math is being grazed by the time the wheat 
is ripe ; for it has been so long understood 
that green crops cut from the land before 
the bloom has passed, or prior to coming 
into bloom, does not impoverish, or at any 
rate comparatively, far less so than when it 
seeds. 
In the year 1S3C I had charge of a beauti¬ 
ful estate more than twenty miles west of 
Banbury, on which was a magnificent park 
with nearly eight hundred deer in it. There 
was an artificial lake of water crossing the 
park in the valley below the mansion ; this 
had the appearaYioe of a river, and below 
was seventy acres which had been mowed 
annually for seventy years, or longer, the 
hay being stacked higher up for the winter 
foddering of the deer : andall the renovation 
had been from the deer when they went on 
it after haying to eat the afterfeed, the 
hurdles, made high for the purpose, being 
removed from July till the next April, The 
hauling away of the hay for so long a period 
had told on the land and the set of grass ; 
for in the winter the deer lay chiefly on the 
upland and in consequence their droppings 
increased the fertility there instead of aiding 
the mowed portion of the park. The noble¬ 
man for whom I acted as bailiff, allowed me 
to change this ; for the hay had gradually 
come down to little more than a ton per 
acre ; so 1 had the great park hurdles set up 
as usual, but instead of mowing I put on 
about two hundred ewes and lambs, about 
thirty yearling heifers und twenty colts, and 
in June set a dozen men with scythes to 
cut grass in the upper portion of the park 
where the grass baa grown rank and had 
not been eaten by the deer, which gave 
nearly as much hay us had formerly come 
from below the water, although while mak¬ 
ing the grass into hay the deer ate heartily 
of it, as all animals will do of herbage when 
it begins to wilt in the aun. 
The next year the lower piece was mowed 
again and t here was a marked improvement. 
After that time it was grazed and mowed 
alternate years, the deer being admitted and 
t he farm stock: removed at the same time 
the year it was grazed os when mowed. I 
was fourteen years on that domain, and 
when I left that seventy acres cut upwards 
of two tons of much better hay than had 
been made when only half the weight was 
grown. Now this is literally correct and 
will show the fallacy of the theory that the 
selling away of meat and wool from land 
will require an equivalent. The explanation 
is easy, being merely what has been before 
stated. When crops are removed green be¬ 
fore perfecting the seed commences, but 
little has been absorbed from below. 
Some dairymen being over-anxious to give 
cows a very’heavy bite, will not turn out to 
grass till late and their stock light; but this 
is not right, for regular old grass land ; the 
reason being bunches will never be eaten at 
all and a great deal of the coarsest grass will 
seed, and in doing so runs out the fine, juicy 
bottom thick-set varieties ; hence the au¬ 
tumn pasturage Is bad and the seeding of 
big gr/Ls.s causes a thin bottom so that bare 
ground can he seen between the grass, and 
weeds spring up, as lias been experienced in 
Cheshire, Eng. and, where the effects of bad 
grazing with cows in summer and the failure 
to have sheep lie in the dairy fields in win¬ 
ter, lias brought on a deterioration which 
centuries of close grazing bud failed to bring 
about before. 
Sheep husbandry, then, is essential to per¬ 
fection in permanent gruss, and good old 
pastures are indispensable to good sheep 
husbandry, where the climate is nob favor¬ 
able for profitable turnip and other root cul¬ 
ture ; and as it is clear to the comprehension 
of every child in agriculture after studying 
the effects of well-established grass, that the 
prosperity of agriculture depends on some 
way of keeping up the standard of the soil, 
and no way presents of doing ho more readily 
than by devoting the most suitable Boil to 
grass, Nevertheless, if ingenuity can devise 
means of providing any easily moved shel- 
a . i .. . . : — __ r. , cm a.., . 
THE PLUMAGE. 
The plumage should be invariably black, 
with white and straw color; those which 
have any red in the plumage should be dis¬ 
carded at once. The plumage of the Houdan 
is called spangled or speckled. It is irregu¬ 
larly composed of feathers some black, Borne 
white, some black tipped with white, and 
others white tipped with black. In the most 
esteemed birds the feathers of the hackle are 
black, white and straw-color ; feathers of 
the breast black tipped with white ; feathers 
of the loins, velvety black, with a greenish 
SHEEP HUSBANDRY AND PERMANENT 
GRASS. 
THE POULTRY-KEEPER.—No. 5 
THE HOUDAN COCK.—QENERAl PROPORTIONS AND 
CHARACTERISTICS. 
