420 
THE BUBAL fSEW-YOBKEB. 
FEfL 24 
these “ifs" that would bring an incubator to 
the level of a hen, which would always hatch. 
It is the uncertainty of hens that the incubator 
should rectify. 
Homo object to incubators as unnatural. 
Certainly nothing is so noble as a hen mother 
when she is reliable: but incubators must be re¬ 
liable too. I know several noted breeders who 
tried the artificial hatching, and gave it up, 
hut I see no rouson why a machlue may not 
yet be brought out, simplified so that it needs 
neither an electrician nor a scientist to watch 
It all the time—one that any ordinary person 
can attend to. One noticeable defect in the 
present complicated machiues, is that if the 
lamp burns too low, there is nothing to turn on 
more heat; if it burns too high the regulator 
for the purpose tnrns it down, if it works prop¬ 
erly. A machine is very subject to atmos¬ 
pheric iulluunces, as every change in the 
weather has an effect upon the incubator, 
which must be watched closely to keep up the 
proper heat at all times. With continued 
watching, there is uo doubt auy complicated 
machine will do the work, as it is effectually 
doue in at least one large establishment in 
which attendants are at baud night and day. 
But this will not do for ordinary work ; there 
is too much care. 
As to the unnaturalness of it—ducks, turkeys 
aud pheasants are raised better by heus than 
by their own mothers, and if incubators will 
improve on hens, they may be used to advan¬ 
tage; but they must be simple, maintaining a 
regular heat without continual attention, aud 
at such a price that they may be withiu the 
reach of most breeders and farmers. If I can 
find any such machlue I will try to procure 
one, “ run ” it next spring, and give the results 
to the Rural New-Yokkjsji. 
-- 
Pekin Ducks. 
I notice what F. II. D..says in a late Rural, 
about Pekin ducks, that he does not eousider 
them as profitable as the smaller breeds. What 
smaller breeds ? Please tell us; also tell us if 
the smaller breeds are of auy profit, and in 
what this profit consists, whether in eggs, iu 
meat, or to seil as fancy poultry or water 
fowl. Please tells us, Mr. F. IL D., what you 
know about it ? As you ask those who have 
tried them to tell what they know about them, 
especially it they do not breed them for sale 
at fancy prices, 1 will tell what I know about 
them. In our family, which is a large one, we 
use a good many eggs aud like them in many 
ways, and hearing of the Pekiu ducks as great 
layers, we bought a trio of young ducks in the 
fall of 1878. They began to lay iu February, 
aud March, in 1679. They laid without inter¬ 
ruption till June; then they seemed inclined 
to sit, which we did not let them do; conse¬ 
quently, they soon began to lay again, aud laid 
till the last of August. We killed off our sur¬ 
plus stock last fall, sold at a cheap price a trio 
to a frieud, aud now have a trio for the year 
I860. Those uow on hand have been laying 
for some time. If thoy continue as those did 
last year, we think they will do pretty well. 
They had a small stream of water to spend 
their daytime in, or on its banks, as they 
choose. The stream is a spring brook, with 
water sufficient to water all farm stock in the 
driest seasons, as it has done since the settle¬ 
ment of the country to Lhie time. We feed 
them a little corn at night when they come up. 
They will not cat any at auy other time when 
they can have the run ol the brook. This 
winter is so warm that the brook has been 
frozen over only a few days; hence they have 
begun to lay sooner than last year. Now, what 
more can ducks do to make ibeuiselveB profit¬ 
able? And what breed of smaller ducks will 
do better ? Will F. H. D., please tell ?—We 
have no ducks for sale. 
Rome, N. Y. Jonathan Talcott. 
-- 
Fowls Eating Each Othehs’ Feathers.— 
Unless fowls have a small quantity of meat 
two or three times per week iu the winter sea¬ 
son—aud daily is still belter—they arc apt to get 
into the injurious habit of picking each others’ 
feathers on the head and neck and around the 
rump. In the summer, if allowed to run out 
where they can find plenty of insects, they 
rarely do this. Pressed scraps are lor sale in 
most towns at a low price, which are excellent 
to feed poulty; but those who are near a 
butcher’s shop or where fish are caught aud 
dressed, can obtain all necessary flesh feed 
at a still cheajjcr rate. They should be careful 
not to feed too much meat at a time, other¬ 
wise it may make the fowls sicx or give an 
unpleasant taste to the eggs. A heaping table¬ 
spoonful of meat per day is quite sufficient. 
