486 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. AU6. 3 
Now, as to mating and feeding: never mate a 
cock with less than ten hens, and if he is a vig¬ 
orous cock, twenty will be better. You look sur¬ 
prised ! Well, I know that it iB usual to say 
“ from five to ton are enough for one cock,” but 
I am not the only one who stands on the above 
plank. J. K, Felch, says : “ According as the 
cock is vigorous, assign from twelve to twenty 
hens ; tnere must be uo coercion ou the part of 
the cock; let hie fiock be large cuougb so that 
the invitation shall come from the female side of 
the house.” W. A. Burpee, of Philadelphia, 
says, that ho bred his Browu Leghorn cock “ All 
Right ” to tsveuty-seven hens with satisfactory 
results. J. W. P. Hovoy, says, that he 11 mated 
a son of Honest Abe—Liglit Brahma—to eighteen 
hens, when ten months old, with splendid results, 
and uo decrease in vigor till, when four years old, 
he was stolen.” 
As to feeding: while growing, feed all they 
w T ant.; I feed three times a day till the chickens 
are ten weeks old; after that, twice, and give 
plenty of bone-making food; not corn-meaJ, as 
it will make too [much flesh, aud not enough 
frame. After they are put up in the fall, make 
them work for their living; bury the feed in 
straw or dirt and scatter it well, so that it will 
keep them busy. Don’t give them very much, 
and don’t make their house very warm. Many 
will ^remember the numerous complaints some¬ 
times heard about eggs not hatching. 
The following, from the pen of J. K Felch, 
will be new to some and is worth reading a dozen 
times: “ One man, from sixty-five eggs hatched 
sixty-two chickens, common grade stock. An¬ 
other, from six sottings, hatched sixty-five 
chicks, Brahmas. Still another haB hatched 
from nine to fourteen chicks to a clutch, stock 
Brahmas mated with pullets. In all these cases 
the stock was mated in the early winter and al¬ 
lowed to go in and out in all kinds of weather, 
being fed in the morning all that they would eat, 
and the balance of the day made to shift for 
themselves.” 
It will require no little backbone to keep your 
breeders, your best fowls, in poor flesh, aud have 
people ask yon “ why don't you feed those fowls 
bettor?” and so on, but the progeny of those 
birds will amply repay you for all such sharp 
criticism. The owner of a fast horse will not 
keep him rolling fat, even if all the people that 
saw him wore to remark the scarcity of oats in 
his stable; and it it) just as uecessary that we 
should keep our breeders thin in order to have 
our eggs hatch as it is for a trotter to be kept 
thin in order to trot his best. How is it with 
cows, sheep, and hogs ? Do those that are fat 
breed as well as those which are thin ? 
Now, lot mo copy one more paragraph from 
Mr. Felch: “Breeder, look to your pleasure in 
choosing nice fat pullets that you cauuot injure, 
while growing, by over-feeding, and in your 
treatment of your breediug stock, use a little . 
common Bense.” Be independent, and do not 
care if your breeding birds are called “ scrubs.” 
Brown Co., WIs. 
-♦-*--*-- 
NEGLECT OF YOUNG CHICKENS. 
While the farmer is busy diming harvesting, 
and while bis family in the stress of tho season 
is pressed into the service, the growing ohickoriB 
are sometimes forgotten, and perhaps a few 
hints may bring to mind their situation. As the 
hens leave the chicks, they feel lost at night, 
and poke themselves into nasty corners, or into 
old boxes, coops, or barrels, where they pile 
together, sometimes one on the other, crushing 
the weaker ones to death before this state of 
things is discovered. Often tho filth accumu¬ 
lates so thickly that they lie on a heap of it at 
night, and become infested with parades. A 
very little care will remedy this and keep the 
birds in health. Sometimes, however, they are 
very stubborn about a place of tbeir own choos¬ 
ing. They either run back to tho same place, 
after being driven away, or (boy scatter in all 
directions, thus running into greater danger. 
Provide temporary houses or large boxes with 
low perches, aud place them near tho coops 
which were occupied by the hens and chicks. 
Gradually move the coops towards the temporary 
house a little every day. By thin means the 
chicks will get near to the now roosting-places, 
and by moving away one coop at a time, they 
will settle into tho temporary house. This, 
in turn, cau be moved near the fowl-house 
which they are to occupy. This will Bave a 
great deal of annoyance, for what i< more tan¬ 
talizing than running down chickens night after 
night, while they are willing that you should 
repeat the operation as often as you please. If 
they take to a place whore you cannot get iu, 
and they are persistent, you may sometimes 
drive down a few stakes and block the entrance 
with an old door, or a few boards. If yon have 
convenient, trees for them to roost on, by all 
means let them use them during summer and 
early fall. Although it is sorno trouble and re¬ 
quires a little good temper to get them iu their 
houses for tho first time or two, when cold 
weather comes, yet their healthy condition will 
repay your pains. Feed them with grain twice 
a day, even though they get much of their own 
living; for some grain is necessary fer their 
health, and moreover it lessens any inclination 
of theirs to do mischief in the garden amongst 
the fruit. Henrv Hales. 
