at the ends. Large wing feathers quite 
white; large tail feathers (Fig. 7), white, 
with the exception of the ends, regularly 
marked with a black band. The feathers of 
the sides and abdomen are of a dark gray. 
The white of the plumage is pure, like ivory. 
The black is iridescent with deep, velvety 
green. 
wheat bread, which can be purchased very 
cheap, and table scraps, mixed with a little 
provender, and fed hot in the morning, with 
whole grain of some kiud—wheat, buck¬ 
wheat or berley at night; nothing at mid¬ 
day iu summer or winter. In t.he summer I 
cut grass very flne, and mix with the morn¬ 
ing meal, alternating with mashed boiled 
potatoes, and in the winter add a little stimu¬ 
lant, like ginger or cayenne, occasionally] 
This system of feeding, with plenty of fresh 
water (warm in winter), has given me all 
the fresh eggs I have needed for a family of 
eight persons, without the nuisance of a lot 
of broody fowls.— Fanciers,' Journal. 
nascent chickens now fly to these “ Artificial 
Mothers ” with as much glee as though they 
were living hens. The poultry raised by this 
method are in all respects as healthy and 
vigorous as any to be seen elsewhere, while 
THE POULTRY-KEEPER.—NO. 29 
HAMBURGHS. 
Of the Hamburgh are several varieties. 
The principal are the Silver-spangled and 
penciled Hamburgh and the Golden Span¬ 
gled and penciled. This name Spangled al¬ 
ludes to the spots like spangles with which a 
great part of their plumage is covered, and 
the Penciled to irregular lines on the feath¬ 
ers. Besides these there is the Black Ham¬ 
burgh. 
SILVER * SPANGLED HAMBURGHS. HEN. 
Genaal Characteristics.— Plumage white, 
black-spangled; rose comb ; gait extremely 
ARTIFICIAL HATCHING AND RAISING 
OF POULTRY. 
The poultry breeder experiences consid¬ 
erable difficulty and no f mall amount of loss, 
from the fact that so few hens are good sit¬ 
ters. It has long been a well ascertained 
truth that the females of certain breeds are 
all but valueless for this purpose, whilst a- 
mongst those selected for the duty of incu¬ 
bation, the five-clawed Dorking is universally 
admitted to be the best. There is no ne¬ 
cessity, however, for the employment of hens 
in the hatching of eggs, the ancient Egyp¬ 
tians, three thousand years ago, having ac¬ 
complished the required result by artificial 
means alone. Other nations iu later years 
have produced similar effects by like meth¬ 
ods, so that it is wife to ray that beyond the 
duty of laying eggs, hens are not needed in 
the poultry yard A visit to the Gailinocul- 
ture Institute of Prof. Adolph Corbett, at 
Hicksville, L ng Llaud, will saii-fy the most 
skeptical on this point. Fowls of all bretds 
and ages aje thereto be found in immense 
numbers, all of them in the best condition 
of health, and all hatched and raided artifi 
cially. The system employed is the invention 
of Mr. Corbett himself, the sole caloric 
agent being horee manure. 
The establishment in which these oper» 
lions are carried on covers one hundred acres.. 
PEAR TWIG BLIGHT PRODUCED BY COLD 
Fxo. 7. 
at the same time, none of them are lamed, 
as too frequently is the case by natural 
mothers. 
In another part of the grounds is a great 
Duck house, with a large lakc-Jike pond In 
front, of it. The ducklings are hatched and 
raised by the same process, as also every 
other description of domestic fowl; for in¬ 
stance, Brahmas, C .chin Chinas. Shanghais. 
Black Spanish, L-ghorns, Dorkings, and 
geese and turneys, 
Mr. Corbett’s establishment, in fact, 
proves that poultry cf all kinds can be 
equally well hatched, and far better raised 
by his system than by what is known as the 
•‘natural” method. Being a breeder on a 
large scale, he has fair opportunities l’or 
judging the commercial value of his inven¬ 
tion ; and he asserts that the cost of produc¬ 
tion by his system saves from twenty to 
twenty five percent, over the usual method. 
This is a practical exemplification of the old 
saying, that " the proof of the pudding is in 
the eating,” and high authorities endorse 
Mr. Corbett's conclusions. The N. Y. State 
Agricultural Society, at Us annual nueiing 
last year, awarded him tlidr Silver Medal tor 
his invention ; and the judges of the Queens 
Co. Agriculrural Society likewise gave him 
their Gold Medal and Diploma. These are 
but two instances of the •‘decorations” he 
has received for a system and apparatus of 
the most practical utility ; one that is as 
valuable in the modest poultry yard of the 
housewife, as in the extensive nrernises of the 
man who raises poultry to supply markets. 
FIG. 4 . 
lively and graceful; form rounded. A little 
below middle size. 
Head.— Strong, flattened at the top. 
Eyen .—Very large, of a dark color and 
brilhaut; Iris dark hrown, p jpil black. 