This, with a variety of grain and vegetable 
food, as much as they please to eat during the 
day, clean, fresh water in abundance, with grav¬ 
el, old plaster, lime or oyster sheila pounded up 
finely, will insure good health aud abundance 
of eggs, except in the molting season aud 
about a month thereafter. A. B. Allen. 
—-- » ♦ ♦- - — 
Or ALL SEASONS, poultry now require watch¬ 
ful care. Clear up their droppiugs—white¬ 
wash and kerosene the houses—stir up the 
ground in their yards— cleanse the nests for 
sitters. 
'isrtllanfous. 
WHAT OTHERS SAY. 
Bee Account for Three Years.— It is as¬ 
serted that figures don’t lie, hence we deem 
this account more eloquent aud persuasive 
than many an hour-long lecture. Dr, A. J. 
Wright, of Carlton, Mich, says in the American 
Bee Journal:— 
The following are my profits and losses from 
bees since 1876: 
SB. 
Spring, 1876—To 1 colony of bees. 
“ 2 hives @$ 1 . 60 ..., 
$6 00 
3 00 $0 00 
CB. 
Fall of 1876—By 3 colonies, @6 
" 120 lbs. comb h 
00.$18 00 
oney, @Q0c.... 24 00 
48 00 
9 00 
Profits....... $83 00 
r Packed in chaff on summer stands; all wintered 
well.] 
DB. 
Spring, 1877—To 3 colonies, @$6 00. 
“ 7 hives, @1.60. 
$18 00 
10 bO $28 50 
CB. 
Fall of 1877—By 10 colonies.......• -$|50 W 
175 lbs. comb honey, @loc. 2b 25 
86 25 
28 50 
Profits...... $57 75 
[Packed in chart on summer stands; all wintered 
well.] 
8pring, 1878-To 10 colonies, @$6.00. 
“ 14 hives,@$(.50.... 
$60 00 
. 21 00 $81 00 
CB. 
Fall of 1878—By 24 colonies.$144 00 
“ 600 lbs. comb honey, @l2e. /2 oo $216 00 
ol uu 
Profits, 
,$136 00 
I packed in chaff on the summer stands, and 
did not lose a colony until after April 6th, 
1879 ; then iu three weeks I lost 16 colonies on 
account of old age of the bees, as the spring 
was very late. I used the same hives and 
most of the combs, after cleaning thoroughly. 
1 built up again to 24 colonics, which arc iu 
good coudition at the present time. I also ob¬ 
tained 400 pouuds of comb honey, which at 
15c. per pound, amounted to $60, and 200 
pounds of extracted honey, which I fed back 
iu September. I purchased 1,000 feet lumber 
for packing, etc., at $10.00, leaving a profit of 
$50.00 for 1879. 
I use the movable comb hive, and increase 
by dividing. I began on a small scale, but am 
going in on a larger one. 
London Purple. —Prof. C. V. Riley has the 
following to say iu the bulletin of the Entomo¬ 
logical Commision: One of the most valuable 
insecticides that has of late years come into 
use is that which goes by the name of London 
Purple. The powder is obtained iu the follow¬ 
ing manuerin the manufacture of aualinedyes: 
Crude coal oil is distilled to produce benzole. 
This is mixed with nitric acid and forms nitro- 
benzoie. Iron filings are then used to produce 
nascent hydrogen with the excess of ultric 
acid in the benzole, when distilled aualine re¬ 
sults. To this add arsenic acid, to give an 
atom of oxygen, which produces rose aualine, 
and quick-lime is added to absorb the arsenic. 
