JtltA.NT GrIS AX 111 NT 'D Of 
one, so far as I know, has any ax to grind 
by lauding the Lieb cherry. Very many of 
our nurserymen and amateurs have specimen 
trees from which to propagate if it comes to 
have a market value. But at this time I do 
not know where it could be bought in any 
quantity. 
P0M0L0GICAL GOSSIP 
“ Hybrid Mammoth Crimson ” is the 
name given to a new raspberry found near 
Adams, N. Y. The bush is iu general ap¬ 
pearance like the Black-Cap, though it grows 
more rank and majestic, with few thorns, 
which arc not hooked and sharp like the 
Black-Cap. Wood, reddish cast; leaf re¬ 
sembles but is not identical with that of 
Black-Oap. The berry, in color, taste and 
consistence, is between the Red Antwerp 
and Black-Cap, though very much larger 
than the Black-Caps ; flavor delicious. The 
peduncles arc longer than those of the Black- 
Cap, having a cluster of berries at the end, 
and then back towards the Btalk ure others 
in progress of growth, while the cud cluster 
is ripe, thus prolonging its fruiting time. It 
was discovered on the farm of E. R. Max- 
son, M. D. 
Apples in the Most Northern County in 
Maine. —Mr. Alfred Cushman, Aroostook, 
Co., Me., has some 40 varieties of apples in 
his orchard, and returns as the best of these 
the Dutchess of Oldenburgh, Red Astrachan, 
and Striped Pearmain. His crop in good 
years is from SOU to 400 bushels.” 
CHICKEN CHOLERA 
Like L. E. O. I believe there is such a 
thing as chicken cholera, for 1 have lost over 
half of my chicks; and though they are 
lousy, I do not think that causes the loose¬ 
ness and the running oil of that yellow 
green excrement, nor their setting around 
stilt before they are dead. That the disease 
is incurable I do not know. I am trying a 
recipe 1 found in the Rural New-Yorker, 
of May 3lst—two ounces each of sulphur, 
red popper, alum and rosin ; but in the place 
of rosin I used a small piece of asafetida, but 
cannot tell yet whether it is doing any good 
or not. If it does I shall try to write you. 
My clacks will stop dying before long, for 1 
will not have many more to die. 
Will some one tell me if I can raise chick¬ 
ens here next year i (Jr will I have to keep 
them in a new place i Some assert that I 
will have to wait a year before i can raise 
chickens in the same place. l. j, 
About drying ligs 
in the Rural New-Yorker the following 
process, which has proved satisfactory and 
successful in California after man}' years 
spent in experimenting : — “ Pick the figs 
when thoroughly ripe, dry them on racks, as 
you would other fruit, in the sun, four or live 
days, or until the water they contain is thor¬ 
oughly evaporated. If (there i-s any dew, 
cover them nights. Then place them in a 
vessel perforated with holes, like a colander, 
and dip them into boiling water for about 
one minute, after which again expose them 
to the sun until the surface water is evapo¬ 
rated ; then Jay them in wood, tin, earthen 
or other vessels, and press closely so as to 
exclude the air and cover securely. In this 
way it is asserted ligs have been preserved 
equal to the best imported. The scalding 
answers the double purpose of killing all in¬ 
sect eggs and softening the skin of the fruit 
so that the sugar will come to the surface, 
as may be Be rn ou imported figs. 
LARGE EGGS 
As the Rural New-Yorker is a good me¬ 
dium to circulate articles relating to poultry 
and eggs, I send the following item which 
may attract the attention of some poultry 
keeper in New Jersey or Maine—those States 
having been heard from in reference to the 
size of their eggs. 1 have an egg measuring 
8k,' by 6Vi inches; have had several during 
the post season measuring from 7 to 8 inches. 
My fowls are a cross by Light Brahma 
hens and Black-Breasted Game cocks, which 
has greatly improved the breed in form, 
plumage and delicacy of flavor. If any 
reader of the Rural has seen larger eggs let 
us hear what breed of fowls produced them. 
R. M. Ludlow. 
Oak Burn near Hudson, N. Y, 
A CHEAP WAY WITH CELERY 
Josiah Hoopes in the Tribune says :—In 
preparing celery for keeping through the 
winter we must guard against, undue mois¬ 
ture and excessive freezing as the two great- 
There arc various 
est enemies to our work, 
methods in use, but the following is prac¬ 
ticed by an extensive market gardener near 
Philadelphia, is cheap, and answers every 
■ requirement. First, always have au eye to 
perfect drainage; therefore select a spot 
high and dry. and dig a trench, say 20 to 24 
inches in width, with the sides perpendicular 
und sufficiently deep to allow the tops of the 
celery to reach the surface of the ground 
when standing erect. Place the plants in 
this trench in an upright position, as ccm- 
paetly as possible, and cover over with a 
good thickness of dean straw, to keep out 
the cold. Over this lay boards to act as a 
roof for carrying oil surplus water, and dig 
a gutter ou all sides for the same purpose. 
Thus, both excessive moisture aud cold are 
guarded against, and the celery can be taken 
out at any time. It is needless to add that 
it is always plump and fresh, without uny 
decayed stalks aud leaves to give it an un¬ 
pleasant flavor when dressed for Die table. 
Placing in boxes and barrels is all very well, 
but the foregoing is intended to combine 
cheapness with success, and especially on a 
large scale- 
THE LIEB CHERRY 
POULTRY NOTES. 
Joseph L. Budd, in The Iowa Homestead, 
speaks thus eulogistically of this cherry: 
The parent tree of this variety, it is claimed, 
was brought from Germany twenty-live 
years ago. It still stands in the yard of Mr. 
Lieb, in the city of Galena, Illinois. It is 
still in good condition and bore Die last year 
thirty-four quarts of flue salable fruit, bring¬ 
ing in the Galena market double the price 
paid for the Early Richmond cherry. 
This variety lias been propagated from the 
original tree quite extensively, aud has been 
disseminated quite widely over the Prairie 
States, k seems even hardier than the 
Early Richmond and thrives equally well on 
all our variuty of soils. In many places the 
Richmond was severely injured by our last 
terrible winter, but I have in no case seen a 
Tallow for Gapes.—A correspondent of 
the Field says :—“ One day I noticed a flock 
of 11 pure-bred Crevecceur chickens very bad 
with what is called ‘ gapes.’ I remarked to 
the man who had them in charge that he 
w-ould not have many chickens out of that 
lot. * Oh, never mind,’ said he, ‘ I have got 
a cure for them from a neighboring w r oman ( 
which is a common halfpenny tallow candle 
melted and mixed into about a quart of oat¬ 
meal stirabout.’ The remedy was resorted 
to and Die Crevecoeurs have every one re¬ 
covered and grown into finely developed 
chickens. I have since tried this cure with in¬ 
variable success on Brahmas, Dorkings, &c.” 
Hens Without a Cock .—Will liens, if not 
mated with a cock, lay fewer eggs than 
those that are. for that reason l — Reader. 
EGG PRODUCING CAPACITY OF HENS 