Body a little rounded, compact, of ordina¬ 
ry proportions, of low stature, solidly set on 
strong feet. Breast, thighs, legs, and wings 
well developed. Head, strong, half-crested ; 
whiskers, cravat, triple comb, spread out 
sideways but plates transverse. Five toes 
on each foot. Plumage variegated or span¬ 
gled, block, white, and straw-colored. 
SUE AND CHARACTERISTICS. 
Body. —Circumference in the largest part, 
with the wings closed behind the thighs at 
the part where they are jointed, but without 
taking them in, from 18% to 21% inches ; 
length to the end of the rump about 10 
inches ; size of shoulders, nearly S inches. 
Weight.— At full age, 6 pounds 10 ounces 
to 7% pounds. Flesh, very abundant. Bones, 
small, about an eighth of the weight. 
Weight of Chicken. Tim chicken fattens 
till four months old ; it is killed at four 
months and a hall'. It weighs, the crop and 
the Intestines taken out, 4 pounds 13% ozs. 
Intestines empty. 3}4 ozs. 
Gravel in gizzard and feathers. ljf “ 
Bones .... 8% “ 
Flesh comprising liver and gizzard .3 lbs. 15‘4 “ 
Taking from the weight of the flesh, the 
liver, the gizzard, the flesh of the head, the 
neck, und the feet, in other words the gib¬ 
lets, there is 3% pounds of solid meat, It 
will be seen that the bones of this variety 
should at least be reckoned au eighth, or the 
bones are about a quarter of the useful meat. 
Size. —From the upper part of the head to 
under the feet, in a resting position, 19% 
inches, In a moving position, 33% inches; 
from the back under the feet 15 inches. 
Head.— Length, 3% inches. Comb, triple, 
the plates in the direction of the beak com¬ 
posed of two flattened plates of a prolonged 
and rectangular form, opening to the right 
and left like two leaves of a book, denticu¬ 
lated at the edges, thick aud fleshy. A third 
caruncle comes out of the center of the two 
preceding ones, of the form of an uneven 
strawberry and the lengthened husk of a 
filbert. 
Size of the. Comb .—The two caruncles or 
plates together, from top to bottom, as well 
as round, are about 3% inches. These sizes 
are not indispensable, but they should not 
be less. A small caruncle, separate from 
the others and ns large as a tare seed, ap¬ 
pears on the beak between the two nostrils. 
Gill s.—From 1 9-16 inches to 3% inches ; 
they grow out of the comb close to the fleshy 
part which forms the cheeks, surround the 
corners of the beak with distinct protuber¬ 
ances, and the eye with a thick, bare eyelid. 
Earn. —Short and hidden by the whiskers. 
Half-crest. —Failing towards the back and 
sides, some feathers at the end pointed and 
drooping and pointing upwards. Length of 
feathers, 3% inches. Size of the crest from 
4% inches to 5% inches. 
Cheeks. —Bare, surrounded by whiskers 
formed of short, turned-up and pointed 
feathers. 
Cravat.. —It begins between the gills under 
the beak, descends the length of the neck, 
and stops at 2% or 2% inches, larger at the 
bottom than at the top. 
Eye. —Iris, golden yellow. Pupil, black. 
Beak. —Strong and a little hooked, black 
at the beginning and yellow towards the tip, 
bending towards the cravat. Corners of the 
beak very much turned-in. 
Physiognomy of the Head.— Different to 
that of any other variety by many remarka¬ 
ble traits. The head forms with the neck an 
angle only a little open, so that the beak 
lowered, and seen above is like a nose. The 
comb, square aud flattened, seems to be a 
fleshy forehead. Thu cheeks are surrounded 
These are mentioned together because in 
the United States turnips cannot be grown 
and used for sheep on the land in the same 
way as they are in England, consequently 
on farms which are flowed and on which 
there is bo grass but the timothy and clover, 
Fig. 10.—The Houdan Cock 
sheep cannot be kept to the same advantage 
us in England, as there is no good range for 
them late in autumn, through the winter 
and early in spring ; for these grasses are not 
suitable for grazing or being tramped over 
when the ground is soft. Orchard grass is 
better, but there should be all the hardy 
natural grasses which a good rich soil aud 
time will develops and which will become 
thicker set und sweeter for being kept, short, 
and having a proportion of sheep to lie on it, 
or at least will be the better for being eaten 
down bare once in the year. It is necessary 
to explain to Eastern farmers what perma¬ 
nent grass is, und although many Western 
men are finding the true worth of it, yet. 
