the following in the Southern Farm and 
Home, which m?iy interest our Southern 
readers :—I have read that an analysis of the 
cotton plant shows that the lint is composed 
as follows : -Carbonate of potash, 44}/ parts; 
phosphate of lime, 25J/ parts ; carbonate of 
lime, U parts; carbonate of magnesia, 6% 
parts ; and silica, 4 parts. The seed gives : 
phosphate of lime, til}/parts ; phosphate of 
and in the proportions to be generally met 
with. 
The only important muscles are those 
which compose the flesh, from which are 
formed the breast, the thigh, the leg and the 
wing. All the others are slender and only 
furnish a little for table use. It is of little 
use to give the names of these muscles, but 
they may be seen in Fig. 4, the places they 
occupy and the space that the feathers fill in 
completing the appearance of the live fowl. 
People often confound the thigh, the leg, 
the foot and toes of the hen ; and so It is with 
nearly all animals. One expects to see her 
walk on the foot, though she walks like them 
on the toes. The horse walks on one toe. The 
ostrich, the sheep, the ox walk on two toes, 
the grallics on three, the hen, the lark on 
four, &c. The monkeys walk on the foot, 
and is like man, a plantigrade. Thus it is 
evident that the tarsus of the. hen Is the foot 
that she would rest on the ground if she 
walked like man ; the end opposite the toes 
is the heel. Some varieties of fowls have five 
or six toes, but they do not all rest on the 
ground alw'ays. 
SAWDUST AS A FEEDING MATERIAL 
THE POULTRY-KEEPER. No. 1 
A number of carefully-conducted experi¬ 
ments on the digestibility of woody fiber have 
led to the conclusion that the latter is assim¬ 
ilated by the animal organism in proportion¬ 
ately' speaking larger quantities, to the ex¬ 
tent even of 7<) per cent., instead of 24 per 
percent., under a poor than under a liberal 
system of feeding (as regards quality of the 
diet). 
According to the well-known journal ed¬ 
ited by Stockhardt, Der Chemisette Ackers- 
mann, several lots of five to six year old 
wether sheep had shown, on a trial being 
made, that they' were capable of digesting 
ah much us 80 per cent, of the woody fiber 
of paper pulp, .50 per cent, of that of poplur, 
and 27 per c,< 
M. Jacque is reputed among poultry men 
one of the. best authorities upon poultry¬ 
keeping and poultry-judging ; lienee we copy 
wlmt follows from his work as reprinted in 
Cottage Gardener : 
ANATOMY Of THE HEN 
We think it useless to give long descrip¬ 
tions of the interior anatomy of the hen, or 
the formation of the ovary, or the symptoms 
of all the ailments, &c. We have more need 
of knowing some points in the natural his¬ 
tory of the fowls. Thus, for example, which 
varieties have certain muscles more or lees 
developed ; that the plumage in each kind 
should have certain colors and certain ar¬ 
rangements ; that the formation of a cer¬ 
tain organ is the indication of a particular 
quality, &e. We shall not review all the 
suppositions that have been made on the 
mysteries of fecundation or of incubation ; it. 
is enough for us to say that one kind lays 
little or much, that its eggs are large or small, 
that the time of incubation lasts about 21 
days, and t hat such and such means are taken 
to facilitate and protect the hatching of the 
chickens, &c. We shall confine ourselves to 
detailing that which is useful in practice, and 
we shall not trouble ourselves as to what the 
hen was in olden times, nor what the ancients 
say about it. 
ut. of that of pine wood. 
Notwithstanding, however, Die nutritive 
qualities possessed by so cheap and univer¬ 
sally abundant a material, no practical 
application resulted from the experience 
thus gained until dearth of provender and 
the high price |of straw at length induced 
Mr. Lehmann, of the Tharander Agronomic 
Institution, to take up the subject afresh. 
Mr. L. commencing his trial of woody fiber 
in the form of sawdust, with ten cows and 
one in-calf lielfer, endeavored to obtain re¬ 
liable information on the following points: 
1. Will cattle, without being driven toil, 
by excessive hunger, cat sawdust, when the 
latter is mixed with their other food? 
2. Can sawdust be advantageously em¬ 
ployed as a substitute for straw in feeding 
horned stock? 
2. Have resin and the essential oils con¬ 
tained in pine wood sawdust any effect, fa¬ 
vorable or the reverse, on the composition 
of the milk and butter? 
4. What effect has long continued feeding | 84 % parts of phosphor 
with sawdust (mixed of course with other 
materials) on the health and condition of 
cattle? 