%\i |)frtatan. 
THE CHAMPION HEREFORD. 
Herefobds not unfrequently carry off the big 
prizes of the Smithfield club, but such an event 
as a Hereford ball’s winning the champion 
prize over a Shorthorn which had been regarded 
as the best bull in England, makes the lovers of 
this admirable beef race not unreasonably jubi¬ 
lant. We published in the Ritual of the 13th a 
portrait of Mr. A. Rooers’ bull whioh won this 
enviable distinction. Now we recieve from tho 
same source a large photographic portrait of bis 
head alone which, accompanied as it is by tho 
statement that it is regarded by good judges as 
representing an ideal Hereford head, we think 
will he of interest to our readers. 
Jfaim ®ojius, 
FARM WORK FOR AUGUST. 
WEEDING. 
The farmer’s life is a busy one. During Au¬ 
gust there is little time for idling. In this hot 
weather weeds grow and mature with great rap¬ 
idity. Weeds Aould be often mowed or dug up 
or pulled in tho pasture and in waste places. 
This is an excellent time in which to kill quack- 
grass by frequent cultivation. Docks, thistles, 
and other coarse rubbish should be burned or 
buried, and never thrown into the highway to bo 
run over or to remain in an unsightly pile. It is 
the best time for killing all sorts of busheB and 
brians, by cutting off the tops near the ground. 
After they are so cut, if the place is suitable, 
Bheep are a great aid in the work, and it is work 
whioh they do cheerfully. 
ODD JOBS.' 
There is no better time of year for clearing 
out swamps and digging ditches. Tiles can be 
laid in low places whore needed when the fields 
are used for pasture or after the hay is cut from 
meadows. Keep a sharp lookout aud work fre¬ 
quently among ruta-bagaa aud mangels. They 
should be well thinned, if not already thinned. 
Most field crops are so conspicuously before the 
eyes of the farmer, that they are less likely to be 
overlooked than many other items of equal im¬ 
portance. 
If you ever draw manure from town, now is a 
good time, for several reasons. It is usually 
plenty in summer, and it is dry and light. The 
roads are apt to be good, so that twice as much 
may be hauled at a load as in wet weather. A 
compost started at this time rots down rapidly. 
It is a good time for getting out muck. This is 
pleasanter and easier to have than road dust. 
It is almost a necessity to havo a large lot of dry 
muck or dry loam to use about privies and sta¬ 
bles. A geuerous layer all around the barn¬ 
yard will prove an excellent investment. 
WHEAT. 
Of course, the farmer will be preparing ground 
for wheat. The land which produced oats, bar¬ 
ley, ekiyer or peas will be turned over aud well 
cultivated, 
Hie enterprising man has already selected his 
seed whoat from the best part of his field, or he 
has purchased some which was raised on a differ¬ 
ent soil. The selection should be made for a 
small part of the seed each year in the manner 
long ago recommended by George Geddes. That 
was, to select the best beads from the best bun¬ 
dles bofore threshing. After this, submit the 
wheat to the tost of a good fanning mill. 
When sowing wheat, drill in a little rather thin¬ 
ner than usual, with every other tooth of the 
drill stopped. Iu spring, two or three times 
give this a cultivating or hoeing. Count the 
cost, and note the result, aud thus try to learn 
whether it will pay to cultivate wheat in our 
country. 
ORCHARD. 
The young orchard will be left without culti¬ 
vation arter tho first of August. Weeds will be 
allowed to grow there, or more likely, there is a 
crop of some kind to cover the ground till win¬ 
ter or next spring. 
EXPERIMENT. 
Try an experiment on Autumn and winter 
squashes while in flower. Several persons have 
much increased the yield by artificially carrying 
tho pollen from staminate to pistillate flowers 
every other morning. The work is easily done 
and coats but little. 
STRAWBERRIES. 
Strawberries may be set iu this month and if 
they wore started iu small pots, or if they are on 
good land and watered when the weather is dry, 
thoy will produce a good crop next spring. In 
any case it will hardly ever pay to set strawber¬ 
ries on poor land or on land poorly prepared. 
TRIMMING EVERGREENS. 
Perhaps it is best to trim evergreens in spring, 
but that time of year is over-crowded with work. 