The residuum, which is obtained by filtration 
or settling, is what has been denominated Lon¬ 
don Purple, the sediment being dried, pow¬ 
dered aud finely pulverized. . . Like Paris 
Green it is not soluble, but is much easier kept 
suspended in water. If applied in this way 
some care has to be taken in stirring it iu the 
water,’as it has a tendency to form lumps, ow- 
iDg to its finely pulverized condition. . . All 
that has been said under tne head of Paris 
Green as to the desirability of adding a small 
quantity of Dour, or other substance, to give 
adhesiveness to the liquid, will hold equally 
true of London Purple, but the latter has in 
many respects a great advantage over the 
former, especially in its greater cheapness, 
beiug a mere refuse, which, from its poisonous 
nature, was a drug to the manufacturers, and 
had to be gotten rid of by being dumped long 
distances out at sea. This substance can be put 
upon the market at bare cost of transportation. 
It can be sold in New York at the low rate of 
five cents per pound. . • He recommends 
the use of one half pound of this powder to 
from 50 to 55 gallons of water as the propor¬ 
tion most likely to give general satisfaction by 
effectually destroying the worms without in¬ 
juring the plants. 
Value of Indian Corn.— Within the past 
few years more than seventy aualysesof Indian 
corn have been made in this eouutry, says Pro¬ 
fessor Caldwell iu the N. Y. Tribuue. . . It 
is plainly shown that while different varieties 
of common corn do not differ essentially from 
each oilier, sweet corn is decide'Jly the richest in 
albuminoids and fat. If a bushel of sweet corn 
could be produced as cheaply as oue of com¬ 
mon corn, it would undoubtedly be profitable 
to larmers to turn their attention to raising it; 
but sweet corn as now cultivated is usually .the 
product of a rich garden soil; with the same 
treatment that other corn usually receives it 
might grow poorer iu quality, aL least with re¬ 
spect to the albuminoids. White corn appears 
to he more variable than other kiuds in com¬ 
position, especially as to the albuminoids, aud 
also to be the poorest of all kinds in this import¬ 
ant constituent. Eastern and Western corns 
- 9 
are practically alike in feeding value, notwith¬ 
standing that the latter, in its air-dried condi¬ 
tion, is over two per cent, richer in water. . . 
Dr. Goessman also analyzed the cobs of three 
varieties of corn, which, together with six 
analyses by Professor Johnson in 18<8, give 
the following average results: 
Water. 8 2 I Carbhydratos. 57.2 
AbU . 1.8 Fiber.30.3 
Albuminoids. 2.7 1 - _ 
Fat..... 0.4 | lu0 -° 
This material is poor in albuminoids and 
fat, but rich in carbhydrates—considerably 
richer than any kind of cereal straw, while not 
60 very much poorer than such straw in albu¬ 
minoids; and it is richer than potatoes in re¬ 
spect to both of these constituents; conse¬ 
quently both Stoeckhardt aud Wolff were in- 
cliaed to the opinion that meal from corn-cobs 
would be as nutritious aa the potato, or even 
more so. Dr. Goessman also takes occasion to 
speak a favorable word for corn-and-cob meal, 
and some farmers who have used their corn in 
this way are assured by the results that it is 
profitable to do 60 . 
small fruits, etc. A gorgeous donble-page, col¬ 
ored plate of seedling Coleus raised by Mr. 
Dreer, many of which are remarkably odd aud 
beautiful, forms a part of the Catalogue. 
Among many novelties we notice the Tele¬ 
phone Pea, uow for the first time offered in 
this country, though only in very small quan¬ 
tities, at a high price. Our lady readers can 
uot fail to admire Mr Dreer’s new strains of 
the Coieus. 
H. J. Baker & Bro., 215 Pearl St., New 
York. Circular of Forrester’sCompletcManures 
prepared expressly for each crop. This gives 
analyses by Prof. 8. W. Johnson, of Forres¬ 
ter’s Chemical Fertilizers, aud sets forth the 
advantages of their use. As aiding farmers to 
become familiar with their use, we hope our 
readers will send for this aud all such circu¬ 
lars. 
jirioitifir aut) Ustful. 