Cheeks. —R-d and bare round the eyes, 
sprinkled with little, flne white feathers in 
tin* other parts. 
Comb.— Rose, with little, long, regular 
points, forming an almost flattened surface, 
oblong, rounded in front, pointed behind, 
covering the base of the beak, dimishing in 
size at the side and fiuely pointed at the 
back of the head. 
Wattles. —Placed well under the beak, per¬ 
fectly round and concave. 
Ears.— White, like mother of pearl, placed 
flat on the cheex, very small. 
Tufts.—White. 
Beak.— White, light-blua at the base. 
Legs —Ashy-blue color. 
Laying.— Excellent ; eggs very delicate 
and of middle size. Non-sitters. 
Feathers of the head, on the borders of the 
comb, and on the upper part behind the 
neck, white. Hackle feathers (Fig. 4) white, 
marked with a d^ep-blaek spot at the end. 
The upper feathers of the hackle near the 
head are very small, increasing in size as 
they get to the bas3 of the neck. The size of 
APPLE BLIGHT 
Last season my apple trees were attacked 
severely with the twig blight, covering in 
mo«t in-tances the entire trees and killing 
most of the previous year’s growth. 
This season those affected last are appar¬ 
ently vigorous and healthy, while some trees 
that escaped last year are attacked this, in 
rather a different manner, however. Only 
here un<l theie a limb is at all affected, but 
these are blighted down some five or six feet, 
to where they are an inch or two in diameter. 
These diseased limbs are all cut off and burned 
as soon as discovered, as in the case of “ pear 
blight.” Blight on apple trees prevails quite 
extensively iu this vicinity this season, but 
while it rarely (if ever) proves fatal (differing 
in this from pear blight) it gives the trees a 
very unsightly appearance, many orchards 
looking as if scorched by fire. As is the case 
with pear trees, most people let. them shift 
for themselves, an easy, but very shiftless 
practice. Nelson Ritter. 
EFFECT OF SOIL ON THE PROLIFICACY 
OF HENS. 
Fig. 6. 
and the buildings devoted to poultry raising 
therein fill an acre of eight thousand square 
feet. The principal structure is a two-sto¬ 
ried frame erection, two hundred feet long 
by tv enty-tbree feet wide, well lit and ven¬ 
tilated by one hundred windows. Therein 
are placed the “ Incubators,” which are pe¬ 
culiarly formed wooden boxes, surrounded 
and covered over with horse manure, the 
heat within them bting kept up to 104’ Fah¬ 
renheit.—in other words, the same amount 
o caloric as that evolved by a hen when sit¬ 
ting. The space of time required for hatch¬ 
ing varies according to the description of 
eggs, those of ordinary domestic poultry 
taking twenty-one days. As soon as the 
chickens leave the shell they are introduced 
to wbat Mr. Corbett calls his " Artificial 
Mothers,” which are scientifically con- The change in the natural predisposition 
structed shelters of his invention, designed of the Brahma I attribute to the system of 
to give warmt: to the young brood, as a hen feeding which 1 have adopted, which is all 
dot s when she gathers them under her in the direction of keeping the egg machine 
wings. This part of his discovery gave the running, and to give no opportunity for the 
invintor much anxious study, causing him fowls to get lazy and lay on fat. Indian 
very serious losses, in eggs and otherwise, in corn, which is the great staple in common 
his successive failures ; but perseverance use. I have almost entirely discarded as to 
finally triumphed over all obstacles, and the heating, and rely principally upon stale 
PEAR BLIGHT 
G. B. Leighton, at the meeting of the 
Norfolk, Va., Horticultural Society, remark¬ 
ed about pear blight: ” The Commissioner 
of Agriculture recommended the use of car¬ 
bonate of lime with sulphur added, say one 
pound of sulphur to six or eight pounds of 
carbonate of lime reduced to the consistency 
of thick whitewash and applied to the dis¬ 
eased parts.and where the bark is diseased re¬ 
move the outer portion before making the ap¬ 
plication . I have used this with magical effect 
on blighted or diseased trees, but in future 
I shall use the formula recommended by 
Hon. Win. Saunders, of Washington, who 
has charge of the public grounds, as being 
more economical than the above, on account 
of the volatile nature of carbolic acid, to- 
wit To half a bushel of lime add four 
pounds of sulphur ; slack to the consistency 
of whitewash ; and when applied add half 
an ounce of carbolic acid to each gallon of 
wash and apply as soon as needed. 
Fig. 5. 
each spot is in proportion to that of each 
feather, only the -pots are longer. The 
brea-t fea’bers (Fig 5) have a great resem¬ 
blance to those of tiie h ekle. and are marked 
m.'Ve regularly and uniformly. The feathers 
of the loins, the shoulders, the covert of the 
tail, the thighs and the legs should be as 
much as possible like those of the back and 
breast. The large wing feathers (Fig. 6), 
white, edged by a thin, black border, wider 
BRAHMAS AS NON-SITTERS, 
