examine and decide for himself. I only sug¬ 
gest that thoroughbreds should, in all cases, 
be chosen, and only from well known and 
responsible breeders can one buy with any 
degree of surety of receiving that for which 
he so liberally makes payment. Begin with 
thoroughbreds, and then keep strictly within 
the breed. Only thus can satisfactory re¬ 
sults be counted on with certainty. Mixed 
breeds show the traits and forms of their 
this condition until the approach of a thaw, 
or the coming of spring, when the fowl is 
able to go abroad and obtain that kind of 
food needed to furnish the albumen and 
mineral matter of which llm white mem¬ 
brane and shell are composed. If then in 
winter time, in addition to corn, albumen 
vegetables, such as onions, artichokes, cab¬ 
bages and the like, and grain rich in gluten, 
like wheat, buckwheat, rye and oats, are 
PRICES OF HOUSES IN ENGLAND 
THE WILD TURKEY 
Mb. E. Tattebsald of London, in giving 
evidence recently on the above subject 
before a committee of the House of Lords, 
said : 
I have had an average taken out from our 
books for the last ten years. I can give you 
the numbers of each kind of horses in each 
year from 1803. I have left the thorough¬ 
bred horse oui. altogether in this statement, 
and I have divided the rest of the horses into 
two classes. I have taken, first, the early 
part of our sales, in which we consider that 
they are of the highest value. I have taken 
ODe average day in each month throughout 
the ten years, and I can give the number of 
each kind of horses, and the amounts ob¬ 
tained for them from 1803. 1 cannot give 
you the number sold throughout each of the 
years, but only the number from which this 
average is taken. I do not think that that 
would be of much value if I could give it to 
you ; but I can tell you about the number 
we sold in each year. We sell upon the 
average, between 5,000 and (1,000 horses in 
the year, but that would include the thor¬ 
ough bred horses. This iB an average of 
about 40 or 50 horses sold on one day iu each 
month throughout the year ; there are about 
40 horses in each class ; for the year 1864 the 
average was, for the first class £21 11s.; for 
the second class, £40 l'Js. For 1 he. year 1865 
the average, waa £21 13s. for inferior horses 
and £44 10s. for superior horses. In the 
year 1866 the average was £24 7s. and £45 
18s. In 1SG7 the average for the first class 
was £24 9s. and £56 5s. for second class. In 
1868 the average was £26 10s. for the inferior 
horses, ana £52 Its. for the superior horses. 
Iu I860 the average was £29 18s. the first 
class, and £78 15s. for the second class. In 
the year 1870 it was £29 12s. the first class, 
and £80 14s. for the Recond class. To 1871 the 
average was £34 7s. for the first class, and 
£91 7s. for the second class. In 1872, the 
last year for which I have taken any figures, 
it was £36 10a. for the inferior horses, and 
£90 for the better oues. Comparing last 
year, 1872, with 1S64, it appears that there 
was an increase of price between them of 70 
per cent, on the hunters. The rise bus been 
very great in the last threo year*. 
Once on a time a friend sent us from the 
West_jutat before Christmas—a wild turkey 
which weighed twenty-two pounds. Though 
not alive it was a beauty, and on being 
cooked proved delicious. The portrait of a 
live wild turkey given herewith, is spirited, 
and possibly represents a descendant of the 
one we received. At any rate the turkey, 
whether wild or tame, is the most popular 
bird extant at this season, and the following 
oescription of the wild variety is therefore 
timely and in order : 
The plumage of the wild turkey is generally 
described aa being compact, glossy, with me¬ 
tallic reflections; feathers double, as in other 
gallinaceous birds, generally oblong or trun¬ 
cated ; tips of the feathers almost conceal 
the bronze color. The large quill coverts are 
of the same color as the back, but more 
bronzed, with purple reflections. The lower 
part of the back and tail coverts is deep 
chestnut, banded green and black ; the tail 
feathers are of the same color, imdulatmgly 
horrpd nnd minutely sprinkled with black, 
WINTER PRODUCTION OF EGGS, 
The following advice from B. F. J. of 
Illinois in the Country Gentleman is timely 
and, like nearly everything from his prolific 
pen, eminently sensible : 
Eggs are now bringing a good price, that 
is from 18 to 20 cents a dozen, a price which 
is likely to advance from this time until after 
the holidays, so ttml 25 to 30 cents lor the 
West and 5 cents to 10 cents more for the East 
may be expected at Christmas and New 
Years. As I have stated before, I repeat 
now, I am quite confident that egg pro¬ 
duction during the winter depends more on 
food than on temperature, and hens only in¬ 
differently well housed, but properly led, 
will lay more eggs than those which are full 
fed with unsuitable food and warmly housed 
and lodged. As suitable food for egg pro¬ 
duction, I shall name, first, wheat or wheat 
screenings, then ground rye and oats and 
then br»U, to which should be added a cer¬ 
tain proportion of corn meal, or a less pro¬ 
portion of fatty matter. In addition to these 
articles, I would use chopped onions or 
cabbages or other culinary roots, raw or 
pounded oyster shells, and not by any 
means forgetting to supply freshly-broken 
bits of flint or granite, iu order u> keep the 
gizzard mill-stones sharp and iu healthy 
condition. The model winter food for egg 
production and one within the reach of near¬ 
ly every keeper of fowls, I esteem to be 
onions chopped fine and fed to the extent of 
the bird’s appetite in the morning, a light 
feed of soaked wheat, at noon ami a full one 
of dry wheat in tbe evening, fresh water, 
pounded calcined bones or oyster shells, and 
freshly-broken bits of granite or flint con¬ 
stantly in quantity withiu easy reach. J.n 
addition to such a daily ration, fowls should 
be bedded do wn for comfort during the day 
iu cold weather with hay or straw or dry 
material of some kind, as well cared for as 
horses and cattle are, which litter should be 
changed as often as it gets worn or dirty. 