The total live weight of the animals was 
10,800 pounds, and they had been receiving 
dally, per l,00() pounds live weight, the fol¬ 
lowing mixture: 
34.7 lbs. sliced turnips, | ... ,, „„ . _ 
7.2 lbs. out shells, Mixed and then molst- 
3.5 lbs. chopped oat straw, f eu ? u wlth lukewarm 
5.3 lbs. grains, J 
0.5 lbs bran / Those (after the bran bad been 
3.3 lbs. rune’cake J boiled in water) were added 
or ,,, * *) to the above. 
Correction, —Please allow me to correct 
an error of mine in my “Experience with 
Fowls” in your issue of May 80. “Of 72 
eggs set under 3 good sized, ordinary fowls,” 
J placed 18 eggs under each hen, and thought 
I had so stated until I saw the account in 
print.—R. H. Clayton. 
Fig. 1. 
potassa, 31% parts; sulphate of potassa, 2% 
parts; and silica, 1}/ parts. Now, if this 
analysis be correct, and I suppose it is, it is 
evident that phosphoric and carbonic gas 
are the chief gases, and potash and lime the 
principal bases which compose the cotton 
plant,, and that, the fertilizer which contains 
these in the greatest degree must be the best 
suited to the cotton crop. The common 
cow-pea, in my Opinion, Alls the bill exactly. 
It is easily raised, will grow on any soil, and 
costs very little. An analysis has shown that 
100 parts of the ash of the cow pea contains 
l ie acid ; 40% parts of 
potash ; 0% parts of lime ; 5}./ parts of sul¬ 
phuric acid ; anil 0% parts of magnesia. The 
pea vine gives 33 parts of lime ; 17}/ parts of 
potash ; 14% parts of carbonic acid ; 4}/ 
parts of phosphoric acid ; silica, 5}/ parts ; 
5}/ parts sulphuric acid; magnesia, 9% 
parts, I cannot, vouch for the perfect ac¬ 
curacy of these figures, but they are suffi¬ 
ciently correct fur all practical purposes, and 
demonstrate conclusively to my mind that 
to renovate our worn lands and make them 
fertile for the production of our great staple, 
we have no better agent than the oe-i aon 
cow-pea. 
Thu next thing is how to use the pea to 
attain the desired result. Some say turn 
the vines under when they mature and before 
they wither. Others recommend that they 
be allowed to decay upon the ground. The 
objection to the first mentioned way is that 
the soil is exposed to the hot sun, and is thus 
robbed of much of its fertility ; and the ob¬ 
jection to the latter plan is that by leaving 
the leaves and stalks of the vines to rot dur¬ 
ing the winter, much of their fertilizing 
properties is lost. Good farmers advocate 
both plans. I am in favor of liming the 
vines when they are matured, aud turning 
I hem under in a green state. If sown about 
the first or middle of June they are ready to 
plow in about the middle of September, and 
after that time the sun is not powerful 
enough to do much damage, at least not 
enough to make it worth while to 
avoid it by the loss which follows 
leaving the vines to rot by exposure 
to the rains and frosts of winter. 
CARE OF GOLD FISH 
Will some of your readers answer the 
following questions through the columns of 
the Rural ? What is the average life of 
goldfish? Should the aquarium be set in 
the sun or in the shade ? bo they need hard 
or soft water i Do they need to ho fed 
daily < If so, what is the best food ?—M. B. 
Seth Green is reported to have given the 
following directions for the management of 
gold fish :—Use any well, creek or river 
water that is not impregnated with mineral. 
Change the water when the fish come to the 
top and stay there, and breathe part water 
and part air. Take out nearly ail the water, 
leaving enough for the fish to swim in, aud 
fill the vessel with lresli water. Never take 
the fish in your hand. If the aquarium 
needs cleaning, make a net of mosquito net¬ 
ting, and take the fish out in it. There are 
many gold fish killed by handling. Keep 
your aquarium clean, so that the water 
looks as dear as crystal. Watch the fish a 
little and you will tiud out when they are all 
right. Feed them all they will eat and any¬ 
thing they w'lll eat, worms, meat, fish wafer, 
or fish spawn. Take great care that you 
take all that they do not eat out of the 
aquarium. Any decayed meat or vege¬ 
table in water has the same smell to lisli 
that it has to you in air. If your gold fish 
die, it is attributable, as a rule, to one of 
three causes—handling, starvation, or bad 
water. 
Fig. 2. Fig. 3. 
