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RURAL NEW-YORKER 
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Although most of them are now well known, 
and their habits have been described by Mr, 
Wallace, it is a significant fact that D’ Al¬ 
bertis was able to discover in New Guinea 
the home of one of the most elegant of them 
all—the six plumed Bird of Paradise ( Paro - 
tia sexipennis). This was a species which 
escaped the researches of Mr. Wallace, 
and the Dutch travelers only managed to 
procure females or immature males. We 
have now seen the birds in their full beauty 
for the first time. The following notice of 
their capture was communicated by D’ Al¬ 
bertis to the Zoological Society: 
“ Although this species has been described 
many years, it is not j'et accurately under¬ 
stood, having only been described from birds 
in a mutilated condition. My observations 
have been made in the natural haunts of 
these elegant birds, from numerous speci¬ 
mens both living and dead. 
“ These birds are found in the north of 
New Guinea. I met with them about thirty 
miles from the coast, at an elevation of 3,G00 
feet above the level of the sea, near Mount 
Arfak. I have never found the adult male 
in company with females or young birds, 
but always in the thickest parts of the forests. 
The female and young male birds I have 
generally found in a much lower zone. 
“This Paradise Bird is very noisy, uttering 
a note like ‘ gnaad-gnaad.’ it feeds upon 
various kinds of fruits, more especially on a 
species of fig which is very plentiful in the 
mountain ranges ; at other times I have ob¬ 
served it feeding on a small kind of nutmeg. 
To clean its rich plumage this bird is In the 
habit, where the ground is dry, to scrape, 
similar to a gallinaceous bird, a round place 
clear of all gl ass and leaves, and in the dust 
produced by the clearing to roll over und 
over again, at the same time crying out, ex¬ 
tending and contracting its plumage, elevat¬ 
ing the brilliant silvery crest on the upper 
part of the head, and also the six remarkable 
plumes from which it derives the specific 
napie of sexipennis. On seeing its eccentric 
movements at this time, and hearing its cries, 
one would consider it engaged in a light 
with some imaginary enemy. This bird is 
named ‘ coran-a * by the natives, I have 
also a skeleton of a young male of this species 
which, although not in a perfect state, may 
no doubt be interesting as showing the form 
of the cranium, on which there is an admi¬ 
rable muscular structure which enables the 
bird to elevate the leathers of the head. The 
feathers at thenupe of the neck exhibit, when 
the rays of light strike upon them, a rich and 
brilliant metallic hue. The eyes are of a 
light blue, with a circle of a pale yellowish- 
green color.” 
be found, the human race not being exempt; 
but this has naught to do with the subject 
of being “ too fat” in a general way. 
Meat may be too fat, but the lean of very 
fat meat is nicer than that from an animal 
with little upon it; and the fattest animals, 
if not carried to excess, always command 
the best price, and at Christmas the extra 
prize-fed cattle sell high, too. However, it 
is intended to conclude this piece without 
reference to auything beyond the folly of 
talking or writing about young stock being 
“ too fat.” 
Should any of those fine old gentlemen 
w ho write, “ It is a rule of theirs to guard 
against having young stock too fat,” happen 
to see these remarks on their opinion, &c., 
it would be satisfactory to have proof of the 
correctness of their theory ; for instance, 
they might point out some horses which 
wore injured for life by being too fat when 
colts ; they might also give instances of 
breeders of several different breeds of cattle 
who have ruined their herds by having their 
calves and yearlings too fat ; and perhaps 
they may adduce numerous cases of Ameri¬ 
can agriculturists having permanently in¬ 
jured their flocks of sheep by keeping their 
iambs and tegs too fat ; and if this is satis¬ 
factorily explained, it will show how it is 
there is no sheep husbandry excepting iso¬ 
lated eases. What a pity farmers should be 
prone to make their young stock too fat ! 
A Working Farmer. 
-♦♦♦- 
NORFOLK RED-POLLED CATTLE. 
JUNE GRASS 
BLUE 
te Holism ait. 
TOO FAT.” 