Hens so fed and so heated and sheltered 
from the rains and storms, and protected 
against the cold and driviug winds, will lay 
and continue to lay through the longest and 
coldest winter. 
Of all foods, the most unsuitable for egg 
production is coni—corn, and nothing but, 
corn—with which a large share of the fowls 
of the west are almost necessarily winter-fed. 
And it is so, because its constituent elements 
are so rich in fatty matter, and so poor in al¬ 
bumen and the phosphates of which the 
w hite and shells and membrane of eggs are 
almost wholly made up. Fowls fad on corn 
in winter get as fat as fat can be, and when 
lulled and drawn are found to contain a 
large .number of rudimentary eggs, or eggs 
of which the yelk or oily portion only has 
been developed. Now these eggs remain in 
THE NEW QUEEN OF THE TROTTING 
COURSE. 
The Chicago Tribune contains the follow¬ 
ing pedigree of the now famous trotting 
mare, Lulu, given by Lulu’s breeder : 
“Lulu was ten years old last spring. She 
was foaled in the spring of 1865, ut Col. 
Crockett’s place, in Scott county, Kentucky, 
and when he removed to Rock Island he 
brought the little three-year old colt along. 
Her sire was R. A. Alexander’s noted horse 
Norman, and she breeds l ack through a long 
line of choice thoroughbreds on both sides. 
Her dam was Kate Crockett, she by import¬ 
ed Hooton, llooton by Despot. The first 
dam of llooton was a Catten mare; second 
dam by Melrose, by Pilgurlic ; third dam by 
Whisker ; follrth dam by Orville. Despot 
was by Sultan ; first dam, Fanny Davis by 
Filho da Puta ; second dam, Treasurer by 
Camillus. Sultan (the sire of Bay Middle- 
ton) was the sire of Flying Dutchman, win¬ 
ner of the Derby in 1815. Kate Crockett s 
first dam was Old Mary by Texas ; second 
dam, Fanny Elsler by Cons William ; third 
dam, Whipster by Old Whip. Col. Crockett 
sold her to Joseph Darker, Esq., of the 
Everett House Stables, No. 31 East Thirty- 
second Street, New York City, for $5o0,t)00, 
iu 1871. Mr. Harker is her present owner, 
and Col. Crockett congratulates him upon 
the fame she has won ; says he is not a bit 
surmised at her time, for lie considered her 
TUltKKV. 
ancestors. They will be very uneven in their 
breeding. Keep strictly within the breed, 
but not couple near relations. This advice is 
founded upon the following principle : Every 
individual has its excellencies and its defects; 
near relations are likely to have the same 
excellencies and its defects. By coupling 
WILD 
added to the daily ration of corn, an artificial 
thaw or spring is brought about, and the 
fowls will resume their laying as during the 
warm and pleasant portion of the year. 
Is it not a little singular that while it is 
getting to be generally admitted that if one 
wants to fatten fowls, a special regimen or 
daily ration must be adopted, and that 
another one quite different for the produc¬ 
tion of eggs must be inaugurated and fol¬ 
lowed, the same rational methods have yet 
to be suggested or recommended in the pro¬ 
duction of milk ? And this, notwithstanding 
there is a wonderful similiarity in the egg 
and the milk-producing function, and that 
eggs and milk have a surprising likeness in 
their coustitutent elements ! It has been 
demonstrated that tobacco will not grow in 
a 6oil destitute of lime, and that in order to 
make eggs, fowls must have access to albu¬ 
minous food and the mineral matter of which 
ALFALFA AND HOGS. 
The Sacramento Record says :—“Clover, of 
all the forage plauts, seems to be the best 
adapted as feed for hogs, and of all the clo¬ 
vers with which we have had any experience 
alfalfa is the best. Small pigs will begin to 
bite off and eat the tender shoots of this 
clover sooner than any other feed, and, if 
continued iu good feed until time to wean, 
may be weaned and will continue a thrifty, 
uninterrupted growth until arriving at full 
size. A good fattening breed of hogs will 
keep hi very fine condition for slaughter 
upon alfalfa with no stronger food. Hogs 
are even more fond of the roots of alfalfa, 
than the tops, and will, if not prevented, 
soon destroy a good setting by rooting it up 
and consuming tint which supports them. 
Tins may be prevented by putting a ring in 
the rim of the nasal muscle with wlncli the 
nose is furnished. This ring maybe made 
of common hay bailing wire, but, if the hogs 
have attained a good size this wire may re¬ 
quire to be doubled to prevent it from break¬ 
ing out. Especially must hogs be ruug if 
they are to be kept on alfalfa fields during 
the rainy season. 
SWINE BREEDING 
The breeder seeks first for animals of good 
form and good constitution ; he looks next 
to tbeir pedigree—which of their breeds lie 
shall select may depend upon many circum¬ 
stances, and largely, of course, upon his as¬ 
sociations and his taste. For myself I chose 
Berkshire, and I have seen no good cause to 
regret my choice. I find them hardy, of 
good form, good mothers, yielding excellent 
meat, and having little offal. They mature 
early, and are large enough for shipping. 
With those who seek larger hogs, the Poland 
Chinas aie the favorites, while the pure, 
black, oily little Essex on the one hand, and 
the mammoth white Yorkshire on the 
other have their advocates. Each man must 
A Pbolific Sow.— H. A. Perry, proprietor 
of the Wentworth House at Walpole, Masp., 
has a valuable breeding sow that recently 
gave birth to 21 pigs in the same litter. She 
is of the Chester County breed, 