A, The head, length 2« inches: G, The neck, 
length 5H Inches; C, The buek or spine; t>, 
The hips or hip-bones; (the hack and hips 
comprise from the shoulder to the tall;) 
length, 511-10 Inches; E, Rump or coccygle, 
length lVj indies; P, The shoulder-blade or 
shoulder; G, Collar bone or merrythought; 
II, The cliest or thorax, composed of the side* 
and breastbone (hone of the throat); it con¬ 
tains the heart, liver, <5rc.; I, The breastbone, 
length a little over SVi inches; J, The wing 
hones composed of- a, (Fig. 2,) the humerus 
or shoulder-bone of the wing, length :i 1-7 
inches; 5, the radius and the cubitus, t he fore¬ 
arm or pinion, length U& inches; 0. the t ip of 
the wing, ortbat which takes the place of t he 
hand and lingers, length 2 1-3 Inches; K, The 
leg, composed of d, (Fig. 3.) the thigh bone, 
3 1-7 inches; t, the shin bone, length 4 1-3 
indies; /, tin* bone of the foot, the tarsus, 
length 31-7 Inches; g, the claws, that of the 
middle, length 2 1-3 Inches; the two to the 
right and left, length J <1-10 Inch; that of the 
back, length 8-10 Inches; )i, the patella or 
knee; f, the os calcis or heel. 
However, some knowledge of the anatomy 
of a fowl is indispensable, and we begin with 
the skeleton of a hen ; this skeleton covered 
with muscles, and these muscles covered 
with feathers. We shall add the particular 
anatomy of the head, of which each part 
often serves to characterize the variety, and 
PISCICULTURAL NOTES 
Success with Trout—Information Asked 
for. —Mr. 18. 13. Sprout, Lycoming Co,, Fa., 
expresses the opinion “that all trout ponds 
manipulated after the rules or directions 
laid down in all published works are a fail¬ 
ure,” aud adds, “ We leant light.” There¬ 
fore he asks Mr. Fred. Mather “ to tell 
through the Rural New-Yorker how 
many large or mature brook trout he has 
raised or sold, and to give us the names of 
some parties who have been successful in 
raising the same, the amount they have fur¬ 
nished the market, &e,, &c.” He adds, 
“ Come FRED., let us foot up the account in 
the brook trout business before we com¬ 
mence on the grayling.” 
Shad in the Hudson .—A letter addressed 
to Seth Green by Capt. Fairbanks, who is 
perfectly familiar with the subject, states 
that the shad-fishing iu the Hudson is better 
this season than for twenty years, and that 
his (GREEN’S) noble work begins to tell. In 
connection with this, owing to the high 
price asked for shad in Rochester, Mr. Green 
has arranged to have a supply daily directly 
from the fishermen, in from 18 to 24 hours 
from the river. He is determined to make 
the same arrangement lor other cities un¬ 
less prices come down to a reasonable figure. 
The Grayling Spawn, at tlie Caledonia 
trout ponds are hatching satisfactorilv. No 
doubt in a few' years the grayling w ill be as 
well kuovvu in our cold waters as the trout. 
It is believed that they will increase twice 
as rapidly as the trout, and being much 
hardier will constantly keep up their number 
against the angling brought into operation. 
ECONOMICAL NOTES 
Lime Injurious to Flax. — It is 
claimed that flax is the only crop to N§||| 
which lime is injurious, in Belgium t||| 
it is not considered safe to plant flax 
in less than seven years after the ap¬ 
plication of lime. Wheat ou a freshly 
limed soil has a thinner skin, and the 
flour is richer in gluten. The straw 
is stiller and less liable to lodge. Po¬ 
tatoes, grown on a freshly limed soil, 
are more mealy when boiled, and 
more even in size. Prof. Johnson - : 
claims that it hastens the maturity * 
of the crop. The only experiment we 
ever tried to prove or disprove this, 
W'as with a crop of oats, a portion of 
which was limed, and though sown 
together, the u nlimed portion was ripe 
a week sooner than the other.— Practical 
Farmer. 
Gypsum a Year Old—(II. K. Porter).— 
Gypsum that is fresh ground is as good for 
application to land as that which has been 
ground a year and kept dry in bulk. The 
latter may have absorbed something from 
the atmosphere, but not enough to make it 
of materially greater value, in our judgment- 
Fig. 4. 
A, The place of the breast or white meat; these 
muscles begin at the shoulders and extend 
to the abdomen, and fill each side of the 
breastbone; U, The crop; C, The wing; D, 
The thigh and the leg. 
we shall conclude our anatomical notes with 
describing and drawing the different feathers 
with which the hen is covered. 
The engraving (Fig. 1) represents the skel¬ 
eton of an ordinary hen of an average size, 
COW PEA AS A FERTILIZER FOR COTTON 
One of the correspondents of the Rural 
New-Y orker recently asked concerning the 
fertilizing properties of this pea. We find 