Whoever saw young stock too fat '( In a 
good agricultural paper, a writer cautions an 
inquirer about “ Getting young animals too 
fat 1” Now to commence with the noble 
horse, who among the thousands reading of 
too much fat ever saw a colt, having proper 
liberty for exercise, too fat ! and supposing 
a natural good constitution combined with 
his owner’s good care and liberal feeding 
cause a round, mole-like appearance, how 
will the flesh and fat injure the colt ? Will 
his sleek, plump, happy-lookmg frame make 
the legs ache to carry it about i Did any one 
ever see a colt that nature did not provide 
muscle and bone enough to grow with the 
body unless some booby shut up the animal 
and prevented daily development ? Nature, 
if not interfered with, remedies everything 
of the sort ; and even in confining very young 
stock, the appetite will generally fail, so that 
instead of too much fat a loss of flesh, 
strength and life will follow. A young colt 
too fat, indeed ! 
What next ? Where is the man who owns 
calves too fat f AVho possesses lambs or tegs 
too fat \ Will the objectionable fat prevent 
the wool from growing—or does it injure 
anything young of any variety whatever 
which has natural liberty ? 
It is a miserably poor heart that cannot 
feel pleasure at the sight of happiness ; and 
what so suggestive of enjoyment of life as 
fat ? Too much of it, forsooth. ! Why, breed¬ 
ers use all their powers of production in giv- j 
ing a natural aptitude to fatten ; but m cat¬ 
tle of the bovine race, working oxen may be ( 
too fat but nature provides the remedy'; and 
with horses, however fat they may become 
when at rest, the means of reducing the fat 
without injury to the sinews and constitu¬ 
tion are understood by every good horseman. 
Once in a while a monstrosity' of fat will 
0. G. Burbank asks for a fuller description 
of this stock than has appeared in the Kural 
New'-Yorker, We do not know that we 
can add much to what hat already been pub¬ 
lished. You att says :—“Until the begin¬ 
ning of the last century and for some years 
afterward, the native breed of Norfolk be¬ 
longs to the middle-horns. They have, how* 
ever, been almost superseded by 7 a polled 
breed. From a very early period, a great 
part of the Galloway cattle were prepared 
for the Smithfield market on the pastures of 
Norfolk and Suffolk. Some of the Galloways, 
accidentally, or selected on account of their 
superior form and quality, remained in Nor¬ 
folk ; and the farmer attempted to neutral¬ 
ize and to rear in his owrn county a breed of 
cattle so highly valued in the London market. 
To a certain degree he succeeded, and thus 
the polled cattle gradually gained upon the 
horned, and became so much more numerous 
and profitable than the old sort, that they 
began to be regarded as the peculiar and 
native breed of the county 7 . They retain 
much of the general form of their ancestors, 
the Galloways, but not all their excellences. 
They have been enlarged but not improved 
by a southern climate and a richer soil. They 
are usually red : some, how ever, arc black, 
or either of these colons mixed with white, 
with a characteristic golden circle about the 
eye. They are taller than the Galloways, 
but thinner in the chine, flatter iu the ribs, 
longer in the legs, somewhat better milkers, 
of greater weight when fattened, but not 
fattening so kindly, and the meat not quite 
equal in quality.” 
It should be remembered that the descrip¬ 
tions above given was written many years 
previous that given by' Mr. Fulcher on page 
3$7, Rural New-Yorker, April 20, 1872; 
and yet there is agreement as to the origin 
and general characteristics of this brood. 
We cannot inform our correspondent where 
ho can get fuller information, except by 
writing to Mr. Thomas Fulcher. Ehnham, 
Norfolk, Eng., whom we quoted iu 1872. 
-♦»» ■ ■ ■ 
MR. DICKSON'S SICK COW. 
Some writers in the agricultural journals 
have been discussing the question of the 
identity of these two somewhat similar 
grasses. That they differ, is certain; and 
this difference i3 important practically, how¬ 
ever alight it may be theoretically. Blue 
grass starts earlier in spring than June grass 
does ; starts more vigorously, yields more 
feed in its Beason for pasturage, and contin¬ 
ues its growth much later. And for hay, it 
yields a larger and better crop. Moreover, 
it stands drouth better. 
Aside from the difference in stem and 
seed stalk, and the difference in bulb or 
tuber, the Kentucky blue grass has a fac¬ 
ulty of spreading by its roots, to the crowd¬ 
ing out of all other grasses, not even except¬ 
ing tine grass and quack. Aud, like white 
clover, it also lias the peculiarity of coming 
I In where it ha* never been sown. On the 
W estern prairies, where the foot of man and 
! his domesticated beast tread, little patches 
I or green mats of blue grass mark bright 
spots of a peculiar green that one’s ey'e may 
detect as far off aa he w'ould recognize a 
familiar friend; aud that spot will spread 
and crowd out prairie grass and weeds, and 
other green spots will rise, far and near, to 
cheer and keep it company. Other grasses— 
even quack and June grass—don’t do this. 