Cut them back now. Shear off the ends of 
straggling branches ; cut off the tops where 
they run up thin or spindling. In some places 
they may he allowed to grow in their natural 
shape, but in most cases, the frequent use of 
the knife will improve an evergreen or cause it 
to take on a form which will best please a ma¬ 
jority of people. 
CARE OF STOCK. 
Domestic animals need watching. They should 
all be kept in a thrifty condition, and young 
stock should grow all the time. Bucks Bhould 
be examined for maggots about the horns. Thoy 
should bo fed a little grain. Feed stock some 
freshly mown grass or corn, or rye or grain, if 
tho pasture iB short, or else buy or hire more 
pasture, or sell off paid of the stock. Look es¬ 
pecially after lambs, colts and calves. See them 
often and handle them. Calves and colts should 
be well broken to the halter when young. Feed 
swine well. We know several farmers who al¬ 
ways begin feeding considerable grain to swine 
in August. Thoy have a stock of old corn left 
over for this purpose. The animals take on fat 
very readily at this time. A pound of corn will 
make more pork in warm weather than in cold. 
Again, it is often the case that swine can be 
sold to the best advantage early in the season. 
If started early they will ho ready early. Of 
course, swine may be over-crowded in August, 
but those which are to be butchered in autumu 
should be started early. 
Look to the supply of water in pastures. Do 
not trust to swamps and low stagnant water, but 
dig good wells, unleas running water is plenty. 
Remember not to dig wells on the lower side of 
a barn-yard, where the water will soon become 
unfit for use. Much of the water, poor as well 
as the good, soon finds its way into the blood of 
animals, and from the blood to the milk, in caso 
of cows. Even living germs have been traced 
through this course. Who wants to drink milk 
from cows which have drank impure water ? 
•-- 
SEASONABLE HINTS. 
Afple-tbee Borers. —Every one who owns 
an orchard, or even a single tree, should now 
be looking after the borers, to see that their 
trees are not destroyed. If taken early, it is not 
a very bard task to destroy the poBts by tho use 
of a pocket-knife and wire. 
Thinning Fruit.— On small trees, at least, 
fruit should be thinned out so as not to injure 
the vitality of the tree by its over-bearing ; and 
on large trees, too, it is advisable; for tho fruit 
that is left ou the tree will be very much larger 
aud every way nicer, than if it were all left on 
to mature. 
Pruning. —Now is a good time to cut off all 
suckers from the trees, and remove all super¬ 
fluous limbs, if it was not attended to earlier in 
the season ; aud where large limbs are removed, 
it is always a good plan to apply a good coat of 
paint to tho wound. 0 rafts which were set last 
spring should now receive prompt attention, and 
if more are growing than is desirable, they 
should be removed. 
Turnips. —It is not too late to sow these for 
stock-feeding purposes, although I have had 
better satisfaction with early than late sowing ; 
and as a general thing, I believe farmers do not 
sow their turnips early enough. 
The Garden.— This plot of ground is often 
sadly neglected at this season of the year, when 
haying and harvesting are requiring the atten¬ 
tion of all hands, but it should not be so, for in 
the summer season, when we can get green veg¬ 
etables fresh from the garden, it should by all 
means be attended to, and the weeds kept from 
growing. As a rule, the garden is not appre¬ 
ciated by the farmer as it ought to be. 
Water for Stock.— This matter should be 
atttended to by all owners of stook, to see that 
they havo a good Bupply of fresh water at all 
times ; for in hot weather it often happens that 
stock suffer for the want of water. I havo often 
Been cows obliged to drink out of a dirty mud- 
hole, when by a littlo labor they might have had 
good water to drink out of a trough. Is it not 
strange why some men are so slack about im¬ 
portant matters ? 
Draining.— Immediately after hayiug is a fine 
time to drain wet land, and there are but few 
farms that do not embrace more or less land 
which could bo greatly improved by drainiug, 
and it would pay a big interest to do it. It is 
hard work though to make some farmers be¬ 
lieve it. I have seen some of them lay out 
sums of money in some speculation or other 
business, and not get one-fourth of one per cent, 
on the amount invested, when if it had been put 
into ditches and clearing the fields of stumps 
aud stones, it would have paid ten per cont. 
Why is it they do not have more confidence iu 
the Boil? If the land will not pay for improv¬ 
ing it, why not sell it and got the money into 
something else that they will havo more faith in ? 
MeadowbrooU Farm, July, 1878. f. h. d. 
-- 
ENCOURAGE HOME MANUFACTURES. 
Insomuch as the farmer increases tho density 
of the population near him, he enhances the 
value of his farm, and this in a two-fold ratio. 
The land itself is more valuable, w hile whatever 
the farmer has to sell finds a more ready market 
and at a higher price. Added to this, he sees 
tho advantages of a greater intolligouce near 
him, sees more people and more w'ealth to bear 
the expense of public improvements, can have 
better roads, more direct communication, better 
schools and advantages for his children, and life 
becomes in part the recreation of civilization, 
and not a mere ignorant, uncouth backwoods 
drudgery. 