some of them will plow up the virgin soil 
under the temptation of getting some heavy 
crops of corn and grain before devoting it to 
grass, and they will try to convince them¬ 
selves and others of the propriety of doing 
this. Since writing about grass land in Indi¬ 
ana and in other parts, it is found there is 
grass in Ohio where the laud was never 
plowed and which has been grazed and 
mowed for more than twenty year?, from 
which cattle have been sold fatter than corn- 
fed ones. There is a goodly quantity of blue 
S rass, and a gentleman told me yesterday he 
as seen the oxen and cows pushing with 
their noses eight inches of snow on one side* 
and getting abundance of fresh - looking 
grasB; for the major part of the autumn 
hue, speckled with white and yellow at the 
tips ; feathers of the sides and abdomen 
mixed white, black and gray ; feathers of 
the thighs, black and white, speckled with 
white at the ends ; the outside and inside 
feathers of the leg, black, strongly speckled 
with white at the ends ; the feathers cover¬ 
ing the tail, or the large, middle and little 
sickles, black tinted with very brilliant 
green, sometimes intermingled with spots of 
white ; feathers of the tail, or great tail 
feathers, white, black, black mixed with 
white and vice versa ; shoulder feathers, 
straw colored, tipped with white; large 
feathers of the pinion, white, or black and 
white, irregularly spotted ; large flying 
feathers, white, mixed with large, black, 
irregular spots; the whole of the flight 
feathers being white is preferable ; feathers 
coveriug the wings, black, with very bright 
tints of green, irregularly spotted at the 
ends. 
POULTRY NOTES, 
Gapes in Chickens .—This disease, so de¬ 
structive to young chickens aud turkeys, is 
pneumonia, (inflammation of the lungs,) as 1 
have demonstrated by numerous dissections 
of young fowls that had died of the disease. 
The popular idea, therefore, of “ worms in 
the windpipe,” is nothing but a myth. The 
disease is caused by exposure to wet and 
cold, aud may be prevented by keeping the 
chickens shut up in a dry, comfortable place, 
in rainy weather, and till the dew is off in 
the morning.—J. D. Stewart. M. D., Wash¬ 
ington Co., N. Y. 
Mandarin Ducks .— I notice in the Rural 
New Yorker for July 4, a reference to the 
Mandarin duck, and the statement of your 
ignorance as to whether any are to be met 
with in this country. Mr. Caleb Lyon has, 
on liis charming place on Staten Island. 
animals ; then another great desideratum is 
gained by a crop always sure without auy 
plowing, cultivation, or seed ; and this sav¬ 
ing of labor and wearing of implements is 
important in this country of doar manual 
help. America might he a very grout sheep 
country, and instead of buying wool might 
sell it to bring in much more than ull the 
corn does, and it. is positively certain if half 
the land now in cultivation could be put into 
grass aud brought up to a proper state of 
fertility, and the half of all new land was 
held inviolable, the moiety which was under 
cultivation for the growth of com and grain 
would produce more than double per acre 
on account of the more careful working of 
the soil and the increased quantity of ma¬ 
nure obtainable through the keeping of so 
much more live stock ; for when pastures 
and mowings have once become established 
on good fertile ground it is a wonderful assis¬ 
tance to the arable land to have an equal 
quantity of grass land on the farm. 
Old grass land, if managed properly, does 
not require all that is grown upon it to be 
returned to reimburse ; but of course it will 
not do to mow every year and give no re¬ 
turn, excepting in cases of meadows which 
are periodically flooded by overflow of riv¬ 
ers ; these are best to be mowed always and 
the sediment from the water is ample resto¬ 
ration for the heavy crops grown on such 
meadows. I was born five nnles from Ban¬ 
bury, Oxfordshire, England, and near the 
rivers there aud in adjoining counties there 
were and are now some of the finest meadows 
in the world ; also away from the water 
there is grass laud which rents for mure than 
the richest plowed farms which will grow 
from forty to sixty bushels of wheat per 
acre. This permanent grass land, out of 
reach of the periodical or chance inundations, 
is always mowed and a line crop of after¬ 
Fig. 11.—Houdan Cock’s Head. 
among other species of ducks, several pairs 
of these beautiful birds, which he has been 
very successful in cultivating.—B. 
“Should Polands have Combs ?”—So ask3 
a correspondent. No, not according to the 
standard of the best breeders. 