But blue grass is significant in its name. 
The stalk near its base has a hue correspond¬ 
ing to this name, not found in the June or 
quack. On my' own premises, within the 
same square foot, 1 have dug as intruding 
weeds, the past season, unmistakable quack 
grass, genuine June grass and veritable Ken¬ 
tucky' blue grass, und no observing ey'e could 
be at a loss to discern the difference and 
recognize each aud all. The June grass and 
quack were old settlers; but blue grass 
has never been sown or cultivated in this 
region, and is a new comer with me, with¬ 
out visible cause for its appearing, as it is 
found introducing itself at the Wcst. 
■ I would like to hear from Rural readers 
elsewhere on this unsown aud unknown ap¬ 
pearance of so welcome a stranger. Facts, 
and not the theory that inaugurates it, are 
what is called for. 
My r soil is it shale or slaty clay—quite dis¬ 
similar to that of its native Kentucky or its 
adoptec^prairiealiment; aud its peculiarities 
of early and late verdure and unrivalled 
richness for pasturage, and its driving out. 
capacity over all inferior grasses, cannot fail 
to win for it the desire of dairymen and 
herdsmen to make its better acquaintance. 
Eureka Place, Attica, N. Y. S. Folsom. 
- *-*■+ - 
THE COW-HORN TURNIP. 
unprogressive men. I am a believer in max¬ 
imum crops, and in the possibility of getting 
them, whenever the right means are used. 
There are always croakers and skeptics 
enough ready to throw doubt upon any suc¬ 
cess that rises above the level of their own 
achievements* But they have never yet 
been able to stop the wheels of time, to 
change the laws of growth, nor to arrest the 
development of crops at the limit of their 
own experience. 
Now the real value of a product, like Mr. 
Dickey’s, (when established, as in this case, 
by competent testimony,) is that it points 
out a distinct possibility, and challenges the 
intelligence and skill of the whole country to 
aim at a higher standard of production. 
The well-timed sagacity of the editor of the 
Rural has extended the fame of the Penn¬ 
sylvania farmer and his prolific acres, by 
bringing them to the knowledge of hundreds 
of thousands in the same vocation, who will 
not fall to profit by the example. If, now, 
the proprietor of the Rural would obtain 
from Air. Dickey all the details of that 
crop, including the methods of processes, 
and, above all, the actual coat per bushel for 
the grain , and would give these facts to the 
public in a future number, the whole coun¬ 
try would be under still greater obligations, 
both to the farmer and the editor. 
Morrisania, New York. Conrad Wilson: 
BROWICK WHEAT. 
In Rural New-Yorker, Jan. 31, page 74, 
Wm. Dickson describes the condition of his 
cow and asks advice. 1 saw, some time ago, 
in the American Agriculturist, an account of 
a horse which was so afflicted, with a reme¬ 
dy'. This remedy I have found effective in 
my subsequent experience. I have also heard 
of cows with the same complaint. I subjoin 
an account of the disease aud remedy'; per¬ 
haps it may' be useful. 
This horse would eat and drink and appear 
to swallow, but on raising his head, would 
tlirow the food out. On examination, by 
opening his mouth, drawing the tongue to 
one side—any person owning a horse will 
understand the operation—and putting my 
hand down his throat, 1 there found the 
cause, which was a short stick, crosswise in 
the throat, which of course 1 took out, and 
the horse was well. Of course, in a case of 
a cow, iustead of drawing out the tongue I 
use a clevis. B. S. Horton. 
Some of our readers will no doubt remem¬ 
ber that we gave an illustration and de¬ 
scription of this turnip in the Rural New- 
Yorker, Dec. 7, 1872, remarking at the time 
that we did not understand why this old 
variety' was not more generally' cultivated. 
From what we have seen of this variety' 
during the past, half dozen y'ears, it will 
yield at least three times as much per acre 
as the common strap-leaf or purple-top sorts. 
The past season is no exception, arid some 
of our neighbors who have tried it for the 
first time are well pleased with the result. 
We see that some authors say it is not quite 
so rich as the globular sorts, and it gets 
spongy and soft towards spring; but even 
if it possesses these faults, the immense 
y'ield appears to over-balance them. 