The Yeast Fungus.— Dr. Hagan’s notion 
is, that obnoxious insects of all descriptions 
may be killed by the application of the yeast 
fungus Every oue must have observed unfor¬ 
tunate fiies sticking to the window-panes in 
autffiuu and invested with a fine tuft of deli¬ 
cate cobweb-like threads. Those threads are 
the spawn of a fuugus, which has caused the 
death of the fly by its rapid growth. The ex¬ 
tremely minute spore, or, as we may popularly 
term it, seed, is deposited on or iu the body of 
the lly, germinates thereon, feeds du its sub¬ 
stance, and speedily' kills it. What is asserted 
positively is that mold (or mildew) introduced 
into mash, produces fermentation aud the for¬ 
mation of a yeast fungus, which kills iusccts. 
A Prussian naturalist, Dr. Bail, has, it seems, 
proved by numerous experiments that healthy 
insects brought into contact with mash and 
fed with it, are directly infected, and with 
fatal consequences. A small drop of blood 
taken with the point of a needle from the body 
of a house tiy so fed, has been seen uuder the 
microscope to be teeming with spores of the 
fungus. Dr- Hagan proposes to turn this to 
practical account by using beer mash, or dilu¬ 
ted yeast, by means of a syringe or a sprinkler. 
Plauts infested with greenfly, for instance, 
may be so treated, aud the subjugation of the 
potato beetle is suggested. Beetles sprinkled 
with it died iu about ten days. 
To cry out for protection, says a writer in 
Mark Lane Express, (Eng.) agaiust the foreigner 
is simply ridiculous aud absurd. The appeal 
would be drowned by the voice of the country, 
as it would deserve to be. We do not want 
protection—wo have been “ protected, iu a 
certain fashion too long, and it has left us in a 
poor and dependent condition. We want free 
trade in land; reform in our land laws; a right 
to kill the vermin which we have to keep, and 
which destroys an immense amount of food 
upon soil for which we have to pay rent, rates, 
and taxes; and the abolition of old antiquated 
notions and ideas aa to restrictions on cultiva¬ 
tion which have hitherto benefited neither the 
owner nor the occupier. Give us, in short, 
freedom such as the foreigner has, aud wc can 
yet compete with, and even beat, him in the 
future. 
Durability of Timber. —Questions of the 
durability of timber require care in answering, 
says the Gardener’s Monthly. Almost any 
timber will last forever, “almost,” if kept 
perfectly dry, or always wet. In all countries 
are old buildings with all sorts of woods, that 
have kept their Umbers fresh for a thousand 
years It is the transition from moist to dry, 
which encourages fungoid growth that destroys 
timber. When, therefore, oue man tells us 
that he had a post of some tree which was 
just as good for — years as the day it was put 
iu, and another finds it rotten in half the time, 
we see how both statements may be perfectly 
true. There are some timbers that will resist 
these alternations of ciicuinstances better thau 
others, and this is what most people are after. 
Co-oferating Dairymen.— Mr. O. 8. BlisB 
says he can show by figures that it costs more 
to equip an establishment for hauliug milk a 
mile than to work It at the farm; that it costs 
more to do the labor, if the team work is 
counted; that the same milk will make more 
aud better butter if set when first drawn from 
the sow than after it has been hauled aud par¬ 
tially cooled. To all this must be superadded 
the coBtof running the co-operative establish¬ 
ment, the waste of material and the carrying 
back to thu farm of the refuse, often much im¬ 
paired iu value._ 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
D beer’s Garden Calendar for 1880. 714 
Chestnut St., Philadelphia. This work of 130 
pages, is designed to furnish brief directions 
for the management of the vegetable aud 
flower garden; well illustrated and containing 
lists of flower and grass seeds—bulbs, plauts, 
DR. ANGUS SMITH ON THE WASTE OF 
AMMONIA IN COKE-MAKING. 
PROFESSOR ¥. H. STOKER. 
In the lack of anthracite, which meets so 
many of our requirements here in America, 
vast quantities of coke are prepared all over 
Europe by distilling bituminous coal in special 
furnaces, from which great quantities of am¬ 
monia, tar, aud illuminating-gas are suffered 
to go to waste. 