If there is a water-fall near-by, or some par¬ 
ties can be encouraged to put up steam for 
a grist-mill, a saw-mill, planing-mill, or car¬ 
riage factory or for any of the larger industrial 
operations, no time should be lost in putting 
the new industry into operation. Every new 
manufacture and tho addition of every new in¬ 
dustry not only give greater employment and 
wealth, but the presence of these enables the 
farmer to find a market for a great variety of 
productions at a better profit than can be ob¬ 
tained from growing one or two groat crops and 
sending them to distant points to market. A 
single acre of vegetables, carefully attended to, 
and near a town or village, will bring more profit 
than ten or even twenty acres of corn and wheat, 
and while raising these vegetables for sale the 
household can bo better furnished, and with a 
very large proportion of all the food and that 
most necessary for health. 
The parts of the United States [where little 
manufactories have been from time to time es¬ 
tablished and have grown to bo great ouob, em¬ 
ploying mauy hands and consuming a great 
deal of the farmers’ products, arc the wealthiest 
and the farms are worth double what thoy would 
be without this denser population. 
There is but one way iu which a farmer cau 
increase the valne of his farm as fast, and that 
is by increasing its fertility and productive 
power, but the increasing population enables 
him to increase that fertility to a better advan¬ 
tage, and gives a double valno to his improve¬ 
ments. The true interest of tho farmer is to 
have as much of his products consumed near by 
him as possible, and to have as much of his 
necessities produoed near by him. It not only 
keeps wealth but brings more. 
TOBACCO CULTURE IN NEW ENGLAND.- 
No. 1. 
The tobacco plant is a native of America, the 
discovery of the continent aud the plant occur¬ 
ring almost simultaneously. It is a tropical 
plant but grows freely in temperate climes, but 
requires high culture and unlimited care on tho 
part of the grower from seed-sowing until har¬ 
vesting. Its culture first began in Virginia as 
early as 1616, and in 1G34 we find <,he Puritans 
testing the “ sovereign weed ” in the Plymouth 
Colony. In 1757, it waH the custom in the 
various towns iu Connecticut and Massachusetts 
to appoint packers of tobacco, prizing it in 
hogsheads, the method then employed in “ put¬ 
ting up ” tobacco. Now all the tobacco grown 
in New England is paoked in cases of from 375 
to 400 pounds. About 1835 tobacco growing in 
the famous tobacco-growing section in the Con¬ 
necticut Valley—comprising three counties in 
Connecticut aud two or three in Massachusetts— 
received a fresh impetus which has continued 
until now. The plant also is being raised quite 
extensively in the Housatonic Valley, and is also 
cultivated to some extent in New Hampshire and 
Vermont. Connecticut and Massachusetts, how¬ 
ever, are the great tobacco-growing States of 
New England, and together with 13 other 
States, furnish most of the amount grown in 
this country. 
The variety grown in New England is known 
as “ Conneotiout seed-leaf,” and is justly re¬ 
garded as tho finest cigar leaf wrapper grown in 
America. Iu this respect it has no successful 
rival so far as texture of leaf is considered. Its 
color ordinarily is a light cinnamon hue, aud 
sometimes dark cinnamon. Of late the demand 
has been for dark-colored loaf, and in conse¬ 
quence the growers have tried every means 
within their power to raise a leaf tobacco suita¬ 
ble for the manufacture of “Maduro" cigars. 
Iu New England, beyond all question, the art of 
raising fine tobacco is hotter understood than in 
any other part of the world. When war prices 
prevailed, fine wrappers sold at from 40 to 60 
cents per pound, while at present the growers of 
the Valley realize only from 10 to 12 cents for 
wrappers. The finest tobacco is grown iu Hart¬ 
ford county in the light sandy soil at a little dis¬ 
tance from tho liver. The soil and atmosphere 
seem well adapted for line silky leaves of light 
color and great strength. At this point the 
plants get a sufficient quantity of atmospheric 
salt, but further down the river they get too 
much, while thoy dou’t get enough towards the 
source of the Connecticut. Tho experiment has 
been tried of cultivating the plants near the 
Sound, but the leaves are too thick and leathery 
to be of any value for cigar wrappers. Unlike 
the Southern and Western planters, New Eng¬ 
land growers select old fields instead of “new 
laud," aud I do not remember to have seen in 
all the Valley but one field of tobacco planted on 
new cleared land. 
In order to raise a leaf of fine texture free 
from large veins, and of largo Bize, the soil re¬ 
quires very high fertilizing by the application of 
manure well decomposed. Cigar-leaf tobacco 