Perhaps this cow-horn turnip is not as 
good in other localities as where we. have 
seen it: but what have our readers, having 
experience with it, got to say, either for or 
against t A turnip that will grow a foot 
long and lour inches in diameter occupies no 
more ground Ilian one of the same diameter 
and not more than two or three inches in 
thickness, consequently this cow-horn shape 
seems to be an advantage over the globular. 
- 4 -*-*- 
MR, DICKEY’S CORN CROP. 
From a friend in Bedford, Eugland, I re¬ 
ceived samples of fall and spring varieties of 
the above cereal, and near the middle of 
October, 1872, the fall or winter wheat was 
dibbled iu with phosphates and other ma¬ 
nures, as was some of the Fultz winter 
wheat of the Department of Agriculture at 
IFushiugtou. The immense quantity of snow 
so fully protected it from the rigors of the 
part winter that it was green and thrifty 
when the snow went away in the spring. 
Both varieties grew finely until the June and 
early July drouth, which injured the plump¬ 
ness of the kernel to some extent, und no 
doubt accelerated the time of ripening. 
In the amount of yield there was little dif¬ 
ference; but the Fultz was about four days 
the earlier. Neither showed uny signs of 
rust, aud there was no perceptible difference 
in the length of straw or the stiffness of the 
same. Had the winter been less favorable, 
no doubt both varieties would have suc¬ 
cumbed, as winter wheat commonly does in 
this latitude. 
A few weeks later I was pleased to receive 
from the same source a further sample of a 
superior strain of the same variety of spring 
wheat. This was sown the 28th of April 
last, and grew rather slowly, in consequence 
of the severe and protracted drouth. 
Neither did subsequent rains in August re¬ 
vive it, as I expected, and from similar fail¬ 
ures of the same variety in Michigan, I infer 
that it is not hardy enough to stand the se¬ 
vere drouthB so common in this country, 
but unfrequent in England. Had the two 
results been more dissimilar, I should have 
attributed the failures to a mismanagement 
hi cultivation. However, I shall make a fur¬ 
ther experiment this coming season, and re¬ 
port results for the benefit of the ruralists. ' 
South Pittsfield, N. II. G. a. d. 
-*"*"*- 
FIELD NOTES. 
Feed for Butter Making Cows.— Mm. J. 
T., in Massachusetts Ploughman, says, “En¬ 
glish hay and Indian meal are the' feed for 
cows that make butter.” 
It is gratifying to find that the Rural 
New-Yorker appreciates the valued impor¬ 
tance to the public of such an agricultural 
success as the corn crop of Mr. Dickey, de¬ 
scribed in Rural, Jan. 24. Though the pro¬ 
duct per acre in this case, remarkable as it 
is, does not by any means stand alone, hav¬ 
ing been not only equalled, but surpassed, 
yet it so far exceeds the ordinary products 
of husbandry as to attract wide and well-de¬ 
served attention. Such examples exert a 
healthy influence by stimulating enterprise, 
and refuting the doubts and prejudices of 
“ The Grafting of Potatoes,” a, correspond¬ 
ent of the Rural New-Yorker writes, “has 
recently' been recommended to be introduced 
for the eventuality and purpose of combin¬ 
ing the good qualities of two different sorts 
into one. Select of the potutoes which has 
your preference the very best and soundest 
specimens; cut out iu a careful way, with a 
pen-knife, the buds or eyes; cut them out 
about one inch deep and one-half to three- 
fourths of an inch diameter, in the form of a 
pyramid, i. e., that the hole in the potato 
runs in to a point on the end or inside ; then 
take of the other potato a piece, if possible, 
with from one to three buds or eyes; fit 
it in as good and tight as you possibly' can, 
aud tie up with a (bass) string in the quick¬ 
est possible manner. To fasten the inserted 
piece more effectually, a ham-pin may be put 
in from each side. Potatoes grafted in this 
manner should be, as soon as this oper¬ 
ation is perfected, placed in damp grouud 
and well covered up. If the cuts grow out— 
that is, if the two different pieces join—the 
operation is a success.” 
To Chech Potato Rot in potatoes after 
they are stored, it is recommended to store 
them in a dry place ar.d expose them, from 
time to time, to the fumes of burning sul¬ 
phur. It will prevent further infection, 
without injuring the potato. 