Numerous schemes have been suggested, at 
one time and another, for saving, a part, at 
least, of these products: and the question of 
the ammonia, iu particular, has long had a 
special interest for Europeau farmers. That 
it Is a subject of profound importance to them 
will be seen from the following computations 
made by Dr. Angus Smith, of Manchester, aud 
published in a report made by him to the Eng¬ 
lish government, wbi 'h has just been issued 
Taking 1876 as the latest year of which he 
had definite information upon the subject, he 
finds that fifteen million tons of coal were dis¬ 
tilled in that year in England for the coke 
used in the iron manufacture alone. But from 
each ton of the coal five pounds of ammonia, or 
20 pounds of sulphate of ammonia, might have 
been saved by using a certain Belgian method 
of eoke-making, which he describes. That is 
to say, 130,000 long tons of the sulphate, worth 
at the current Euglish rate A18 (or $90) the 
ton, or, altogether, eleven and a half million 
dollars per year, might be collected. Assum¬ 
ing the tar to be worth half as much as the 
ammonia-salt, the total product saved by 
using the Belgian system might be sold for 
$17,500,000. 
Iu answer to the question what could be done 
with so large a mass of fertilizing material, 
Dr. Smith turns to the results obtained by 
Messrs. Lawes «te Gilbert by years of carefully 
conducted experiments upon the farm, whence 
it appears that the 130,000 tons of sulphate of 
ammonia, used at the rate of 223 pounds to the 
acre, in conjunction with suitable quantities of 
superphosphate or other mineral fertilizer, 
would be enough to drees 1,300,000 acres of 
naturally stroug land ; and that some such in¬ 
crease of crops, aud of money profit, as is 
glveu In the following table of Lawes & Gilbert 
might justly be expected. 
Kinds of crops. 
* 
irley, at 3a all./ 
>er quarter. ) 
u-loy, at 24 sli.i 
<er quarter. ) 
irley straw, at! 
sir per cwt. * 
Beat, at. 4,'. sh.( 
Her quarter. I 
heat, at 36 sb. 
Unlit straw, at> 
„]), per owt. j 
its, at 3 sb. 4d.! 
]<er bushel. ) 
it straw, at 3/ 
Crops from min¬ 
eral manures i 
alone. 
4ii .1 P . 
3 g g g 
L. *- S © O - 
K..Z, A -3.^ 
Q j H 
Value of in¬ 
crease, iu 
£ sterling, 
calculated 
upon 13u,Ouo 
tons of am¬ 
monia. 
24 bu. 
46.75 bu.i2l.75 bu. 
6,204,080 
4,254,1114 
12.12 OWt 
25 ewt 13.88 cwt 
2,714,860 
1 15.62 bu. 
24.5 bu. 8.88 bu 
3,256,659 
2,605,327 
15.62 owt 
22.62 cwt 9 cwt 
1,760,366 
117.76 bu. 
46.37 bu. 27.62 bu. 
6,001,852 
1 8.26 cwt 
22.6 cwt 14.25 ewt 
2.787 ,23 
As matters actually staud, the price of sul¬ 
phate of ammonia is a good deal influenced by 
that of nitrate of soda, brought from Peru; 
and the price of thu nitrate depends in its turn, 
in some measure upon that of the ammonium 
salt. According to Mr. Lawes, the price of 
sulphate of ammonia is kept up by the German 
demand for sugar-beet cultivation. He urges 
that if a very large production of sulphate of 
ammonia took place, there eau be no doubt 
that nitrate of soda would fall iu price. He 
thinks, however, that an annual production of 
100,000 tons of sulphate of ammonia could be 
sold without any serious reduction in price. 
As Dr. Smith remarks, nothing could show 
more clearly that sulphate of ammouia is much 
needed in agriculture thau this belief of a 
thoroughly well-informed man that so large a 
quantity could be thrown upon the market 
without seriously altering the price. He sug¬ 
gests that it would be a great advantage to 
agriculture if the amount made were mauy 
times greater, so that the price might be reduced 
